How to Cook An Egg

How to cook an egg! Or better yet I should ask, how do you like your eggs? Let’s break down all the different cooking styles of eggs! From sunny side up to scrambled, there’s something for everyone and every occasion. These are the egg basics every home cook should know. Ready to get started?

How Do You Like Your Eggs?

There are over a dozen different ways to cook a simple egg. Everyone likes their eggs cooked differently. Or maybe you don’t know how you like your eggs. That is okay too!

My goal and the purpose of this post is to break down the top five most common ways to prepare eggs.

Scrambled
Sunnyside Up
Over
- Easy
- Medium
- Hard

I’m going to share how to achieve each cooked egg and give you some tips! But first, for eggs, nothing works better than a good nonstick pan. I basically bought a nonstick pan just for cooking eggs, and it’s worth it.

My next tip for all egg cooking: always use butter! Don’t reach for a nonstick cooking spray. With eggs, you want to grease your pan with good old-fashioned butter for that yummy flavor!

Ok, let’s break it down!

1. Scrambled Eggs

The goal here for perfect scrambled eggs is that you want them light and fluffy. I have two tips for you here to help achieve this.

You want to aggressively whisk the eggs until they are light, foamy, airy, and uniform in color.
Whisk in some whole milk, half-n-half, greek yogurt, or even sour cream! This adds creaminess, body, and depth of flavor.

How to Perfectly Scramble Eggs

Whisk the eggs with sour cream in a small bowl until smooth.
Melt the butter in a small nonstick pan over medium heat, until the butter coats the whole pan and just starts to foam.
Add the eggs to the center of the pan and immediately reduce the heat to medium-low.
Wait for the edges to just barely start to set, then using a spatula, gently push the eggs from one end of the pan to the other. Continue this process, pausing in between swipes to allow the uncooked egg to settle on the warm pan and cook, gently pushing the liquid to form the curds.
When the eggs are mostly cooked, with big pillowy folds, but still look pretty wet, slowly fold the eggs into themselves just a couple of times, bringing them together.
Remove from the heat when the eggs still shimmer with some moisture.
Transfer to serving plates.

2. Sunnyside Up Eggs

A Sunnyside Up egg is when the white of the egg is cooked through, while the yolk remains bright and yummy. It is fried just on one side and never flipped. The yolk is still completely liquid and the whites on the surface are barely set.

I love dipping toast in a Sunnyside Up egg for breakfast!

Using a nonstick pan ensures that the eggs can be easily slid from the pan to the plate.
Cooking over medium heat allows the whites to gradually set while the yolk remains bright and runny.

How To Make the Perfect Sunnyside Up Eggs

Heat butter in a nonstick skillet over medium heat until lightly foaming, tilting the pan to evenly distribute the melted butter.
Carefully break eggs into the skillet, season with salt and pepper, and cook until the whites are just set on top and the yolks are still runny about 3 minutes. Transfer to a plate and serve immediately.

3. Over Easy Eggs

An egg cooked “over easy” means that it gets fried on both sides, but it’s not cooked for very long on the second side, so the yolk doesn’t get cooked through and stays runny.

“Over” refers to flipping the egg, and “easy” refers to the doneness of the yolk.

How to Make the Perfect Over Easy Eggs

Heat butter in a nonstick skillet over medium heat until lightly foaming, tilting the pan to evenly distribute the melted butter.
Carefully break eggs into the skillet, season with salt and pepper, and cook until the whites are just set on top.
Gently flip the egg in the pan, being careful not to break the yolk. Cook for one minute before transferring to a plate to serve. Both sides of the egg should be fried, but the yolk stays runny.

4. Over Medium Eggs

An over medium egg is cooked with the same method as the over easy, simply increase the cooking time.

The egg is flipped and the yolk is only slightly runny.

How to Make the Perfect Over Medium Eggs

Heat butter in a nonstick skillet over medium heat until lightly foaming, tilting the pan to evenly distribute the melted butter.
Carefully break eggs into the skillet, season with salt and pepper, and cook until the whites are just set on top.
Gently flip the egg in the pan, being careful not to break the yolk. Cook for one and a half minutes before transferring to a plate to serve. Both sides of the egg should be fried, but the yolk stays slightly runny.

5. Over Hard Eggs

An over medium egg is cooked with the same method as the over easy, simply increase the cooking time until the yolk is cooked through completely.

The egg is flipped and the yolk is cooked solid. These are also called fried eggs over hard.

Over medium eggs vs over hard is simply how long the egg cooks in the pan.

How to Make the Perfect Over Hard Eggs

Heat butter in a nonstick skillet over medium heat until lightly foaming, tilting the pan to evenly distribute the melted butter.
Break eggs into the skillet and break the yolk with the eggshell. Season with salt and pepper, and cook until the whites are just set on top.
Gently flip the egg in the pan. Cook for two minutes before transferring to a plate to serve. Both sides of the egg should be fried, and the yolk should be cooked through.

More Egg Recipes

There are so many more egg-cellent egg recipes to try! These are simply five ways to cook an egg in a frying pan on your stove top!

Tell me, how do you like your eggs?

My favorite way to cook hard boiled eggs are actually in my Instant Pot. You can find that recipe and instructions here.

Be sure to share this post with a friend! Leave a comment below if you learned something new!

XOXO,

Alex Daynes

If you give these recipes a try, let me know! Leave a comment, rate it, or snap a photo and tag it with @TheAlexDaynes on Instagram! I love to see what you’ve been cooking. It always makes my day!

How Do You Like Your Eggs?