Golden, round yolk. Light, perfectly coagulated egg white, with a bit of a crisp at the edges. It’s a perfect, simple to make breakfast, ready in about 5 minutes. It’s something to eat with your iron-rich spinach. Or add to a salad. It goes great with anything. Learn how to fry an egg and you’ll know something useful for life.
It’s hard for me to think of better comfort food than a perfectly made sunny side up egg. My first lesson ever in the kitchen was how to fry an egg. Sunny side up eggs, with some fried bacon on the plate, is The Comfort Food for me. It’s probably even my favorite food in the whole world. Making and eating that takes me back to my childhood, every Sunday morning when all of us in my family gathered around the table and shared this simple dish. It was one of the few weekly times when we did.
Plenty of years ago, they used to tell me that eating eggs is not that healthy because they’re high in cholesterol. But guess what? Just because a food is rich in cholesterol, that doesn’t mean your cholesterol levels will rise automatically!
Eggs are amongst the most nutritious foods in the world. They’re rich in vitamin A, folate, vitamin B5, B12, and B2, phosphorus, selenium, vitamin D, E, K, B6, calcium, and zinc! Not to mention the protein, which is about 6 grams per egg and the 5 grams of healthy fats. Having eggs amounts to lowering the risk of heart disease, healthier eyes, lowering the risk of strokes.
At the same time, they make you feel very satisfied after you eat them and that might lead to weight loss in other cases because you don’t need much else to eat for a few hours.
The trick to frying eggs is having a runny, delicious yolk, but you want the yolks to be fully formed. Or else they’re just plain gross and you haven’t learned how to fry an egg yet.
If you want something less fried, then learn how to boil eggs – hard, medium, or soft – to perfection. You might also need to learn how to make egg wash and how to separate yolks from egg whites.
How to fry an egg in 7 easy steps
1. Choose the right skillet
Any pan will do, but there are some that yield better results than others. A cast iron skillet is great for the job, but so is a nonstick pan. It’s important that the egg won’t stick to the bottom of the skillet. Or else the sunny look will be ruined. If you have multiple sizes of skillets, then choose one appropriate to the number of eggs you’re making. For 1-2 eggs, choose a tiny skillet. Go for a larger one if you’re having company for brunch.
2. Heat the skillet to the right temp
You will need to heat the skillet over medium heat. If the skillet is too hot, then the egg won’t fry evenly: the bottom will burn, while the top remains runny.
3. Use some grease
Butter will give the egg a nice smoky flavor. You can also go for straight-up canola oil or even olive oil. But I don’t like the way the egg tastes after it’s fried in olive oil. My special trick? I sometimes fry the bacon first in the skillet and let it drop its own grease in the pan. Then I fry the eggs in the bacon grease and I swear they taste delicious.
4. Add the egg
Wait until the butter melts or the oil starts to bubble just a little bit. Then crack the egg carefully over the skillet. The egg whites should start to solidify at once.
5. Please season!
When you’re cooking, never forget to add some salt and pepper to your dish. Including your fried eggs. Because adding salt when they’re already on the plate is never good enough.
Disregard this point if you’re on a low sodium diet.
6. Cook the sunny side up part
A good way to ensure that the egg is cooked on the upper side, not only the bottom, is to use a lid to cover the pan. That way, the top of the egg will be cooked by the steam trapped in the skillet.
7. Remove from the skillet
The cooking time is completely up to you. After just a few minutes, the egg whites are set, but the yolk is still runny. Maybe you don’t like that, or you prefer more solid egg whites. That is up to you to experiment and get the result you need!
You know what goes great with eggs? Perfectly fried bacon! And if you don’t want to fry, poach your eggs!
