Armadillo Eggs
Sausage dough wrapped around a cheese-stuffed jalapeño, baked in coals.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 7 oz
- cal / oz
- 89
- protein
- 32 g
- serves
- 7, scales
- prep
- 25 min
- cook
- 30 min
- total time
- 55 min
- water
- 60 ml cold
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Jalapeños | 12 | firm ones, no soft spots |
|---|---|---|
| Hot pork sausage | 2 lb | bulk, not links |
| Biscuit mix | 2 cups | dry, straight from the box |
| Shredded cheese | 12 oz | half goes in the dough, half in the peppers |
| Shake-and-bake pork coating | 2 packets | emptied into a zip bag at home |
| Water | a few tablespoons | only if the dough won't hold together |
Method
- Build a fire and let it burn down to coals. You want about 350°F in a 12-inch dutch oven, which is roughly 8 coals under and 17 on the lid.
- Pull the sausage apart into small pieces in a bowl. Add the biscuit mix and 6 oz of the cheese and work it into a dough with your hands. Add water a spoonful at a time only if it stays crumbly.
- Top and tail each jalapeño, cut it crosswise into two rings, and push the seeds and ribs out. Pack the remaining cheese into each ring.
- Flatten a handful of dough into a thin patty, set a stuffed ring in the middle, and fold the dough up around it. Pinch every seam shut and roll it into an egg.
- Drop each egg into the coating bag and shake until covered.
- Set the eggs in a single layer in the dutch oven and bake 30 minutes. They should be dark brown all over and the sausage cooked through — cut one open and check before serving the rest.
The dough here is doing two jobs. Sausage alone would shrink and split around the pepper; the biscuit mix binds it, absorbs the rendering fat, and holds the shape through half an hour of dry heat. Cheese in the dough as well as inside the pepper means the outside browns instead of drying out.
This one stays at the trailhead. It needs raw sausage, a cooler, a mixing bowl, and steady coals, so it is a basecamp or car-camping dinner and nothing lighter. Halving the peppers into rings rather than boats matters more than it sounds — a ring is easy to seal dough around, a boat leaks cheese into the oven.
Packing
Sausage and cheese ride in the cooler. Biscuit mix and coating go in labeled zip bags at home so you are not carrying boxes. Bring one mixing bowl and a cutting board; this is not a one-pot meal.
Variations
- Swap half the jalapeños for mini sweet peppers if the group has anyone who won't eat heat.
- No dutch oven: flatten them into patties instead of eggs and cook them in a cast iron skillet on a grill grate, turning once.
- Cream cheese in place of shredded in the pepper makes them richer and less likely to run out.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/armadillo_eggs-1401.asp