Roasty Korean Sauna Eggs Recipe in Instant Pot

This Instant Pot Korean Sauna Eggs recipe is so easy to make – the only thing you really need (besides the eggs!) is time.

Up until a few months ago, I had never heard of Korean Sauna Eggs. I was chatting with a few friends, who are from Korea, after a Zumba class – and they were raving that eggs prepared in this manner were a great post exercise snack.

“Hard boiled eggs?”, I asked.

“Well, not exactly.” They replied.

And then they tried to describe the roasty, toasty flavor of eggs that you cook for a long time in an Instant Pot or pressure cooker.

I make hard boiled eggs in the Instant Pot all the time – and they take all of about five to seven minutes.

In my mind, a hard boiled egg is about as done as it can get – so cooking one in the Instant Pot for hours, seemed a bit like overkill.

In fact, I was a bit horrified – don’t they, like, explode or something?

My friends assured me that no, the eggs do not burst when cooked that long. Rather, the whites turn brown and the yolks take on a creamy texture. And the word they kept using to describe the taste was “roasty”.

When I got home, I did a little research and found that when cooked for that long, eggs undergo a Maillard reaction. This is the same reaction that occurs when you brown meats or when you bake breads and get that nice brown crust. Apparently, this reaction makes foods taste better. So, if it applies to other foods, then it can work the same way for eggs – right?

At this point, I knew that I had to try making these Korean brown eggs – curiosity was getting the better of me.

What You Need To Make Korean Sauna Eggs

You really only need the following few things to make a recipe of Korean Sauna Eggs:

• an Instant Pot (any size works – just don’t overload the eggs)
• a trivet to set the eggs on inside the Instant Pot (I just use the one that came with my Instant Pot but you can also use a special trivet made just for holding eggs and if you are making a lot of eggs – this stackable egg steamer rack makes the job easy)
• Eggs (obviously) – any number that fit easily in your Instant Pot will work
• Water
• TIME – about 3.5 hours or so

How To Make Korean Sauna Eggs

Since I had never made this recipe before – and wasn’t sure if I was going to like it, I decided to start by making four eggs.

I used regular store brand large eggs – nothing fancy.

Sometimes when I cook very cold eggs, the shells crack because of the sudden change in temperature. So, I took the eggs out of the refrigerator and let them sit on the counter for about half an hour so they weren’t super cold when I put them in the Instant Pot.

In the meantime, I placed my trivet in the Instant Pot and added 2 cups of water.

I then placed the four eggs on the trivet and closed the Instant Pot and turned the steam valve to the sealing position.

Using the Manual Setting, I set the Instant Pot to cook the eggs on high pressure for 3.5 hours (210 minutes). Apparently, cooking the eggs longer causes the whites to get browner and the yolks to get creamier. You can choose how long to cook your eggs – anywhere from 2 hours to 4 hours seems to be the range, but I decided to go with 3.5 because I really wanted to experience that toasty flavor.

Then the only thing left to do is wait.

Once the cooking cycle was complete, I let the pressure drop naturally before opening the Instant Pot.

Peeling the Eggs

Amazingly, Korean Sauna Eggs are so easy to peel. The shells and membranes fall right off with no sticking at all.

I think I would make these over hard boiled just to spare me the aggravation of peeling the shells!

How They Look and Taste

After cooking, the whites of the eggs turn a light tan/brown color. They yolks stay yellow – but after a night in the fridge they yolks become ringed with a darker color around the edge.

As for taste, these eggs do have a toastier flavor than a traditional hard boiled egg. And there is nothing that I can compare the taste to in order to describe it any better.

What to Eat With Korean Sauna Eggs

Korean Sauna Eggs are pretty versatile when it comes to adding them to your menu.

You can eat them on their own for a protein packed snack or breakfast.

They would go great with a bowl of ramen noodles and broth.

You can also chop them up and use them in an egg salad recipe.

Another idea is to make a batch of several, store them in the fridge, and use them during the week as a topping for whenever you make a salad for lunch or dinner.

Will I Make These Again?

This is a tough question. I do like Korean Sauna Eggs – they certainly have more depth of flavor than a regular hard boiled egg.

However, they really do take a long time to cook – and I am not sure that there is enough of a taste difference between a Sauna Egg and a regular hard boiled egg to make it worth that time for me.

That being said, there is not a whole lot of effort involved – you just put them in the Instant Pot on rack with a few cups of water and let it do it’s thing for three and a half hours. But I, personally, do not like to leave the Instant Pot on pressure if I have to leave the house, so I really can only make these on days that I plan to be home for a good length of time.

Have you made a Korean Sauna Eggs recipe? What do you think of the taste? Will you make the recipe again? Let me know in the comments below.