Name: Instant Pot Soft Boiled Eggs
Cook time: 2 min
Total time: 9 min
Ingredients: 1 large egg

Instant Pot Soft Boiled Eggs are perfect every time. No need to stand at the stove with a timer. Just set it and forget it method. I also discuss many other different variations to make different varieties of soft boiled eggs. This is the Ultimate Guide for Making Perfect Soft Boiled Eggs in Instant Pot.

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I love eggs in pretty much any way or form. Boiled, poached, fried, scrambled. In sandwiches, salads, savoury pies (like these Russian Egg and Onion Hand Pies). I like them in cakes, pancakes, and waffles also!

Eggs are a staple in my fridge. I always have eggs, bread, and milk. With those three ingredients you can make breakfast, lunch, or dinner!

Soft Boiled Eggs are some of my favourite ways to eat eggs. I grew up eating them for breakfast, often with only a light sprinkling of salt.

When I was older, I started putting a tiny pea-sized pat of butter into the hot oozy egg yolk. It melted into a golden pool of buttery goodness, mixing with the yolk and creating a luscious sauce.

Only when I was much older, I heard about dipping a piece of toast into the egg. I was baffled. It was perfection!!

And although I grew up eating soft boiled eggs, I rarely actually made them myself. They were too easy to go from soft to hard. They required constant vigilance and attention.

I create Instant Pot recipes not because it’s the current trend in the food blogging community, but because I genuinely love this appliance. I find it absolutely essential in my kitchen and super convenient. I even took it with me when I went to a cottage for a week last summer. If you are considering buying an Instant Pot, read my 7 Things You Need To Know About Instant Pot (and why you might not want to buy it) article.

So, it was only a matter of time before I decided to learn how to make Instant Pot Soft Boiled Eggs. I then went through more than a dozen eggs, testing out different times, temperatures, techniques, and even two different models of Instant Pot to come up with the Ultimate Guide for Making Perfect Soft Boiled Eggs in Instant Pot.

How to make Instant Pot Soft Boiled Eggs

If you don’t really care about various degrees of soft boiled yolk and just want one method, then here it is:

Add 1 cup cold water to Instant Pot
Place cold egg(s) on a trivet in Instant Pot
Cook for 2 minutes High Pressure (it will take about 5 minutes to come to pressure)
Do a Quick Release immediately
Place the egg(s) into an ice bath for about 3-4 minutes

Different timings to make Instant Pot Soft Boiled Eggs

Here are all the variations I tried. A few details that are consistent in all my tests:

Eggs: large. Water: 1 cup cold. Instant Pot: with a trivet. Pressure level: High Pressure (HP). Pressure release: immediate Quick Release (QR).

I did not try all of the methods with two different Instant Pot models, but I tried 2-3 different timings and combinations with both models and the results were identical.

Cold egg + 2 minutes HP + QR + ice bath = perfect runny egg yolk (method of choice)
Room temperature egg + 2 minutes HP + QR + ice bath = soft runny egg yolk with a slightly firmer outside
Room temperature egg + 2 minutes HP + QR + NO ice bath for 2-3 minutes = jammy egg yolk, something between soft boiled and hard cooked, slightly oozy in the centre
Room temperature egg + 2 minutes HP + QR + NO ice bath for 1 hour = jammy egg yolk, no oozy centre, perfect for composed salads

Cold egg + 3 minutes HP + QR + ice bath = soft runny egg yolk with a slightly firmer outside (similar to test #2)
Cold egg + 3 minutes HP + QR + NO ice bath for 2-3 minutes = jammy egg yolk, something between soft boiled and hard cooked, slightly oozy in the centre (similar to test #3)
Cold egg + 2 minutes HP + QR + No ice bath for 1 hour = soft runny egg yolk with a slightly firmer outside (similar to test #2)
Cold egg + 4 minutes HP + QR + ice bath = jammy egg yolk, no oozy centre, perfect for composed salads (similar to test #4)

Tips about cooking eggs in Instant Pot

Water
- I always use cold water for consistency.
- Using warm or hot water will mean that Instant Pot may come to pressure faster. Time that it takes for Instant Pot to come to pressure isn’t just idle time, it still cooks the eggs. So, if you are using boiling water and Instant Pot comes to pressure in 3 minutes instead of 5 minutes, then the difference of 2 minutes might result in undercooked eggs.
Eggs
- I almost always buy large eggs so this is what I used in all my tests.
- If you use extra large or small eggs then the timings may change. Extra large eggs may need more cooking time and small eggs may need less time.
- I have not tested fresh eggs. I have heard that timings for fresh eggs are very much different.

- Temperature of the eggs
  - Temperature of the eggs matters. If the egg is cold then it may take longer to cook and vice versa.
  - I have tested different timings for room temperature eggs and cold eggs from the fridge just for those people who keep their eggs on the counter.
  - I always keep eggs in the fridge so the timing of 2 minutes works the best for me.
- Pressure release
  - I love using Instant Pot to make Soft Boiled Eggs because it’s convenient, I don’t have to be in the kitchen. All I have to do is listen for the beep that tells me the eggs are done cooking. Because of that, I like doing Quick Release as it is the most convenient.

Ice bath or no bath
- Ice bath has multipurpose: it stops the cooking process so that the eggs don’t keep getting harder and it also helps with peeling the shell off the eggs.
- I tested different timings with ice bath and without ice bath. I have to say that although no ice bath made the eggs peel a tiny bit more difficult, it was so inconsequential that I wouldn’t even consider it as the main advantage.
- Personally, I love slightly jammy egg yolk. Something between hard boiled and soft boiled, so I don’t do ice bath when I cook Instant Pot Soft Boiled Eggs for myself. I run them under cold water for a minute or two just so that they are easier to handle.
Instant Pot
- I tried two different Instant Pot models at the same time a few times. Same ingredients, same temperatures, same timings, pressing buttons simultaneously, opening, transferring to ice bath. All at the exact same time. Both yielded exact same results!
- I tried Instant Pot Duo and Instant Pot Smart Wifi models. Timings may vary for different models of Instant Pot.

Perfect Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs

Although this post is specifically dedicated to Instant Pot Soft Boiled Eggs, during my many tries, I accidentally stumbled upon Perfect Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs also.

Generally, Internet community swears by the 5-5-5 method to make hard boiled eggs. What it means is that you cook eggs for 5 minutes at high pressure, then do 5 minutes natural pressure release followed by a quick release, then finish with 5 minutes in ice bath.

I have tried that method and it works! Eggs cooked that way are perfect for deviled eggs or egg salad. However, I actually like hard boiled egg yolk that isn’t completely dry and has just a touch of that jammyness (is it even a word?).

So, to get those perfect Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs that are great to put on a composed salads, you have two options:

Cook room temperature eggs for 2 minutes at High Pressure, do quick release and wait until fully cooled. No need for ice bath, they’ll continue cooking while cooling. This is the method I use in my Instant Pot Nicoise Salad recipe. OR
Cook cold refrigerator eggs for 4 minutes at High Pressure, do quick release, then do an ice bath until fully cooled, minimum 4-5 minutes. Perfection!

More Instant Pot Egg Recipes:

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