How To Make Smoked Eggs
On April 05, 2022 (Updated April 15, 2022)
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Smoked eggs are incredibly simple to make. Once you get the hand of the process, you’ll be cooking and smoking these a dozen at a time for breakfast, snacks, salads, and everything in between. This post will teach you the best way to cook smoked eggs, tips for peeling them, and the best info for smoking and serving them.
Can You Smoke Eggs?
You can indeed smoke eggs, my friends!
If you’re a fan of hard-boiled eggs, you MUST try smoked eggs. They have a smooth texture and taste incredible in a variety of foods.
The eggs are a pretty blank canvas and will easily take on the flavors of smoke in a short period of time. If you want a really bold smoke flavor, go with something like mesquite. If you want things a bit more mellow and mild, choose an alder or maple wood.
Smoked Eggs
These smoked eggs are cooked completely on the smoker, but you can split the process up and begin by boiling them first prior to cooking them on the smoker.
The first step to making the best-smoked eggs is cooking them in the shell. This can be done the traditional way by boiling them, but I’ve never been much of a traditionalist. I’ve found the best method is to bake the eggs directly on the grill grates of my smoker (using indirect heat). I love the texture of baked eggs; they seem a little bit softer than hard-boiled eggs. That will make a big difference once we peel the eggs and get them on the smoker.
How to Smoke Eggs
Here’s how to smoke eggs. The process is easy, and all you need is a dozen eggs, wood, and the smoker of your choice.
- Cook the eggs. Preheat the smoker to 325 degrees F. Place the eggs directly on the grill grates. You will notice small brown spots from where the eggs were touching the grates. They are harmless and don’t affect the quality of the eggs. I have found the perfect time for eggs cooked in the smoker is 30 minutes.
- Cool and peel. Once they are baked, submerge your eggs in ice water to stop the cooking process. When the eggs are fully cooled, peel them carefully. My favorite way to ensure an easy peel is to shake each egg gently in a sealed glass jar with about 2 Tablespoons of cool water. The shells should slide right off! Now you’re ready to get smoking!
- Smoke the eggs. Reduce the heat in your smoker to low. We’re talking 175-180 degrees F. The lower you can get the temperatures the better. If you’ve got a cold smoker that will let you run it at 150 degrees F or lower, use it! Use whatever flavor of wood you like. I smoked these eggs on the low smoke setting of my Camp Chef SG pellet grill. Place the eggs directly on the grill grates again and smoke for at least 30 minutes, or up to an hour.
- Enjoy. Remove the eggs and enjoy however you like. You can slice them and eat them with salt and pepper like a traditional hard-boiled egg, or chop them up into a salad. They’ll add the most amazing flavor to an egg salad, too!
How Long to Smoke Eggs
Smoking eggs is s 2-step process. Begin by cooking the eggs in the shell on the smoker for 30 minutes. Remove, chill, and peel, then return the eggs to the smoker for another 30 minutes to 1 hour, depending on how much smoke flavor you want to impart on your eggs.
In total, it will take 1 to 1 1/2 hours to fully cook and smoke eggs.
Beyond that, I think the smoke flavor can get acrid and the eggs can overcook. However, I do know people who prefer a really strong smoke flavor and keep theirs on for 2 hours or more, but be aware that this can dry out the exterior of the egg and make them rubbery.
Quick note: Your eggs will turn yellow. This is TOTALLY NORMAL. How light or dark the yellow color is will indicate how smoky your eggs are. Like I said, I feel like 30 minutes is enough to get a good smoke flavor and the eggs will still be fairly light yellow. The eggs in the picture below smoked for 1 hour and the yellow color is a little darker, almost light brown. Don’t be afraid of the color, it’s just flavor!
More Smoked Eggs Recipes
Now that you know how easy (and delicious!) it is to cook eggs on the smoker, check out these other tasty smoked eggs recipes from Hey Grill Hey.
Smoked Eggs Recipe
Once your eggs are smoked and fully chilled, you can enjoy them however you like! My personal preference is to make them into Smoked Deviled Eggs, but they are delicious as-is or sprinkled with a little Homemade Sweet Rub. You can also purchase Sweet Rub from the Hey Grill Hey Store and have it delivered straight to your door.
Smoked Eggs
Ingredients
- 12 eggs
Instructions
- Preheat. Fire up the smoker and preheat to 325 degrees F.
- Smoke. Place the eggs directly on the grill grates, close the lid, and cook for 30 minutes.
- Chill. Remove the cooked eggs and place immediately into an ice bath. Chill completely.
- Peel and reduce temperature. Peel the eggs and reduce the heat on your smoker to 175 degrees F.
- Finish smoking. Return the cooled and peeled eggs to the grill. Smoke for at least 30 minutes, or up to 1 hour if you want more smoke flavor.
- Enjoy. Eat the eggs as is, season with BBQ seasoning, or make into smoked deviled eggs (link in recipe notes).
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I have an electric Masterbuilt smoker it only goes up to 275. Any idea how long to cook at a lower temp? Or should I use my egg cooker to cook to a soft boiled egg then add to smoker peeled for second part?
I would boil and peel them first and then smoke for the remaining part of the recipe.
225 deg for 2 1/2 hours
What if ya dont have a smoker
This recipe is specifically written to be used with a smoker. I know there are ways to make your oven into a smoker, but I personally haven’t tried that. You could cook this following the same time and temperature instructions as the written recipe and cook them in your oven.
Are the eggs to be boiled before smoking, or does smoking them cook them from raw? Sorry if this is a dumb question.
Not a dumb question. I like to cook them directly on the grill. I do have more about this in the above post.
The one time I tried smoking eggs the white turned out very rubbery. The flavor was great but the texture was not appetizing Any thoughts/ suggestions on that?
It sounds like they cooked a little too long. I find they get rubbery if I cook them too long.
Do your smoked eggs have salty taste as is? I’m trying to replicate the smoked eggs my husband brings home from time to time from a place near his work. Right out of the bag these are perfectly salty and smokey! Just wondering if I will need to season them before smoking to obtain that. Maybe dip them in soy sauce??? Thanks for your input!
These eggs aren’t salted at all, so you’ll need to add salt (or soy is a good idea!)
I boiled my eggs on the stove like normal then peeled and put in smoker for 1 hour at 150 degrees. Used red oak and white oak as fuel.
I haven’t tried oak as my wood for these yet. Glad to know it worked out for you!
Thanks! I was wondering if I could just boil them first & then put them in my stovetop smoker. Sounds like I will try!
Don’t have 325 on my pitboss 300 or 350 tried 300 for 40 min some were very hard to peel where they ere’s on the grate and kinda rubbery. 350 my next try any idea on time.
Made these today for Easter with the Camp Chef DLX. WOW, awesome! Thank’s for sharing this!
Put your cooked yolks through a wire mesh bowl seive for a smoother mix. Add a small amount of softened cream cheese for a little stability. Your mix will not be loose and runny.
These sound really good and I will be making these soon! 🙂
Any ideas on how to make this without a smoker?
Hey Brenda- these are smoked eggs, so the instructions are specifically written for them to be smoked. You can take traditional boiled eggs and still use them in this deviled egg recipe: https://heygrillhey.com/smoked-deviled-eggs/
Go out and buy a A-Maze-N Wood Pellet Grill Tube Smoker, and you can cold smoke the hard boiled eggs in you Grill
You can use your BBQ. Just use 4 to 6 bricketts. In the corners or outside edges. Light them using little lighter fluid. After thay start graying and fluid is burnt of put wood chips over them. Wall aw you have a smoker. Just need to keep an eye on it. Wood chips and bricketts will burn out quickly.