With summer on the way (or already here depending on where you live!), breakfast in my house once again turns to deviled eggs and fruit on a regular basis. By combining sous vide and cold smoking, this classic recipe gets a real update with creamier yolks, more tender whites, and a subtle smoky background flavor.
Everyone has their own favorite method of making hard boiled eggs. Serious Eats has a great recipe if you want to boil your eggs, but I’ve found that cooking them sous vide for 20 minutes at 194°F makes for even better eggs. I’ve tried lowering the temperature more, but at that point (170°F to be specific), the whites start sticking to the shells, making for difficult peeling and misshapen deviled eggs. So choose your method and cook your eggs.
As soon as your eggs are cooked, move them to an ice water bath (50% water and ice, you want this water REALLY cold and enough ice left over to not melt as the eggs transfer their heat to the water). Leave them there for 20 minutes. This shocking will help the eggs peel easier.
Once the eggs are cold, remove them and peel them. Gently crack each egg on your work surface and roll it around to loosen the shell. This is a strange technique but really useful once you get the hang of it. It helps the shell come off much easier. Peel the egg, then rinse under cool running water or in a small bowl of cold water. This helps get any last bits of shell off that you may have missed.
Once the eggs are peeled, you can cold smoke them for 20 minutes. This step is completely optional but gives the eggs a nice smoky flavor that pairs well with the bacon and paprika flavors. For cold smoking, I love the A-maze-n tube smoker. You just fill it with wood pellets found at any hardware store, light one end, and cover your bbq. It’ll slowly smoke for around 2 hours, far more than the 20 minutes needed for the eggs.
20 minutes later, remove the eggs from the bbq. Cut them in half lengthwise and place the yolks in a food processor.
Add the sour cream, mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar, and hot sauce to the food processor. Process until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Then with the processor running, drizzle in 2 tablespoons of good olive oil. Season to taste with kosher salt, about 1/3 teaspoon. Place filling in a ziplock bag.
Lay the whites in whatever tray you’re using to hold the deviled eggs.
Cut off a corner of the ziplock bag of filling and pipe filling mixture into egg whites. You can also just spoon the mixture into the eggs, but this makes for a much prettier result. Place crumbled bacon evenly over each filled egg, then sprinkle with freshly ground pepper and smoked paprika.
Deviled Eggs with Bacon
Smoked Sous Vide Deviled Eggs with Bacon
- 12 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons sour cream
- 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon Frank's RedHot sauce (or other hot sauce)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/3 teaspoon salt
- 3 slices bacon (cooked crispy and crumbled)
- ground black pepper
- smoked paprika
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Preheat a sous vide bath to 194°F. Once bath has preheated, gently lower eggs into bath and cook for 20 minutes. While eggs are cooking, prepare a large bowl with an ice bath of half water and half ice. When eggs are done cooking, carefully move eggs to ice bath and let chill for 20 minutes.
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Remove eggs from ice bath and peel by gently cracking on your work surface, Roll eggs back and forth to loosen the shell a bit then peel. Rinse peeled eggs in a bowl of cold water or cold tap water.
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(Optional) Cold smoke eggs for 20 minutes.
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Slice eggs in half lengthwise, placing yolks in a food processor. Add sour cream, mayonnaise, dijon mustard, vinegar, and hot sauce. Process until smooth, scraping down sides of food processor as necessary.
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With machine running, slowly pour in 2 tablespoons of good olive oil. Season mixture to taste with kosher salt, about 1/3 teaspoon. Transfer filling to a ziplock bag.
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Place egg white halves in a deviled egg tray or other serving platter. Cut off a corner of the ziplock bag and carefully pipe filling into egg white halves. Top with crumbled bacon then dust with freshly ground black pepper and smoked paprika.
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