Turkish Eggs Recipe (Cilbir)

What Are Turkish Eggs?

This is one of the most popular Turkish breakfast recipes. It is also known as cilbir, cilbur or çılbır (pronounced chil-bir).

Çılbır is an authentic Turkish style poached egg recipe. Poached eggs placed on garlic flavored Greek yogurt and then drizzled with a spiced hot butter sauce. Greek yogurt and spiced butter sauce can make any dish taste so good. Right?

As Turkish people, we have a weakness against garlicky yogurt and spicy butter sauce. Remember Turkish manti dumplings? We serve them with these two sauces too. YUM!

Turkish eggs with Greek yogurt recipe is one of those super quick recipes that people make when they don’t have enough time to make a complicated lunch or dinner for their family.

Oh and they also make it when they don’t have many things in the fridge because you can always find the ingredients of cilbir in a typical Turkish or Middle Eastern kitchen.

Why We Like It

• It is one of the easiest Turkish dishes.
• It requires affordable, simple and healthy ingredients like Greek yogurt and eggs.
• It makes a perfect quick breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner.
• It is soooo tasty and satisfying. Everyone LOVES it! 

Ingredients

Yoghurt: Use plain yogurt or thick Greek yogurt. You can use the ones sold at the market under the name "Greek style yogurt" if you want to go with a store-bought product. Just make sure it is unsweetened and not flavored.

Garlic: We use just one clove to flavor the yogurt. Garlicky yogurt is used when serving Turkish manti too. The spiced butter on manti is very similar too. So çilbir is giving you a feeling of manti, Turkish dumplings.

Fresh dill: It is completely optional but highly recommended. In a classic Turkish eggs recipe, yogurt is just mixed with salt and mashed garlic. But the flavor of fresh dill matches wonderfully with this yogurt mixture, so we think you should stir in some chopped dill. Other fresh herbs like parsley or mint would work too.

Eggs: Use the freshest eggs you can find. It is one of the secrets of perfect poached eggs. If you don't think the eggs you will use are fresh, crack them in a finemesh strainer to drain the watery white. This method is explained in detail below.

Vinegar: This is an ingredient that is not directly used in this Turkish eggs recipe. We use vinegar in the poaching water just to help egg whites set firmly. So it is not in the dish itself and you won't taste it at all. We prefer a light-colored vinegar so that it doesn't change the color of eggs.

Butter: We use unsalted butter to make the sauce. We combine it with olive oil but you can use butter alone if you want.

Spices: We use Turkish pul biber (red pepper flakes), which has a nice mild heat and a subtle tangy flavor. You can use Aleppo pepper or crushed chilli flakes instead. In addition, we use a little paprika for its amazing color and flavor. 

We know the combination of Greek yogurt and eggs sounds weird to most of you. If you know the right way to get them together, you will be addicted. Trust us and give this amazing Turkish egg recipe a try! 

How To Make This Cilbir Recipe

Although the recipe is ridiculously easy, it’s important to know one important tip: Bring the eggs and yogurt to room temperature.

The recipe has 4 parts:

1. Make the Yogurt Bed: Mix together Greek yogurt, mashed garlic and salt. Optionally add in chopped fresh dill and put it aside.

2. Poach The Eggs: If you don't know how to poach eggs, here is how we do it. Put a finemesh strainer over a bowl. Crack one egg into it. Swirl it gently so that the watery part of egg white drips into the bowl below. This step is to prevent the whites from dispersing in the water and you will have better looking poached eggs. Repeat this for the second egg and gently transfer the eggs into two separate small bowls or ramekins. Put them aside.

3. Fill a medium saucepan with water over medium heat. When the water is just about to simmer and you see small bubbles in the water, add in vinegar. Gently slide the eggs in small bowls one by one in the water. Reduce the heat and don’t let the water boil. Cook for 2-3 minutes, until the whites are set and yolks are runny. 

4. Using a slotted spoon, remove the poached eggs from the water and place them on a plate. 

5. Spiced Butter Sauce: Melt the butter in a small saucepan until it is foamy. Add in olive oil, red pepper flakes and paprika. Give it a stir and let them heat for 5-10 seconds. Remove from the heat. 

5. Serving: Put the yogurt mixture in a bowl. Place the poached eggs on it. Pour a generous amount of peppery butter sauce over these. Sprinkle chopped fresh dill and red pepper flakes. Serve immediately with some toasted bread. Serve immediately. This is not a recipe that you can make ahead of time.
6. If you want to get creative with this Turkish egg and yogurt recipe, you can whisk the yogurt with some beyaz peynir or feta. The tanginess of feta will make it taste richer. Also, you can sauté some spinach and place it on the side of poached eggs.

Expert Tips

• Bring the yogurt to room temperature before starting to make Turkish eggs çılbır. If you forget to remove it from the fridge in advance, you can warm the yogurt in a heatproof bowl placed over simmering water, just like you melt chocolate.
• If you want to serve for two, share the yogurt mixture into two shallow bowls and place a poached egg on each and then drizzle the butter sauce over each bowl.
• Don’t add salt to the poaching water or on eggs when they are in water. This will make the egg whites disperse in the water. 
• Prepare the eggs before starting to poach. If you are planning to use more than two eggs, use the finemesh strainer method explained above for each of them and put each egg into a separate small bowl and put them aside. 
• For more than two eggs, either use a large pot or preferably, poach them in two or three batches. 
• We use a light-colored vinegar to prevent egg whites from dispersing a lot in the water when poaching. You don’t feel the taste, so don’t worry.
• You can substitute lemon juice for vinegar if you want.
• If you want, you can cut off the unwanted parts of egg whites before placing them on the Greek yoghurt. 
• There is no way of storing cilbir. So we recommend that you serve it immediately. 
• When making the spiced butter sauce, be careful not to burn it. After the butter melts, immediately add in olive oil and the peppers. The sauce is ready after 5-10 seconds.

Serving Suggestions

Turkish eggs are best when you eat them with some toasted bread. Toast a few slices of sourdough bread or a baguette when poaching eggs. Don’t let them get too crunchy though. You want your bread to absorb some egg and yogurt when you dip it into the dish. In Turkey, people enjoy it with pide ekmek or simit.

Another option when eating Turkish eggs: Chop some pide bread and put them in a shallow bowl. Pour yogurt mixture over them. Place poached eggs over it, drizzle with butter sauce, sprinkle the herbs and serve.

FAQs

More Turkish Recipes

• Cacik (Turkish Yogurt and Cucumber)
• Lahmacun
• Bazlama

You might also like: