Marbled Tea Eggs | Slow Cooker Version | Chinese recipes

Spilling the tea on these stunning marbled tea eggs (茶叶蛋) 🍃 I grew up eating these beauties hard-boiled, simmering in the liquid, submerging the yolk in the marinade to soak up extra flavor. While to me, tea eggs are beloved in their traditional hard-boiled form, I’ve seen some people make soft-boiled versions as well and included a variation below for those, if that’s more your style.

ʏᴏᴜ’ʟʟ ɴᴇᴇᴅ:
◦ A dozen eggs, hard-boiled and dunked in an ice water bath
◦ 2 black tea bags
◦ ¼ cup soy sauce
◦ 2 tbsp dark soy sauce
◦ 1 cinnamon stick
◦ 2 star anise
◦ ¼ tsp sichuan peppercorn
◦ 1 medium piece rock sugar
◦ 5 cloves
◦ 2 dried chilis
◦ 2 bay leaves
As a shortcut, sometimes I’ll use a teaspoon of 5-spice powder and then layer in whatever medley of spices I have on hand to enhance the marinade.

ᴛᴏ ᴍᴀᴋᴇ:
» Crack your eggs all over with the back of a spoon
» Add eggs and marinade ingredients to your @Crockpot and fill with water until eggs are submerged (~3.5 cups)
» Cook on high pressure for ~3.5 hours
» Letting this sit in the fridge overnight will let the flavor develop even more.
» To make a soft-boiled version, bring the marinade to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes and allow it to cool completely. Let soft-boiled, cracked eggs marinate in the fridge overnight.

PS you can save the marinade! Freeze it and bring it to a boil in the future for future uses or you drop in some soft-boiled eggs and get both takes on them. I’ve also used the marinade to braise fresh peanuts.

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