Fried eggs will be tastier when you add 1 simple ingredient chef loves to the pan with oil

If I have to say which is the easiest type of egg to perfect, it has to be a fried egg. Poached eggs are very hit and miss; sometimes they come out perfect, but other times I find that the yolk strays from the whites. Fried eggs are simple, you just heat the pan with oil or butter - I prefer oil - crack the egg, then bring the heat down to low and place a lid on the pan and cook until the whites are set and the yolk is still runny.

Having recently tried a few different ingredients to cook eggs like pickle juice, basil pesto and regular oil, my go-to is still just with oil. After spotting that Chef Rebecca from The Practical Kitchen likes using oil, but adds a seasoning to it to improve the flavour, I wanted to give it a go.

She recommends adding paprika to the oil before frying the egg, as it allows the seasoning to penetrate the egg white and egg yolk instead of just sitting on top. The flavour was good, but I'd recommend adding more paprika as one-eighth of a teaspoon, as recommended in the recipe, wasn't enough.

Since cooking a fried egg this way, I have actually used paprika twice; I just added more of it for a stronger flavour.

There are different types of paprika. I, like Rebecca, opted for mild and sweet paprika. However, there is always the option for smoked or hot paprika.

To cook the fried egg, all I needed was an egg, paprika, salt and oil. I like to use a spray oil as this helps me avoid adding too much and distributes it evenly over the pan.

Method

I started by heating my pan to a medium heat before adding the oil, not too hot, as this will burn the paprika.

Then, when the oil started bubbling, I added the salt and paprika to the pan. I would have added pepper, but I didn't have any to hand. Swirl to distribute. The spices will quickly sizzle slightly and become fragrant.

Next, I cracked the egg over where the oil and paprika had collected. I let the egg cook for a bit, until the whites started to set, before putting a lid over the top so the yolk could slightly cook.

The egg was cooked in just under three minutes, but during that time, I kept checking on it to make sure the egg wasn't sticking to the pan.

Using a spatula, I transferred the egg from the frying pan to a piece of toast, topped it with a little more salt and tucked in.