Broken Egg Salad

By Hetty Lui McKinnon

Published April 10, 2025

Broken Egg Salad
Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Monica Pierini.
Total Time
20 minutes
Prep Time
5 minutes
Cook Time
15 minutes
Rating
5(367)
Comments
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This dish has all the elements of a classic egg salad — eggs, mayonnaise and mustard — with one radical change: The cooked eggs are simply torn into deliciously irregular chunks of whites and yolks in a more laid-back approach. Egg salad recipes usually call for hard-boiled eggs, but since they stay largely intact here, this recipe calls for just-set yolks that are golden and jammy at their core. When cooking eggs, every second counts, so make sure you set a timer as soon as the eggs hit the water to avoid overcooking. Eat this egg salad as you would the classic: with bread as a sandwich or tartine, tossed with some chickpeas or grains, or served alongside roasted veggies. 

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Ingredients

Yield:4 servings
  • 8large eggs
  • Ice, as needed
  • ½cup mayonnaise
  • 2scallions, thinly sliced, plus extra for topping
  • ¼cup chopped pickles (from 1 medium pickle)
  • 2teaspoons Dijon mustard
  • Salt and pepper 
  • Toasted sourdough or crusty bread, to serve
Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Add the eggs and set a timer for 8 minutes. (There is no need to bring the eggs to room temperature; the timing provided is for eggs straight from the fridge.)

  2. Step 2

    While the eggs cook, set up a large bowl of water and add lots of ice cubes. As soon as the timer sounds, drain the eggs and add them to the ice bath. Leave to cool for 2 minutes.

  3. Step 3

    Add the mayonnaise, scallions, pickles and Dijon mustard to a large bowl; stir to combine.

  4. Step 4

    Crack the eggs and then place them back into the ice bath and peel them underwater (this helps the shell come off easily). Tear each egg into 2 to 3 pieces and add them to the bowl with the mayonnaise mixture. When all the eggs have been added, gently stir the eggs to coat. Season with salt and pepper.

  5. Step 5

    To serve, pile the broken eggs onto the bread, top with additional scallions and serve.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
367 user ratings
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Comments

Barbara Civitillo

@Me Put cold eggs into a pot of cold water. Bring to a rolling boil. Cover pot and turn off heat, leaving pot on burner. Three minutes makes soft-boiled, 10 makes perfect hard boiled. Experiment with timing for this recipe. At any rate, when time is up, flood pot with cold water and proceed.

BreadEveryWeekend

Why do we always suggest boiling the eggs? Steaming takes the same time and a fraction of the water. I find they peel better when steamed. Most folks have a steamer basket so it’s not ridiculous to suggest.

esbredin

When boiling eggs, I drain the cooked eggs, add ice cubes to the cooking pot, plus tap water to cover. No need for a separate ice bath.

DC

I followed the recipe, using my favourite brand of kosher dill pickle and it came out perfectly. I’m not a particularly big fan of egg salad but I will definitely add this recipe to my repertoire. I’ve been using the method used in the recipe to boil eggs for years now and only one had an egg crack and that was my fault for just dropping it in instead of following Martha Stewart’s advice to use a spoon to gently drop the egg in the boiling water. 7 minutes is perfect for a runnier jammy egg, 8 is the right amount of time for a slightly harder but still jammy egg. The yolks need to be less runny in order to be able to tear them.

Higher protein

Instead of using 1/2 cup mayo, I substituted it for 1/4 cottage cheese and 1/4 vegan mayo (vegenaise is a go to) and it tastes just as good and has more protein!

Aaron

8 minutes absolutely does not boil and fully cook the eggs. Egg salad turned out liquidy as a result. 8 wasted eggs later, I’m frustrated. I’ll try it again with 12 mins cooking time but I wish the author weren’t so confident about the 8 minutes.

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