Egg Tempura (deep fried 5-minute egg)

This post is part of a larger post titled Foodbuzz 24x24: Culinary Tour Around the World - Sous Vide Style. In that post, I created a 3-course dinner showcasing the sous vide technique on a variety of cuisines. This fried hen egg was one component in the duck confit salad, the French part of the meal.

Oh my goodness - have you every had a deep fried egg? The kind where, when you cut it open, the yolk still oozes out?

I finally challenged myself this weekend by attempting a recipe from Thomas Keller's Under Pressure, a book dedicated to the art of sous vide. This beautiful coffee-table ready book provides sous vide recipes from his two restaurants, per se and The French Laundry.

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I proposed attempting such a feat (especially in this tiny kitchen). The fried egg was messy, difficult to handle, and made my kitchen look like a tornado hit it.

Ohhh . . but it was so worth it.



First, heat up a pot of water to boiling and then drop in the eggs. Cook for exactly 5 minutes. To stop further cooking, cool immediately in an ice bath.

OK . . here comes the tricky part. CAREFULLY peel the eggs. I had a super hard time doing this. The eggs are still really wobbly because the insides are essentially liquid. Worse yet, if you are using fresh eggs (which you are supposed to use since you are eating these close to raw), the shells are even harder to remove because fresh eggs tend to have very tight shells.

I struggled, broke most of my eggs, and managed to salvage one or two out of the five that I had made.

Dip your intact egg first into flour (to coat), then into a beaten egg mixture, and finally in potato starch. Deep fry for 3 minutes in a 325 °F oil bath before removing and serving immediately.

This made a crazy mess of my kitchen, but it's worth trying once.

Deep Fried Hen Egg
from Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide by Thomas Keller

4 fresh eggs
all purpose flour
beaten eggs (1-2)
potato starch
neutral oil for frying

Cook eggs in a pot of boiling water for 5 minutes. Immediately shock in cold water to prevent further cooling. Dry eggs, carefully peel off the shell. Coat in flour, then beaten eggs, and then potato flour. Deep fry in 325 °F oil bath for about 3 minutes, drain on paper towels, and serve immediately.