Cajun pickled eggs. Think eggs. Vinegar. Cajun spice. Hot sauce. And something that’s sooooooo much more than the sum of its parts.
Cajun Pickled Eggs
Special Equipment: 1-quart (946-ml) mason jar and lid
Ingredients
Directions
Gently pack the eggs into the jar, sprinkling them with the Cajun seasoning as you go.
In a small saucepan, combine the hot pepper sauce and vinegar. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently. Pour over the eggs.
Seal the jar and let it cool to room temperature. Stash the jar in the refrigerator, giving the jar a gentle shake to redistribute the spices every couple days, for at least 2 weeks and up to 3 months. (The flavor will initially be hot and vinegary but if you wait at least 2 weeks the pickled eggs will pick up a complexity and become more imbued with the Cajun spices.)
Recipe Testers' Tips
Pickled eggs are a classic bar food. You either love 'em or hate 'em. This recipe makes a pickled egg that could turn people over to the love ‘em side. Four simple ingredients, easy to make, and all that’s required is patience. I would HIGHLY recommend opening a window and having the exhaust fan on as you make the pickling sauce for the jar as the fumes are potent. Once the eggs had cooled, I packed them into a quart-size jar and carefully poured over the hot liquid. I would recommend here that a funnel be used to guide the hot liquid into the jar safely. Now came the hard part—waiting. After 1 week, I sent them with my sister to work as there are a number of pickled egg aficionados there. The eggs were cut into quarters for tasting purposes. The verdict? They LOVED them! The eggs had a gentle lingering heat that wasn't overpowering. Comments ranged from “OMG! These are awesome!” to “These would go really well with a cold beer.” Two tasters weren't too keen on them and found the vinegar to be a little strong but there's always bound to be couple. I can't think of anything I'd change other than maybe trying something milder in terms of a vinegar.
We love boiled eggs and deviled eggs, so these Cajun pickled eggs were another egg recipe to try. We loved the tang of the hot sauce and vinegar in each bite. We waited 1 week before sampling the eggs and I'm sure with another week they would've been even better. I'll be making these again before our next picnic and let them sit for 2 to 3 weeks in the brine. I packed the eggs in a large upright jar so the brine could almost cover them. I also shook the jar and turned it upside down each day to distribute the liquid.
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These are EXCELLENT! Used Red Devil hot sauce cause that is what my local grocery had, and Tony Chachere’s cajun seasoning. Highly recommend serving these (amongst the countless ways they can be enjoyed) sliced on top of simple avocado toast (just smashed/mashed/salted/peppered avocado). I do have one comment / question about this. Since I’m a recipe junkie, I had to search for other versions of this recipe. I came across one at real cajun recipes dot com, and they point out that an eggs age more at room temp in a day than they do in a week in the fridge! And thus, their recipe for these same eggs has you leave the jar out at room temp for 2 weeks! What do you think about this method – safe?
So glad you loved these, MikeK, and that is a fantastic serving suggestion. I can see how the flavors of the pickled egg and mashed avocado would pair extremely well. As for your question about the room temp pickled eggs, no, I definitely would not recommend this. Pickled eggs stored at room temperature have caused botulism and really should never be stored at room temperature except when you’re serving them.
Can I add more eggs to the original sauce after we use up the first batch?
You can, Sharon, however, the flavor won’t be quite as strong, and you may find you need to make more brine.
I tried this with a Cajun-based hot sauce (Zatarain’s) and man oh man, these are delicious. Thanks so much for this wonderful recipe.
Love hearing this, Raven! You’re so very welcome. Thank you for taking the time to let us know how much you love ’em!
Not sure what kind of store bought hot pepper sauce to use. At over 1 cup in the ingredients, Tabasco sauce would be to hot. I used the name brand sriracha hot chili sauce, so see how that works. The total amount of vinegar and hot pepper sauce was not enough to cover all the eggs in the jar so been flipping the jar upside down every day.
Thanks, Tom. Do let us know what you think once they’re ready. Some of our readers have experimented with different sauces and most seem to like either Sriracha or a more vinegar-based hot sauce, like Franks.
We just finished the jar and need to make more, really good with beer and football. Could Sriracha be subbed for the standard hot pepper sauce? I made it with” Franks” twice now and would like to change it up just for fun.
I think you could swap in Sriracha for the Franks, low and slow. In my experience, Sriracha packs a bit more punch so you may want to start with less unless you like it very spicy.
Here are the results using Sriracha: As much as I like it the flavor is too sweet and they are much better using Franks or your favorite hot sauce. Why? The eggs really need the vinegar for that acidity. Unless you like sweet eggs skip the Sriracha.
Thanks, low and slow. Appreciate you letting us know!
I noticed there is very little liquid ingredients in this recipe. Does the sloshing every two days make up for the usual covering of the eggs with liquid?
Sharon, we checked with our testers, and giving it a shake every day or so pickled the eggs. If you’d prefer to use a more traditional approach to pickling the eggs, we’d suggest doubling the brine mixture, and that should fully cover the eggs.
Sharon, follow the recipe and use a mayonnaise jar, sometimes I get all 12 sometimes only 11, if you don`t have quite enough liquid just top it off with more vinegar and you`ll be fine.
Thanks, low and slow!
This is a great recipe
My husband gave it a 10 and said very good yummmmm
Thanks, Sharon! That’s very high praise indeed. We so appreciate you taking the time to share it with us.
Made these a couple of years ago gonna make more today or tomorrow. What would you say to adding a smashed clove of garlic?
We haven’t tried it this way, low and slow, but if you enjoy a little garlic flavor in your pickled eggs, I think it would be a nice addition. Do let us know how they turn out!
Is there a difference between “hot pepper sauce” and “hot sauce”? Will red hot do?
Excellent question, Brian, and our apologies for not a making it clear! Yes, your preferred brand of red hot sauce will do just fine. Actually, it will do spectacularly…!
Going to try this, but question, can I add more eggs to jar when finished or do I have to start over? I have put eggs in large jalapeno jar with just the juice before and love them. Thought I’d try this recipe once.
Roy, I think you can add more eggs to the pickling juice when the jar is empty. It won’t have quite the same taste as the original, as the liquid was hot when added.
Made these eggs, love em! Just made another 2 quarts they are perfect in Bloody Mary’s. The envy of all our friends!
Sandy, I love, love, love the idea of using them in bloody Marys!
oooops..my mistake….saw egg cut in half and thought ‘deviled eggs”…still like the idea and ingredients.
Well, it is actually still a riff on deviled eggs in a sense, and much less time-consuming as there’s no taking the yolks out and carefully spooning them back into the whites! Love that you think of them as such, stanp!
This is certainly a different, and I’m sure great tasting, take on ‘traditional’ deviled eggs.
Like the focus on ‘spicy’ !@
Steve, we didn’t encounter that when we made the recipe but I’d love to help troubleshoot. May I ask, what size container are you using?
I love beet pickled eggs and always add cayenne pepper and extra black peppercorns to the liquid. These sound like a winner, I’ll be giving the recipe a try this week. And, you are right: the hardest part is waiting during the pickling process!
It is SOOOOOO hard to wait, isn’t it, Mary? In life as well as pickling. We quite like beet pickled eggs, too. If ever you’re curious to try a different beet pickled eggs recipe, please consider giving these a twirl…!