To save on time and washing up, you can cook scrambled eggs in the microwave. While traditionally made on the stovetop, you can whisk up some eggs, milk, butter, and seasonings in a jug, and place it in the microwave.
In a few short minutes, you’ll be serving up some piping hot scrambled eggs, ready to be eaten directly from the jug, on toast or potato waffles, or as part of a bigger meal.
But, how long do you need to put them in the microwave for? Depending on whether you like your scrambled eggs soft or hard, we try out a selection of timings to work out which is best.
We also let you know which power setting we used and whether we stirred the eggs mid-cook.
Scrambled eggs recipe (with prices)
- 12 mixed weight eggs, £2.15 from Tesco
- Bertolli Original, £2.85 from Tesco
- 4 pints of milk, £1.55 from Tesco
Optional
- Salt and pepper
- Chilli flakes
- Parsley
For this test, we didn’t use all 12 eggs or a full four pints of milk; we used three eggs for each attempt at our scrambled eggs. We also used a couple of the eggs to test how to poach eggs in the microwave, as well as using some to experiment with frying an egg in the microwave. In short, we’ve eaten a lot of eggs.
Getting the scrambled eggs ready for the microwave, we cracked three eggs into a measuring jug (you can crack them directly into a microwave-safe bowl), added a half a tablespoon of butter, and a splash of milk.
To make our scrambled eggs bougie, we also added a shake of salt and pepper, and a pinch of chilli flakes and dried parsley. Of course, you can add whatever you want to your eggs. Keep them plain, make them spicy, herb-y, cheesy, the world of scrambled eggs is your oyster.
Importantly, if you’re shopping on a budget, you can still make scrambled eggs. We did a meal plan and food shop for one under £15 and in it, we showed how you can still afford to buy a tray of eggs on a tight budget.
If you’ve already got milk and butter in your fridge, use those. If not, to make these scrambled eggs cheaper, swap the Bertolli (it’s what I had in my fridge already) to Beautifully Buttery from Aldi for £0.99, or buy a one or two pint bottle of milk instead.
Cooking scrambled eggs in the microwave: Timings
We did some research on what timings would produce different final products. Our goal was to produce two types of scrambled eggs: soft and hard. We set our microwave to full power for both types of eggs.
Let’s see what timings were needed to produce portions of each.
BBC Good Food says to microwave for 30 seconds, stir, and add 10 seconds each time until you get your desired scrambled eggs.
Milk and More, like BBC Good Food, says to start with 30 seconds. But then go on to microwave for another 30 seconds after stirring, then do 15 second increments until you get the finished cook you want.
The BBC recipe uses two eggs, the Milk & More uses four: since we’re using the middle number, we’ll aim for the middle of the timings.
For both soft and hard, we’ll start with 30 seconds.
Soft scrambled eggs
Eggs, milk, butter, and seasonings whisked, we put the jug into the microwave, set the timer to 30 seconds, and waited.
When the timer dinged, we removed the jug. The eggs were scrambled on the top layer, but underneath, the eggs were still liquid. After a good stir where we broke up the set egg in the top layer, we put them back in the microwave for a further 30 seconds.
After the next 30 seconds, the majority of the egg was cooked. We gave them a very thorough stir to make sure the heat was evenly distributed throughout. We left the scrambled eggs to stand in the jug while we buttered some toast. By the time that was done, the scrambled eggs were done: they were soft and fluffy, with no dry edges and no ‘rubbery’ texture.
- Total microwaving time: 1 minute
Hard scrambled eggs
Hard scrambled eggs are the sort you’d find in an all-you-can-eat buffet or an all-inclusive hotel. If soft scrambled eggs aren’t your preference, we did some testing to find the timings for hard scrambled eggs.
We repeated the first few steps above: 30 seconds, stir, 30 seconds, stir. But, rather than let the eggs stand after a minute, we put them back in the microwave for a further 15 seconds. After another good mix, we left them to stand in the jug (the heat continues to cook the eggs), sorted our potato waffles, and by the time we were done, so were our hard scrambled eggs.
- Total microwaving time: 1 minute 15 seconds
