Dutch Oven Breakfast Casserole
Sausage, eggs, and hash browns baked under coals while camp wakes up.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 11 oz
- cal / oz
- 56
- protein
- 31 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 45 min
- total time
- 60 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Breakfast
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Bulk breakfast sausage | 1 lb | |
|---|---|---|
| Frozen shredded hash brown potatoes | 1 bag, 30 oz | thawed overnight in the cooler |
| Eggs | 12 | |
| Bread | 4 slices | torn into pieces |
| Dry mustard | 1 tsp | |
| Butter | 2 tbsp | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Build a fire and let it burn down to coals, or light a chimney of briquettes. You want about 24 coals ready.
- Set the 12-inch oven over 12 coals. Melt the butter and brown the sausage, breaking it apart as it cooks. Leave the fat in.
- Spread the hash browns over the sausage in an even layer. Press them down. Scatter the torn bread over the top.
- Beat the eggs with the dry mustard, salt, and pepper. Pour over everything.
- Lid on. Move to 8 coals underneath and 16 on the lid. Bake 40 minutes.
- Rotate the oven a third turn and the lid a third turn the other way every 10 minutes so nothing scorches.
- It is done when the center is set and does not jiggle. Pull it off the coals and let it sit five minutes before cutting.
Camp breakfast for a crowd is a heat management problem, not a cooking one. The ratio that matters is two-thirds of your coals on the lid and one-third underneath. Eggs set from the top down that way instead of welding to the bottom.
The hash browns do double duty. They insulate the eggs from direct bottom heat and they soak up sausage fat that would otherwise pool. Bread pieces take up the rest. Rotating the oven is not optional — coals burn unevenly and a stationary pot gives you one scorched quarter and one raw one.
This one stays as written: it needs a cooler and a fire ring. There is no backpacking version of twelve eggs.
Packing
Sausage and eggs live in the cooler. Hash browns go in frozen and thaw on the drive, which is the point. Pre-beat the eggs into a screw-top bottle at home if you would rather not crack a dozen shells in the dirt.
Variations
- Swap half the sausage for a can of diced green chiles if you want it lighter.
- Shredded cheddar over the top in the last ten minutes, lid back on to melt it.
https://troop204cary.org/troop-cookbooks/troop-204-dutch-oven-cookbook