Çılbır (Turkish Poached Eggs with Yoghurt)

Çılbır is a delicious Turkish eggs breakfast or brunch dish that can be made under 30 minutes. Perfect for, and easy like Sunday morning!

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

What is Çılbır?

Çılbır means poached egg. And this is how you pronounce it.

Çılbır =chill -burr

It’s a dish that’s traditionally eaten for breakfast and brunch and is said to owe its origin to the Ottoman empire. But let’s face it, most Turkish dishes are a legacy from those glorious times.

Çılbır started life way back then as just poached eggs. But sometime at the turn of the 20th century, yoghurt was added as a base, and that’s what you have today.

Poached eggs sit on a lightly seasoned yoghurt base, with a generous drizzle of spiced oil.

You enjoy this dish with bread, whatever bread you happen to have at hand, will work. In Turkey, naturally, you’d have pide, but baguettes are also a huge favourite when eating çılbır.

Turkish Eggs Recipe

It’s a very straightforward recipe to cook up. This is what we’ll be doing:

1. Bring the yoghurt to room temperature at least 45 minutes before you plan on getting started on the recipe.
2. Season the yoghurt with garlic, salt and pepper. Then divide the garlicky yoghurt into 2 bowls.
3. Poach the eggs, one at a time and drain on kitchen paper, before moving them over to a warm plate.
4. When you’re poaching the last egg, make the spiced oil.
5. Lift the poached eggs and place 2 eggs in each bowl, in the yoghurt. You could also do 1 egg per person.
6. Drizzle the eggs and yoghurt with the spiced oil.
7. Finish off with some freshly ground black pepper, some dill or pinch of dried mint and some optional sumac.

Easy right?

Çılbır Ingredients

Let’s take a quick look at the main players in the recipe.

Eggs for Çılbır

You can use hen eggs or duck eggs to make Çılbır, it doesn’t matter. But what is important when poaching eggs is their freshness.

You want eggs that are as fresh as possible. This will mean a less runnier white, giving you a tidier and more compact egg white.

However, if this is not possible, break your egg into a strainer and allow the runnier egg white to fall through. This is the next best thing.

Never poached eggs before? Don’t fret. It’s pretty easy, and if it takes you a few attempts to perfect the method when making these Turkish eggs, it doesn’t really matter, does it?

We are aiming for eggs that have a firm white with runny yolk, that’s the mark of the perfect poached egg. More of this below.

Yoghurt

Any natural, thick yoghurt will work perfectly here. Greek yoghurt will have the perfect consistency, given its thicker nature.

In the recipe below, I’m giving the amount of yoghurt as 450g (1 lb). This is the weight of a large carton of yoghurt in the UK. Depending on where you are, get something fairly close to that amount, give or take is perfectly fine.

Oil and Butter

Whether you use butter or olive oil to make çılbır, is a matter of taste. In Turkey, you’ll find that some people prefer using just olive oil while others prefer just butter. Then, there are those, like me, who like to use a combination of the two for the best flavour.

I’m using extra virgin olive oil and salted butter. Any good quality olive oil will work perfectly.

What olive oil do I use at home? I always have about 3 bottles of unflavoured extra virgin oil at home. The stronger ones tend to be used for salad dressings and the like, as in the drizzle for today’s Turkish eggs.

I say unflavoured because we have a few homemade flavoured olive oils too. My youngest loves them on his pasta.

Chilli Flakes (Pul Biber)

To me, the beauty of çılbır is the contrast between the creamy eggs and yoghurt and the spiced oil drizzle, or chilli oil, because that’s what it is. So the chilli flakes I use have got to have some heat, otherwise, it just defeats the purpose.

You’ll see many suggestions for using Aleppo pepper for this Turkish poached eggs recipe. Aleppo pepper has got zero heat, its claim to fame is its mildness that’s comparable to that of a bell pepper. So you don’t want to use Aleppo pepper when making çılbır, unless you can’t stand any form of heat.

Traditionally, in Turkey, the chilli or pepper flakes of choice would be pul biber, which just means chilli pepper, as I mention in the Acılı Ezme article here. 

And there are varying degrees of heat level when it comes to pul biber, it all depends on what chillies went into making it. I tend to use medium hot pul biber to ensure that my Turkish poached eggs have a little heat to them.

Pul biber or even Aleppo pepper don’t have any seeds in them. The seeds are removed before the dried chillies are ground up.

So to me, because regular chilli flakes or red pepper flakes have seeds in them, the best substitute for pul biber or Aleppo pepper is coarsely ground chilli powder. Unless your red pepper flakes are seedless. Then knock yourself out.

US readers: chilli powder for most of the world is cayenne powder for you guys. Plain old ground up chili pepper with nothing added.

Sumac

An optional finish for your çılbır is a pinch of sumac. This adds tartness to the whole dish. I tend to skip the sumac as I prefer mine without it.

An easy sumac substitute is fresh lemon juice. You could even use lime juice.

Herbs

The traditional herb used for these Turkish poached eggs with yoghurt is either fresh dill or a tiny sprinkle of dried mint. You can use chopped up fresh mint too, if you prefer.

I am not a fan of dill, and I also don’t like mint on this. So I tend to go without either herb, but I shall leave this up to you. In the images, you see a tiny amount of dill, that’s purely for aesthetic reasons.

How to Poach Eggs?

It’s all well and good saying to get perfectly poached eggs, you need perfectly fresh eggs.

Not everyone is going to have access to super fresh eggs, nor want to get half a dozen more when you’ve already got a carton of them sitting at home.

So the solution? First, accept the fact that your poached egg isn’t going to be neat and “perfect”. Second, drain the poached egg using a medium mesh strainer to lose the really thin bits of egg white. Don’t fret, you only really lose about 1 teaspoon per egg.

ps: how to tell if your eggs are very fresh? Place one in a glass of water. If it lies horizontally at the bottom, it’s very fresh. If it floats or stands on one end, not so much.

To poach eggs:

1. Bring a pot of water (at least 5cm/2 inches high) to a simmer, not to a boil. Then turn the heat down to its lowest setting.
2. Break the eggs into a small ramekin or bowl (one at a time).
3. If your eggs are super fresh, you can skip the vinegar. If not, add a quarter teaspoon vinegar to the water.
4. Lightly swirl the water to create a whirlpool.
5. Gently drop an egg in the middle of the whirlpool, and leave to poach for 2-4 minutes, see below. If your eggs are super fresh, skip the whirlpool and poach 2 eggs at a time if you’re comfortable.
6. Use a slotted spoon and drain on a plate lined with kitchen paper (paper towel).

How long to Poach the Eggs for?

Perfectly poached eggs can take anything from 2 to 4 minutes. At 2 minutes, you’ll have very, very runny yolk, with white that is set but not overly firm. This is the way I like my poached eggs, but I have to handle them very gently.

At 4 minutes, you’ll have firmer yolk that’s still runny, but thick, with sturdy white which makes it easier to “manhandle” as you’re transferring the poached egg.

So 3 minutes will give you something in between!

How much oil to Drizzle on Çılbır?

This is a matter of preference. In the video and images, you’ll see that I practised some restraint and went for moderate.

But when I’m making it for myself on frequent Sundays, you’d be hard pressed to see the white of the yoghurt. Because it’ll be drowning in the chilli oil!

How to Serve these Turkish Eggs?

Çılbır is a breakfast or brunch dish. So you want bread, and lots of it. What bread should you use for these Turkish eggs? Anything you fancy.

Any flatbread (pide, pita or even naan), simit, baguette, any crusty bread, sourdough (especially good) – anything is going to work. Even the Persian barbari and the Levantine Man’oushe, both breakfast breads, will work a treat.

You just need something to scoop up the yoghurt and eggs. Then, when you have an empty bowl, to mop up the remaining yumminess!

And one of my favourite accompaniments for these Turkish eggs is Acılı Ezme, the Turkish tomato and pepper salad. I think they go incredibly well together.

And now, shall we get our aprons on?

Recipes mentioned in this Article

Acılı Ezme (Spicy Turkish Salad)

Acılı Ezme is a very traditional and spicy (or not) Turkish salad with tomatoes, peppers and parsley. It is perfect on any mezze or tapa table.

Get the Recipe!

Barbari

Barbari, crisp on the outside, light and airy on the inside is a favourite, traditional Persian flat bread. It is a popular bread for breakfast in Iran, and is served with any number of accompaniments like cheese, fruit, cream and nuts.

Get the Recipe!

Man’oushe (منقوشه), Lebanese Za’atar Flatbread

Man’oushe or Manoushe (as it’s also spelled) is a Lebanese street food, a popular breakfast that is eaten on the go, crispy on the outside, slightly chewy on the inside, and topped with the most aromatic of spice blends – za’atar.

Get the Recipe!