The Pioneer Woman's Cooking Hack For The Best Sunny-Side Up Eggs

Scrambled eggs might be most Americans' preferred way of eating eggs, according to a 2019 survey by YouGov, but that doesn't discount other methods of preparing the popular breakfast food. While scrambled was the favorite of 36 percent of people polled, sunny-side up eggs received 12 percent of the votes (just behind over easy with 18 percent). The juicy golden orbs are delicious when cooked correctly, with a crispy fried exterior that gives way to the runny yolk of your dreams (perfect for sopping up with toast or hash browns, of course).

However, sunny-side up eggs can also be tricky to make — all too often you end up with a broken egg yolk or, worse, egg whites that are undercooked and slimy. Yuck. Fortunately, there's an easy to avoid the latter, and it comes to us from Food Network's Ree Drummond. Here's how The Pioneer Woman makes the perfect sunny-side up eggs at home.

There are all different hacks for perfecting sunny-side up eggs. But Ree Drummond says there's one in particular that she uses all the time. In her recipe for sunny-side up eggs, Drummond explains that it's all about what you do with the oil. She starts by pouring just enough oil in the bottom of the pan to just cover the edges of the egg when it's cracked into the pan. While you can use either vegetable or canola oil, the most important part is what comes next.

Drummond says that once she sees the egg whites start to turn white, she spoons some of the now-hot oil over the tops of the whites only (avoiding the yolk). The hot oil slowly cooks the top of the egg white so it doesn't end up slimy or runny. Once the egg whites are cooked so that they aren't jiggly, she then spoons oil over the yolk, too, to set the entire egg. So the next time breakfast rolls around, it's definitely worth trying this helpful hack.