Chinese Tea Eggs Recipe

5 from 1 vote

This Chinese tea eggs recipe makes marbled eggs – aromatic boiled eggs that have a marbled appearance when peeled. Steeped in a stock of five spice, soy and tea flavours that perfume the eggs, they’re a tasty snack when eaten on their own, or add soy sauce, chilli sauce and steamed rice and you have a lovely light breakfast.

Prep Time15

Cook Time1 30

Course: Breakfast, brunch, snack, street food

Cuisine: Chinese

Servings: Eggs

Calories: 111kcal

Author: Terence Carter

Ingredients

6 Eggs
4 star anise
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tbsp cloves
2 tbsp fennel seeds
1 tsp Sichuan peppercorn
10 g black tea
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
40 g rock sugar or 20 g of granulated sugar
1 tbsp salt

Instructions

Boil the eggs for 10 minutes. Cool the eggs off in a water bath.
While the eggs are boiling, prepare the stock by adding all the ingredients (except the eggs) to a stockpot with around a litre of water in it.
Dry the eggs off and crack them all over using the wide end of a large chopstick. Do not roll them over a table or smack them with a spoon – we don't want pieces of eggshell falling off. Start at one end of the egg and as you turn the egg start moving down the egg to get the cracks all over.
Reduce the stock to low heat and gently add the eggs to the stock with a slotted spoon. Cover and simmer for up to 90 minutes.
Let the stock cool down with the eggs still in the stock. At this stage you can leave the eggs in the stock for up to 48 hours. At 48 hours, you need to remove the eggs and refrigerate.
However long you leave the eggs, do not peel them until you are ready to eat.
It's traditional to serve this with soy sauce, but we also like to have some Lao Gan Ma (chilli sauce) with peanuts and some steamed rice to make a meal of it.

Nutrition