I am overrun with eggs this spring, not only from the chickens, but also from the quail. It's amazing how fast those little quail eggs fill up the refrigerator! But one way I've found to make them snack-able (and therefore get them out of the fridge faster) is to hard boil them. 

Trouble is, truly fresh eggs can be difficult to peel after hard boiling. The shells come off, yes - but with bits of the egg white attached. With chicken eggs, this is easily remedied by using a pin or needle to poke a hole in the fat end of the egg, allowing more air in. (The reason store bought eggs peel so easily is that they are older and have more air between the shell and the egg.) But quail eggs have much tougher shells - so the pin trick doesn't work well.

Fortunately, my favorite modern appliance has come to the rescue! Quail eggs, it turns out, peel beautifully if hard boiled in the Instant Pot! (This is the Instant Pot I use.) Scroll down for step-by-step directions, or watch the video below for how-tos:

How to Hard Boil Quail Eggs in an Instant Pot

1. Place 1 cup of water in the Instant Pot's stainless steel insert. 

Pour water into the Instant Pot's insert.

2. If you're only cooking a handful of eggs, place the Instant Pot trivet inside the insert. If you're cooking more than a few eggs, I recommend using a steamer basket, like this one, instead, because it will make removing the eggs and getting them into an ice bath much easier.

The kind of steamer basket I recommend.

3. Place the quail eggs on the trivet or in the steamer basket. You can cook as little or as many as you like without changing the cooking times I give in this post. Just remember that if you overfill the trivet or steamer basket, it will be difficult to remove the hot eggs from the Instant Pot...and if the eggs sit in the appliance for a longer amount of time, they may overcook.

4. Place the lid on the Instant Pot and turn the valve to "sealing." Press "Manual" and then set the time to 2 minutes.

5. While the Instant Pot cooks the eggs, prepare the ice bath by pouring ice in a bowl. Fill the bowl with cold tap water. 

A bowl works well for an ice bath.

6. Once the Instant Pot beeps to tell you it has cooked the quail eggs for 2 minutes, allow it to release the steam naturally for another 2 minutes.

7. Next, turn the valve to manually release the remaining pressure in the Instant Pot. Remove the lid and, using an oven mitt, remove the steamer basket from the IP and place it in the ice bath. Do this promptly, or the eggs will overcook.

8. Tip the eggs out of the steamer basket and completely remove the basket from the ice bath. Allow the eggs to sit in the ice bath for at least 2 minutes.

Tip the cooked eggs into the ice bath.

Now you may store the hard boiled quail eggs in the fridge, or you may peel them right away and use them in your favorite recipe.

The quail eggs peel easily!