Adorable Deviled Eggs

When I saw these absolutely adorable deviled eggs on Pinterest a while back, I literally squealed in delight. Last Easter, I made deviled eggs and gave them eyes and a beak with capers and pimiento, but they were in the traditional deviled egg configuration — cut in half the long way. I would have never thought to use a whole egg and make the “deviled” part look like a hatching chick. OK, I know, it’s more than a little macabre to make a deviled egg resemble a hatchling, but still … it’s cute, right?

These take a little time for the handiwork, but the actual steps are simple. I know there are many deviled egg recipes out there, but I like mine simple — with just mayo, some chopped pickles, and a dash of salt and pepper. You can add more seasonings (paprika, for one) if you like, but there’s how I made this:

Adorable Deviled Eggs

Ingredients

• Hardboiled eggs, cooled and peeled
• Mayonnaise
• Pickles, finely diced
• Olives, cut into tiny pieces (you’ll use the pieces as the chick’s eyes)
• Carrots, cut into tiny triangles (for the beak) — what I do is slice baby carrots, then divide each slice into quarters
• Salt
• Pepper
• Sharp paring knife

Instructions

Carefully cut a thin slice off the bottom part of each egg so that it will stand upright on a plate, taking care not to slice into the yolk. Discard or eat the slice of of egg white.

Next, slice through the egg about 1/3 of the way down from the top. Ideally, you should be into the yolk at this point.

With a small spoon, hollow out the top and bottom portions of the egg, depositing the yolk into a small bowl. Separate the deeper egg white “bowls” and the “caps” into different piles. Mash the egg yolk with some mayonnaise, diced pickles, salt and pepper. I don’t have exact measurements. For the yolk of eight eggs, I think I used two tablespoons of mayo, two teaspoons of pickles and a dash of salt and pepper. I eyeballed it, though, so I can’t say for sure. I would advise starting out with a small quantity of mayo; you can always add more until you reach the desired consistency.

Once you’ve mixed up the yolk with the remaining ingredients, use a small spoon to fill an egg white “bowl” (the bottom portion of the hollowed-out egg). Pile on the filling so that it protrudes from the top of the bowl.

Carefully place two olive bits onto the filling as “eyes,” and position a carrot triangle as a “beak.”

Then, set an egg white “cap” jauntily on top of the filling and place the finished deviled egg on a platter. Ta-da! A deviled egg chick, just waiting for you to devour it. 😉

Repeat until you’ve used up all your eggs. Enjoy!