Mayak eggs (Korean marinated soft-boiled eggs)
17 min · 14 g protein · 173 cals / serving
The Korean 'drug eggs' that live up to their name: jammy soft-boiled eggs soaked overnight in a sweet-salty soy marinade loaded with garlic, scallions, chili and toasted sesame. The yolks turn fudgy, the whites take on a savoury bronze, and you spoon the garlicky marinade over every bite.
Ingredients
- 6 large eggs
Marinade
- 1/4 cup reduced sodium soy sauce, weighed as what is eaten; most of the marinade stays in the jar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tsp rice vinegar
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 green onions, thinly sliced
- 1 red chili pepper, thinly sliced
- 1 1/2 tsp toasted sesame seeds
To serve
- 1/2 English cucumber cucumber, cut into sticks
Steps
- Bring a pot of water to a boil, lower the eggs in gently with a spoon and boil for exactly 6 minutes 30 seconds for jammy yolks (7 minutes for firmer ones). Move them straight into iced water for 5 minutes, then peel carefully under the water.
- Stir the soy sauce, water, honey and vinegar until the honey dissolves, then add the garlic, scallions, chili and sesame seeds.
- Put the eggs in a snug container or jar, pour the marinade over so they are nearly covered, and turn them now and then. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.
- Serve the eggs halved, with a spoonful of the marinade and its garlic and scallions on top and the cucumber sticks alongside for dragging through the marinade.
Good to know
Why so little marinade in the numbers?
The eggs need to sit nearly covered, but most of the marinade stays in the jar. The nutrition counts what you actually eat: the eggs plus the spoonful of garlicky marinade, scallions and chili that goes over each one. Leftover marinade keeps a week in the fridge and is great over rice or greens.
How long do they keep?
Up to four days in the fridge in the marinade. After two days the whites get firmer and saltier, so lift them out into a clean container if you are keeping them longer.
Are soft-boiled eggs safe?
A jammy yolk is not fully set. If you are pregnant, serving young children or cooking for anyone with a weakened immune system, boil the eggs for 9–10 minutes until the yolks are firm; they still take the marinade well.
How to eat them?
Korean cooks pile them on a bowl of hot rice with a drizzle of the marinade. As a snack, two eggs with cold cucumber sticks is perfect, or slice one over a bowl of ramen or a salad.
Per
- Calories
- 96
- Protein
- (33%)
- 8 g
- Fat
- (57%)
- 6 g
- Carbohydrates
- (11%)
- 3 g
- of which sugar
- 1 g
- Fiber
- <1 g
- Sodium
- 206 mg
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Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 520 kcal goes into the pot and 529 g of ingredients comes out as about 540 g of food: 96 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.