I Made 6 Types of Deviled Eggs and the Tastiest One Truly Surprised Me

With Easter around the corner, I’ve got eggs on the brain. I love decorating them and hiding them in the yard for little ones, but mostly I’m excited about eating them. After the year we’ve been through I thought it might be fun to switch things up a bit, so I went on the search for the best deviled eggs recipe I could find. 

You probably have a go-to deviled egg method that you rely on, but the real beauty of this snack is how versatile it can be! And we could all use a little more variety in our life right now, eh? With that in mind, I decided to test out a few of the most popular and interesting deviled egg recipes I’ve seen floating around. 

Of course, they all start the same: hard boil a bunch of eggs. I used my Instant Pot ($79.00 [Originally $99.95], Amazon) to make several eggs at a time using the 5-5-5 method. The traditional stove top technique works just fine if you don’t have this kitchen gadget, but it can involve a lot more guesswork.

Once I had several bouncy, boiled eggs peeled and ready to go, it was time to really get started. Here are the six deviled egg recipes I tried:

How to Make Classic Deviled Eggs

I used the New York Times’ recipe for this old school method. It features all of the ingredients you expect for deviled eggs: the yolks, a hefty dollop mayo, a bit of dijon mustard, dashes of Tabasco for heat, salt and pepper to taste, chopped up chives, and sprinkle of smoked paprika on top. The recipe is exactly what it claims to be: a perfectly lovely classic deviled egg. The flavor took me back to all of the ones I’ve enjoyed at family get togethers over the years. That said, I still wanted to push this eggy envelope a little further.

How to Make Buttery Deviled Eggs

This was the first recipe to surprise me with its twist on the classic technique, but it comes from cooking icon Julia Child, so I knew I had to give it a shot. The ingredients still call for yolks and mayo, but blended with softened butter instead of any type of mustard. Childs has a lot of recommendations for what you can add to that mixture (lobster, anyone?), but I went for her herby suggestion of chopped chives and “decorated” with parsley on top. The butter definitely gave this filling a creamier, more luxurious consistency that I enjoyed a lot — but was still lacking any real punch of flavor.

How to Make Fried Deviled Eggs

Delish’s fried deviled egg recipe has been saved on my Instagram account for awhile now, so I was extra excited to test it out. Unlike the others on this list, it obviously isn’t the filling that makes it stand out, but the fried egg white. They recommend a standard fry method: dredge the egg white in flour, then in raw egg, then in Panko crumbs. I will admit my first attempt at this ended in seriously singed eggs. However, even when I did get the golden brown you look for in a fried food, I was a little disappointed by how unevenly the Panko crumbs clung to the egg, but there was still a nice crunch to the bite. The suggested filling also had a slight twist on the classic recipe: a dash of sour cream. I could taste that zestiness through the yolk, mayo, dijon, and hot sauce — and it helped to cut back on the richness of the fried egg whites quite nicely.

How to Make Fried Deviled Eggs with BBQ Sauce Filling

Since I already had a few fried egg whites, I decided to try an extra type of filling to go inside. This one from Food Network stars Patrick and Gina Neely seemed like the perfect fit with the addition of BBQ sauce to the mix of yolks, mayo, mustard, and dashes of hot sauce. I didn’t have any scallions to slice as garnish, but subbed in some of my leftover chives. The slight sweetness of the BBQ sauce made this taste like a southern-fried dream! I’m not sure it would work as well on non-breaded eggs, but this is a pairing worth trying. 

How to Make Deviled Eggs with Pickles

The Pioneer Woman doesn’t just chop dill pickles up to add to her filling mixture of yolks, mayo, yellow mustard, white vinegar, a pinch of sugar, and hot sauce — she adds in a bit of the pickle juice, too. The result is an unsurprisingly tangy and slightly crunchy deviled egg filling. If I made this again, I’d probably go without the pinch of sugar. I gave it a taste before adding that ingredient and the pickles alone aren’t so tart that they need to be tamed with sweetness, especially with the touch of white vinegar included. If you are a family of pickle fans, this is probably the recipe for you!

How to Make Pickled Deviled Eggs

I have never eaten a single pickled egg before this experiment. That’s obviously because they don’t have the best reputation, but the recipe I found on the Kitchn made it sound like a lovely mixture of slightly sour flavor with a creamy center. So, I let a few of my eggs sit in a brine mixture of pickled beets, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, whole peppercorns, and salt overnight in my fridge. When I popped them out the next morning, they were a delightful shade of pink — and tasted really good. I also liked their filling mixture of yolks, olive oil, mayo, dijon mustard, curry powder, and splash of white vinegar. 

The Best Deviled Eggs Recipe

If you told me which one I would end up picking as the winner of this eggy experiment when I started, I would have probably cringed — but the beet-pickled eggs totally take the first place spot! Not only do they pack a whole lot of amazing flavor, but they are a festive color that make them all the more fun to eat.

Second and third place would have to go to the fried with BBQ sauce recipe and Julia Childs’ buttery filling. Although the latter left me wanting more of a palate-pleasing kick, the base is so easy to create and I can see myself adding more than just herbs to punch things up a bit. 

But you don’t have to take my word for it — go ahead and test the recipes for yourself, or brainstorm your own yummy way to serve up some deviled eggs! The sky’s the limit for this crowd-pleasing snack.

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