Chinese Tea Eggs

A friend of mine mentioned these to me a while ago and I just got around to making them. Chinese Tea Eggs are hard boiled eggs with cracked shells that are steeped in a brine of black tea, soy sauce and spices. They are beautiful to look at but just as amazing to eat. Here is the recipe I worked off of and a few pics of the end result.

Ingredients:

6-8 eggs hard-boiled and cooled

2 tbsp loose tea leaves (Lapsang Souchong Butterfly Smokey China Black tea)

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp salt

¾ tbsp. Chinese fivespice

1 star Anise

2” strip of orange zest

Directions:

Hard boil eggs. I place the eggs in a saucepan then fill with cold water, one inch above the eggs. Bring the water to boil. After one minute at a boil, turn off the heat and let the eggs sit in the hot water for 10 minutes. Then, cool.

When cool, using a spoon or the back of a knife, crack the egg. Make the cracks deep enough that the tea mixture can penetrate the shell to give the egg the desired flavor and look. Just be careful not to let the shell fall apart.

Place eggs in a medium pot and fill pot with water to one inch above the eggs. Add tea, soy sauce, salt, and spices. Bring to a boil.

Cover, reduce heat, and simmer the eggs and tea mixture for about 2 hours. Add water as necessary to keep them covered.

Remove from heat and leave the eggs submerged in the tea mixture overnight (about 8 hours) to allow the eggs to absorb the flavors.

Enjoy!

(Store eggs with shell on in the original egg carton in the refrigerator for up to a week.)