Turkish Fried Eggs – my easy twist on Turkish Eggs. Cucumbery, herbed yogurt with an easy fried egg and lots of chili butter. I love to serve it with crispy rice, but it can be served with your favorite crusty bread or toasty naan or pita. I can eat this in a million ways it’s so delicious. And it’s visually gorgeous.
Home Cook’s Notes: Traditional Turkish Eggs
Traditional Turkish Eggs (Çilbir) is a simple and beautiful savory egg dish. It is made with perfect poached eggs over a bed of garlicky, tangy yogurt & drizzled with chili butter. Typically Turkish eggs are served with Turkish bread like Simit, or a rustic crusty bread to scoop everything up. Like my favorite Italian dishes, Turkish eggs have minimal ingredients but ends up being beautifully humble and delicious.
I amped it up just a little, but mostly kept things the same.
Ingredients Notes
- Tzatziki: Use your favorite store bought brand. I like to make sure the one I choose has good clean ingredients. But Tzatziki is something I almost always make myself. Like the traditional garlicky yogurt, this recipe is nice and garlicky but is also balanced with lots of fresh dill and cucumbers. It cuts through the fatty yogurt & eggs.
- Plain Greek Yogurt: If making your own tzatiki, A main part of this dish. Greek yogurt is deliciously tangy, creamy, fatty and packed with protein. I use full fat greek yogurt always, but you can use any % of your favorite plain greek yogurt.
- Eggs: If you love to poach eggs, by all means poach them. But I want to get this done in a short amount of time and make it easy for you, so we fry them in chili butter. I didn’t think you’d have any complaints about that part!
- Chili Butter: Traditionally made with Aleppo pepper, you can use that if you have it to make this butter. You can also use red pepper flakes. Make this first so that you can cook your eggs in the chili butter remnants on the pan.
- Crispy Rice: I always make this dish when I have leftover rice, so I love to make crispy fried rice to serve with this dish for texture. BUT you should use whatever you have on hand. Any bread you love works great, but I love lightly buttered and toasted naan as a second choice.
Herbed Yogurt & Crispy Rice
Do you have a ton of greek yogurt in the fridge? Or brown rice left over from your meal prep? Even leftover white rice from Chinese food! This is the PERFECT time to use them. I love the idea of combining leftovers and making a full, beautiful dish out of them. The herbed yogurt can be made with dill, basil, chives, parsley – any combination of herbs of you love. It cuts through the fatty yolk and protein with super fresh flavors. That is also why I added grated cucumber and garlic for a tzatziki vibe.
If you have never made crispy rice – it will be your new favorite side for eggs. White or brown rice work great. Cook until it is golden and crispy & eat it with anything, starting with these Turkish style eggs.
Connect with Me
I love these Turkish Fried Eggs because its very easy to make a lot of servings or just one. Lots of tzatziki, more rice in a bigger pan and extra eggs. When you make this one please let me know your thoughts or how you made it. Tag me on Instagram @quartersoulcrisis or comment below with a rating. I love hearing from you.
A Twist on Turkish Eggs (w/ Crispy Brown Rice)
Ingredients
- 2-4 large eggs
- 2-3 tbs chili butter
- 1 cup cooked & cooled rice or crusty bread, toasted naan
- 1-2 tbs avocado oil if making crispy rice
- 1 cup tzatziki
Tzatziki
- 3/4 cup greek yogurt full fat preferred
- 1/4 cup cucumber grated
- 1 small garlic clove grated
- 2 tbsp fresh dill chopped + more taste
- juice of 1/2 lemon *more to taste
- salt & pepper to taste
Chili Butter
- 2-3 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1/4 tsp smoked paprika
- pinch red pepper flake or cayenne for heat *add to taste, more if you like it hot!
- salt
Instructions
- Make Crispy Rice: oil into to small skillet. Add your rice and press down flat along the bottom of the pan like a rice pancake. We are going to cook this on medium heat 5-6 minutes or so until the rice is crispy and golden on the bottom & crisp all the way through. Flip it carefully and cook another 5 minutes until golden. Do not stir. Instead, use a spatula or spoon to occasionally press the rice flat while it cooks.
- Make Tzatziki: In a small bowl, add 3/4 cup plain tzatziki, chopped dill, grated cucumber, minced garlic & juice of lemon. Add salt and pepper and stir. Add more of anything you want until it's perfect. If using a big garlic clove, start with half. Add more lemon if you like it lemony, etc. If it's very yogurty, add some salt.
- Make Chili Butter: In skillet you are going to cook your eggs, make chili butter. Add unsalted butter, smoked paprika, red pepper flake, cayenne to skillet on medium heat. Melt butter and heat until starting to bubble (1-2 mins) & it's a gorgeous orange color. This will bloom your spices. Pour into small bowl or dish and set aside. Keep skillet off the heat & do not clean it off. Finally, fry your eggs in buttery spices.
- Finally, using same pan, fry eggs. In chili butter pan, crack however many eggs you are serving. Season with salt. Fry until whites are firm & yolks are runny. You can gently flip for over easy, but I love a sunny side up in this instance. Cook to desired doneness.
- Assemble: put tzatziki on the bottom of bowl & top with both eggs. Drizzle everything with chili butter. Add fresh herbs or cucumber slices if you’d like, maybe a squeeze of lemon. Add crispy rice on the side or in the bowl. Serve immediately.
Home Cook’s Notes
- Tzatziki & chili butter can be made ahead of time up to 5 days in advance. I love to make extra so I can have it for breakfast multiple mornings. Reheat butter in microwave in 5 second increments.
- Chili butter: feel free to use regular paprika, I just love the smoky flavor here. Any chili flake will do, traditionally it is Aleppo Pepper. If you have Aleppo pepper it is a lovely addition.
- Make the eggs however you want! Traditionally they are poached, but I love an over easy or fried egg and keeping with the same skillet the entire time.
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