If you are going to do one thing, then do it very, very well. And at Deviled Egg Co. in downtown McKinney, they do just that.
What Is It
The Deviled Egg Co. specializes in, wait for it, deviled eggs — a specialty that founder Raechel Van Buskirk honed in her native Omaha while running a small, local dive bar. Food wasn't served, so she suggested deviled eggs, thinking they'd be quick and easy. Before she knew it, she had a hit on her hands.
20 Different Flavors Of Deviled Eggs
Van Buskirk's repertoire grew from five flavors to 20 at her brick-and-mortar location, Deviled Egg Co. in McKinney (their HQ is in Dension, home to another location). Flavors include sriracha bacon, crab rangoon, buffalo chicken ranch and cheeseburger. All are delicious.
But while those made the cut, Deviled Egg Co. has R&D'd 150 different flavors, including some that worked and some that took time to get right.
"We've had a lot of young people working for us over the years, and so we would brainstorm during egg peeling sessions, and the younger high school kids would be like, do peanut butter and jelly, and so we'd try it over and over again, and we could not make it work," Van Buskirk tells Local Profile.
"Then at our headquarters in Denison, we could deep fry them," she continues. "So what we did is we decided to try it again, and we took the egg white, battered it in funnel cake, deep fried that, and then we did a peanut butter yolk with a grape jelly drizzle, and it was awesome." In total, that took three months of work.
What Makes Their Deviled Eggs So Good?
Deviled Egg Co. doesn't use preserved eggs but only high-quality ones you can taste. The whites aren't gummy, and importance is put on both flavor and mouthfeel. According to Van Buskirk, "We're finishing up a deal with Vital Farms Eggs, so we're going to use all-natural, free-range."
The Science Of Making Deviled Eggs
There is an art to cooking — any type of cooking. But there's also a science, based on tried and true processes. "We have like a template now where we know wet ingredients to sodium, and then, mouth feel," says Van Buskirk.
But before the eggs become deviled, they need to be peeled. For a Saturday, the McKinney location will sell between 2,000 to 2,500 eggs. All eggs are high quality and peeled by hand at their Denison headquarters. The secret? Peel them while they are hot and then put them in an ice bath to stop the cooking. Doing this step in reverse makes peeling them harder.
"When we originally started, we were doing our flavors in egg salad because we would have a lot of messed up eggs," says Van Buskirk. "Now, our waste is almost zero. I mean, every single egg peels perfectly. "We've done a lot of trial and error." Egg sizes and cook times are mapped out. There's even an egg-cracking production line. Local teens work cracking eggs. "We call them our chickens," she adds. "We train them on exactly how it needs to be done — we know that each egg should be peeled in 11 seconds."
Bringing Deviled Egg Co. To Texas
"We always wanted to be here, and our lease was coming to an end in Omaha and decided we wanted to move our headquarters to north of Dallas," says Van Buskirk, who relocated with her husband and co-owner Zach. The current operator of the McKinney location is Amber Novothy, also a Nebraska transplant, who started out as a chicken and worked her way up to general manager in Omaha.
For Those With Dietary Restrictions
All the eggs are gluten-free, with the exception of a few toppings. (Confirm when buying or ordering.) Do note that there is a cross-contamination risk because there are products with gluten in the prep area.
But Aren't Deviled Eggs More Of A Southern Thing?
"What's funny is everybody thinks it's their thing," says Van Buskirk. "We thought it was a Midwest thing." Midwest or Southern, Deviled Egg Co. does ship nationwide.
Deviled Egg Co. will be on Shark Tank on May 16. We thank the McKinney location for hosting and treating us!
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