How to fry an egg
- Helena Busiakiewicz
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Achieve the perfect fried egg with a crispy bottom and runny yolk. Simple yet satisfying, it can be enjoyed in a variety of dishes from breakfast to dinner.
Fried eggs are an essential part of so many cuisines. Just consider a full English breakfast – I don’t think it’s quite the same with scrambled or poached eggs. Further afield, a fried egg is de rigueur for a classic French croqué Madame, or a German schnitzel à la Holstein, while in exotic Indonesia, they are the crowning glory of nasi goreng.
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Served sunny-side up, a fried egg will cheer up a salad and goes equally well with different grains and lentils. I also love them as an excellent takeaway-style addition tucked into burgers, pitta bread, bacon sarnies and Indian naan or roti, if you so desire. Your only decision is whether to cook them with a softly set white and just-cooked yolk (see below), a frill of crispness around the edge (turn the heat up when cooking them), or over-easy (flipped to make sure the white is fully cooked). The yolk should always be soft.
I recommend choosing the freshest eggs you can find. It's also worth noting that hens' eggs are slightly easier to cook than ducks' eggs. The fresher an egg, the stronger the proteins are in the white, which means the egg will form a neater shape in the frying pan. Older eggs will spread out very thinly.
You can fry an egg in any fat, so I choose one that gives me the specific flavour I want. For example, at breakfast I might use the bacon fat left in the pan or a knob of butter. If I’m adding the egg to a rich dish, olive or rapeseed oil may work better, while for nasi goreng or dhal I like the hint of coconut that comes from using coconut oil.
Helena has developd hundreds of recipes for Good Food, and trained as a chef and worked in restaurants before joining the team. Read on for her top fried egg method, or check out more of Helena's recipes.
Basic recipe for a fried egg
Serves 1 (easily doubled)
Ingredients
- 1 fresh egg at room temperature
- 1 small knob of butter or 1 tbsp oil
Sunny-side up method
- Heat the butter until it melts but isn’t yet hot enough to brown (or heat the oil).
- Crack the egg onto a small plate or saucer (don’t crack it straight into the pan in case some shell ends up in there as well). Slide it off the saucer into the pan.
- Cover with a lid and leave for 3 minutes over a low heat. Check the white is set and, if not, leave it for another 30 seconds and check again. The whites should be set but you should still have a runny yolk.
- Season.
Watch our video for step-by-step instructions on achieving perfect fried eggs
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