Andrew Zimmern Shared His Secret to the Perfect Crispy Fried Egg

It seems like every chef and brand has a different secret for their signature "best" eggs. On The Bear, it involves crumbling potato chips on top of an omelet. For 7-Eleven, it's all about the egg sando with Kewpie mayo. And, of course, you haven't lived until you've fried your eggs with water or poached them in a muffin tin. And really, all of those techniques hold merit in our eyes.

Honestly, we thought we had been there, cracked that, when it came to the dozens of ways to level up our eggs. That is, until we spotted a recent Instagram demonstration from chef/restaurateur/TV  host/frozen dinner creator Andrew Zimmern. 

In the caption of a recent reel on Instagram, the Family Dinner and Bizarre Foods star explains that “every cook should master this easy technique — there are so many dishes that benefit from a runny-yolk fried egg topping, like a brisket breakfast hash or my riff on pasta carbonara.” 

We’d like to nominate mushroom toast, grain bowls, BLTs, chilaquiles, bibimbap, and breakfast salads for consideration as part of that list as well.

“Cast-iron skillet. Tablespoon of butter,” Zimmern instructs at the outset of the video, adding that this technique also works with bacon fat if you’d prefer that flavorful alternative to butter. “I like to hard sear my eggs in butter, and the butter turns brown … If I don’t do that, then I don’t have those wonderfully crispy burnt edges.”

A fan chimed in through the comments with applause about this exact point: “Thank you! Going through culinary school, our chefs always yelled at us if there was even an ounce of color on our eggs. I always thought they were wrong, so I’m glad I’m not alone,” they confided.

Zimmern then adds a few cracks of black pepper and continues, “The key element with eggs, especially fried ones: not moving them. The more you move them, the more you risk piercing your yolk.”

As the white starts to cook through, Zimmern says that this is the perfect time to add a sprinkle of chopped fresh parsley or another delicate herb if you like. You want to warm the tender leaves without allowing them to turn brown. 

What do you want to get brown? The frizzled edges of the eggs, according to Zimmern.

“It’s those lacy little brown parts that you want and a yolk that’s hot but soft,” he concludes, tapping on the jiggly yolk as the video wraps up. 

The entire egg-perfection process should take a mere three minutes over medium-high heat, Zimmern explains on his website.

While some followers were skeptical and instead preferred their edges to be less burnt (noting that the frizzled edges err on the bitter side for them), many other fans agreed with Zimmern. One noted that “those crispy edges on eggs make all the difference, especially on a breakfast sandwich. I even like it when I put it over some rice and avocado." Others said they swear by this same method on a Blackstone griddle and in a wok.

If you, too, are all of a sudden in the mood to make use of some of that dozen in your refrigerator, save Zimmern’s video to refer to today and often.