Jacques Pépin Browns His Deviled Eggs For Incredible Flavor

One of legendary chef Jacques Pépin's recipes is really having a moment again. A new generation has now caught on to his special dish, Eggs Jeannette — in French, Les Oeufs Jeannette — a recipe named after his own mother's creation of stuffed eggs and one in which Pépin claims is one-of-a-kind. Like many of Pépin's recipes, Eggs Jeannette is a pretty uncomplicated dish that doesn't take a lot of time, but has a ton of flavor. It's filling, satisfying, and can be served as an app or a main course.

While, at first, it appears that Pépin is just making classic deviled eggs (he hard-boils a half-dozen eggs, separates the whites from the yolks, mashes the yolk with some flavorings, and puts the mixture back into the whites), it's what he does next that makes the recipe truly unique. He cooks the eggs (again) in a pan. The result: Caramelized-looking bites that are crisp and warm and served with a tangy dressing. 

Eggs Jeannette reminds Pépin's long-time fans of what an artist he is in simple French fare, and shows his new followers what they've been missing from the legendary chef and author.

In a PBS video showing Jacques Pépin guesting on Lidia Bastianich's show, "Lidia Celebrates America," he explains that eggs were a staple in his household when he was a child and describes the different ways his mother prepared them. The French chef claims the family's favorite preparation by far was their mother's stuffed eggs, and then he gets to preparing them with Bastianich.

To do so, Pépin hard-boils six eggs and then cools them in a bowl of ice water. He then peels the eggs, slices each one in half lengthwise, and places the yolks into a bowl. Pépin mashes the yolks with some garlic, parsley, milk, salt, and pepper until a paste is formed. He and Bastianich then fill the cooked egg whites with the yolk mixture, flattening the tops. 

They then place the egg halves facedown in a hot pan coated with peanut oil and leave them untouched until they are browned. Meanwhile, Pépin mixes a little of the leftover yolk mixture with olive oil, vinegar, mustard, water, salt, and pepper until a salad dressing consistency is attained. The browned eggs are served face up on a shallow dish with the dressing on top. 

Easy and unique, the dish can be paired with a simple salad of greens and shaved parmesan, and some glasses of wine. Or, as Pépin tells Bastianich, "Serve with crusty bread as a first course or as a main course for lunch."

Jacques Pépin's eggs are, essentially, cooked twice: once when boiled and then again in the hot pan. There are dozens of ways to make deviled eggs, but unlike many of them, Eggs Jeannette is served warm. As such, you could take almost any recipe for deviled eggs and brown the tops in a pan, so long as the filling is flat and flush with the egg white so that the entire top lays flat in the pan; this is how you get a beautiful caramelization on the surface.

Of course, the first step in Eggs Jeannette is hard-boiling the eggs just right. This may seem like an easy task, but getting the temperature and the timing perfect is a fine science and will make all the difference. In the video of Pépin preparing the dish with Bastianich, he makes tiny pin holes in the bottoms of the eggs before he places them in boiling water. This step prevents the eggs from cracking once they're exposed to heat. 

Pépin says that the water should be at a light boiling point throughout the entire cooking process. If the water is too hot, you'll get tough egg whites. He boils them for nine to 10 minutes and immediately places them in ice water for about five minutes. If this is all done correctly, you should be able to spin the egg on a hard surface and it will stand up while spinning. Peel off the shell and you're halfway to creating Eggs Jeannette just like the pros.