Last updated on November 25th, 2021 at 10:49 am
Who among us has never asked this timeless question?
You know, you’re getting ready to make another batch of Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs in your Instant Pot, and you look at your dozen eggs neatly arranged on the trivet at the bottom.
Then you notice ALL that extra space, just sitting there, going to waste.
And you ponder…”I wonder…exactly just how many eggs I can do at one time???”
So we decided to find an answer. You know, for posterity.
Here’s what we found out:
78 Large Eggs. That’s right, six and a half dozen!
How did we do it? We just followed our standard recipe for Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs in the Instant Pot! If you need a refresher, follow that link and see how we do it.
Here are the basic steps:
- One and a Half Cups of Water
- 5 Minutes on Low Pressure
- Quick Release when Timer Beeps
- Make an Ice Bath in the Instant Pot Insert
This is the coolest part: Your big batch of eggs will take the same amount of time to cook as if you were doing just a few eggs!
Now, there are a few caveats to be aware of:
1. Your Instant Pot will take considerably longer to come to pressure.
When I cook small batches of eggs, it’ll be at pressure in a few minutes. When I put this many eggs in my 8 qt model, it took around 30 minutes.
2. You can safely fill your Instant Pot beyond the Pressure Cook Max line.
You would normally never do this. If you’re cooking a soup or anything with lots of liquid, your Instant Pot will never come to pressure if you fill past the PC Max line.
But due to the shape of eggs, there’s lots of air between each one. You can safely stack as many as you can fit and still close the lid. (Hint: the same principle works with potatoes.)
3. When you do this many, there may be a few cracked eggs.
It’s just the law of averages. Some eggs will have compromised shells and will crack. Also, you may have some variance in your yolks. All of mine were cooked well, but a couple of them were overdone with a slight grey ring around the yolk.
But if you need a lot of eggs for something, it’s worth the tradeoff in my opinion.
So, next time you need a lot of eggs cooked at one time, go ahead and fill your pot with as many as you like!
Have you tried this already? Let us know how many you’ve done at one time!
Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs in the Instant Pot
Thank you for trying this for me so I don’t have to. Looking forward to bringing a TON of deviled eggs for the 4th. They are so easy to peal when cooked this way. Now I just have to figure out how to transport that many filled eggs.
We bought plastic (flat) egg containers from Amazon that are perfect for transporting deviled eggs 🙂
I place the whites on whatever tray I want to serve them on, mix and store the filling in a ziplock bag, and transport them that way. When I get to the party, I clip the corner of the baggie and “pipe” the filling into the ready-to-go whites on site. No worries of squooshing during travel.
Do you pour the ice water over the eggs into the Instant Pot when the eggs are done cooking?
Hi Marielena,
Thanks for the question! Yes, we bring the stainless steel insert right over to the sink and begin flushing with cold water immediately. Then we pour off the first bit of hot water as soon as it’s high enough to not pour out the eggs. 😉 Then we add more cold water and ice. Lastly, we peel and enjoy!
Happy cooking!
Holly
Thanks so much for this guidance using the Instant Pot for hard boiled eggs! I’ve been using a smaller regular pressure cooker for a few years after a friend told me about this miraculous trick. The fact that the shells literally peel themselves once cooked is a mind-blowing delight. 🙂 I’ve wanted to make BIG batches all at one time but didn’t know how, or what would happen. My family asks for deviled eggs for every gathering, and they eat a LOT. It used to take hours for me to tackle this project. I just made 4 trays and it took less than an hour. Woohoo! Now on to the cookies. Happy Thanksgiving!
Hi Cami, I’m so happy to hear that this was helpful! I hope you had a great Thanksgiving feast!
We had a lovely Thanksgiving, thanks. Hope you did too. Now on to more holiday festivities and a bunch more deviled eggs. LOL!
Cami…sounds like you and I have similar families. My assignment is always deviled eggs. A dozen at a time is nice, but 2…or 3! Would be better. 😁
Eggsactly! Hadda write that. Teehee. Aren’t we lucky to have our IP’s and this fabulous and quick way to cook the eggs? WOW what a life saver! Cheers and happy holidays to you and everybody.
Why “caveat 30 minutes”? and also stipulating that
“same time” to cook a “small batch of eggs”?
Which is it?
The pressure mounts the same no matter, so i will stick to the 5 minute hardboiled egg?
Hi James, sorry for the confusion. Yes, when I said “same time,” I was referring to the Instant Pot settings. However, the total time commitment will be longer because it will take longer for your Instant Pot to reach pressure with a full pot of cold eggs. Once it reaches pressure, it will take 5 minutes to cook just like normal (or whatever your preferred cook time is.) Hope that helps.
Seconding the “thank you for doing this so I don’t have to” comment. I was waffling on the purchase of an IP because I really do think NEED another kitchen appliance. Then my friend sent me a link to a hard boiled eggs recipe in the IP and I was sold.
Great post, thanks for the info! Quick question tho – I noticed you mentioned Low pressure while other blogs reco High pressure for eggs with the same 5 min cooking time. Wondering what the difference is or if pressure won’t matter – clearly you’ve had success with your method! Thanks!
Good question, Christina. Since eggs are so delicate, I prefer them on low. I find that they’re less likely to crack if the shell has imperfections. In my experience, they also are less likely to be overdone. Others may have different preferences on how they like their eggs, so try it both ways and see what you like. Thanks for reading!
Hey Holly, thanks for the reply! I’ll definitely try low pressure on my next go (i’ve been making them the last couple of weeks) one thing ifs for sure, eggs in the instant pot are life changing lol
With Easter just around the corner, this is a lifesaver!!!! Thank you so much for sharing!
So happy to help! Have a wonderful Easter!
When I attempted This the white of eggs turned out a yellowish color. They tasted normal but weren’t very appetizing for deviled eggs lol. Can you tell me why that may have happened?
My first try (of “just” 36…my family is big but not THAT big) were yellow too and smelled a bit funny. Tasted fine, but you’re right – not appetizing for devilled eggs. I made a mountain of egg salad and all was well. I cooked on high (because I didn’t know how to turn mine down!) and think I ended up overcooking them. I now do high for 3 minutes, quick release, and ice bath for up to 36 at a timeand it works like a charm.
Thank you so much!
Thank you so much for this post. I live in Italy with my Italian husband. Colored Easter eggs are not a tradition here, but I made a dozen for the family Easter gathering a couple years ago anyway. There were a hit. Now everybody looks forward to Zia Amy bringing the eggs on Easter. I must make many more! I also just got an IP for Christmas so I am still learning, but posts like these are super helpful.
I’m making egg salad for 100 people (!) and this post just saved me a lot of fretting 🙂
That’s great to hear, Elyn! I hope the egg salad was a big hit!
If you are making egg salad, try looking for the Pintrest recipe where you crack the eggs into a glass container, don’t stir the eggs so the yolks stay whole. You end up with a “brick” of hard boiled eggs ready to cut up. NO PEELING EGGS. Genius. Really a game changer.
I’m making boiled eggs for a family reunion lunch. I have 5 dozen to cook. Thank you so much for doing this, and for everyone else who added their experiences!
There are different sizes of eggs.
Does it make a difference whether your making medium, large, extra large or jumbo?
Also should the water be cold?
I appreciate all help.
I need to cook 100 eggs.
Ellen.
Hi Ellen,
Yes, it does make a difference what size eggs you are cooking. We based our timing on using Large eggs. You may want to try just a few eggs before going for your big batches, just to get a good number of minutes on your particular size.
Yes, use cold water and change the water for each batch because it does make a difference if you start with warm or hot water.
We have a blog post with a video which will answer these questions more thoroughly, you can watch it here. I think it would be very helpful for you before you proceed.
Let me know if you have any other questions!
Yours was the only site that answered this all important question! I also have seven children and I will be dyeing about 6 dozen eggs tonight. I usually use a stock pot, but wanted to give the instapot a try this year! Wish me luck (and no rain on Easter ;-))
It is a question for the ages, lol. I hope it worked out for you, and I hope you had a great Easter with your 7 kids!
Just wanted to thank you for sharing this- I appreciate it so much! I can make 2 1/2 dozen hard boiled eggs in my 6 qt. instant pot with no problems. I do the extra 6 in case of breakage and sometimes 2 or 3 crack but haven’t had more than that break, and sometimes none of them do. This has been so great for coloring Easter eggs. Thanks again!
Glad it was helpful, Tomi!
I just started doing the hard boiled eggs in the Insta pot. I only did about 8 eggs but would like to try doing more eggs and was curious if we still use the same cup and a half of water when you put 30 or more eggs in there?
Hi Marless, you’ll love doing more eggs in your Instant Pot. Yes, it’s the same amount of water and the same cooking time, no matter how many eggs you use! The more eggs you include in your pot, the more variation you might have in their consistency of doneness, but I’ve never had an unacceptable egg, except maybe one or two over the years.
Thanks for this! I have a large family too and every instant pot recipe says to make 12 eggs at a time, which is gone in about 1 second at my house 😂
I’m so glad it’s helpful, Evaly! As my kids have gotten older, the 6 qt. Instant Pot no longer cuts it. Have you tried to do a large batch of eggs yet?
Wahoooo!!! Thanks Holly!!
I did 57 eggs at 5-5-5 with 1 1/2 cups water and only 2 cracked eggs AND including perfect yellow yolks-no green!! (Why 57? Because that’s all that would fit in there with the lid closed!)
THANK YOU!!
Almost 120 eggs for decorating tomorrow with 2 batches and such ease!!
Thank you SO much for doing this. I was second guessing the ability to do a humongous batch and then found this. And I learned a new way to cool them down. Yay!
Wow! Thanks for this game changer. Instant pot is the best way to do hard boiled eggs, but I had gotten the idea that the eggs couldn’t touch so, I was only doing 6 or 5 at a time. I don’t need 78, but I sure was glad to do 24 without flinching last night!
I’ve been wondering this myself for so long and have only done one layer of eggs at a time. Bless you for discovering and sharing the answers to the important questions!