A Month-of-Eggs: Chinese Tea Eggs

Chinese Tea Eggs

Think of this as Easter Eggs for grown-ups! No, not really. Tea eggs are ubiquitous in China. Grandmothers save their “broth” to make a new batch the next week. Street vendors sell them by the thousands. It’s just that most of us don’t know about them. So I make stupid jokes about their appearance. I apologize to my Asian friends and offer this recipe for the Chinese New Year celebrated this month.

This is not a make-and-serve recipe like most of my others. This one requires a couple of days. The good news is most of the 2 days is with the eggs steeping in the tea “broth” in the refrigerator.

And a confession: the artistic picture of tea eggs at the beginning of this post is one I purchased at a photo site. Mine are at the right. Sigh. Did I not crack them enough? Not enough tea? Did I not steep them long enough? Were the eggs too fresh? Not fresh enough? I’d do more research, but given DH’s rating, I will try them again for him. 

There are dozens of tea egg recipes out there, but I took the basic idea and then kept sipping the broth until it was spicy enough for me. Make your own adjustments. Most of the recipes use star anise, cinnamon sticks, and peppercorns. So you could try that instead of the pre-packaged Chinese Five-Spice powder.

Chinese Tea Eggs

2 cups water

2 black tea bags (or two tablespoons loose black tea.
4 eggs, hard cooked and cracked
½ cup soy sauce
½  teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon Chinese Five-Spice powder

2 teaspoons orange peel zest

Cracked Tea Eggs

Hard cook up to four eggs. Crack the egg shells, but don’t peel them. The more cracks the better.

Bring to a boil the water, tea, soy sauce, sugar, spices, and zest.

Remove from heat and add eggs. Turn to coat thoroughly for a minute or so.

Put in the refrigerator for up to two days. Occasionally turn the eggs over so all sides are equally marinated.

Remove from broth and peel to eat.

DH’s Rating: 4 1/2 Tongues Up! This rating shocked me! You'd think you'd know someone better after all these decades. He is abstemious with his tongue ratings, but he liked the light spiciness of the eggs. They were different. I guess I have had an influence on him!