Professional chef reveals his simple secrets for making the perfect poached eggs every time

A professional chef has shared his trick for making the perfect poached eggs every time. 

Andy Hearnden, a New Zealand chef living on the Sunshine Coast, said the secret to perfecting the breakfast favourite is to use fresh eggs (three to four days old) in a video posted to TikTok. 

‘The most important thing is how fresh your eggs are. If you don’t have fresh eggs, they’re not going to poach well – it’s that simple,’ the foodie said in the clip.

The cook explains eggs should ideally be about three to four days old and anything over two weeks old will not poach well.  

Andy starts by bring a large pot of water to the boil and adding a ‘good three finger pinch of salt, and about two tablespoons of plain white vinegar.  

He said to make sure the water is ‘rapidly boiling’ before cracking your eggs in. 

‘The reason is that obviously the water temperature drops really quickly as soon as you have a cold egg or even room temperature egg go in there,’ he explained. 

Andy starts by bring a large pot of water to the boil and adding a ‘good three finger pinch of salt, and about two tablespoons of plain white vinegar and after about two minutes, the eggs should be set enough to be lifted out of the water for you to check their texture

He then cracks three eggs into the pot getting as close to the water as possible. 

Amazingly, two out of the three eggs Andy uses had double yolks which he said was ‘unbelievable’. 

Once the eggs are in the pot, the water’s temperature drops so Andy waits until he sees larger bubbles at the top of the water to turn down the heat on his stove.  

He lifts one eggs out of the water but notes while it’s well formed, it’s still ‘a bit jiggly in the middle’ so places it back in the pot a little bit longer until slightly firmer.

‘Now I know in the comments someone’s going to ask me how long this was done for – it really depends on the size of your egg and how many eggs you’ve got in the pot,’ Andy said.  

The kiwi chef said after two minutes, the eggs should be set enough to be lifted out of the water for you to check their texture. 

He lifts one eggs out of the water but notes while it’s well formed, it’s still ‘a bit jiggly in the middle’ so places it back in the pot a little bit longer until slightly firmer. 

Many of Andy’s  171,500 TikTok followers were sharing their poached eggs methods in the comments.

‘I just do them in a coffee mug in the microwave for a minute,’ one person wrote.  

‘I literally just use a shallow pan with a little amount of water.. works every time. No salt, no vinegar,’ another commented.

Others agreed with using the freshest produce for perfect poached eggs. 

I agree!! I don’t use vinegar but we do have chickens and use fresh eggs. If they’re too fresh (literally JUST laid) they actually wont poach either,’ one woman said.