Skillet Potatoes and Smoked Sausage
Sliced potatoes fried in sausage grease over a fire. Feeds a full camp out of one pan.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 14 oz
- cal / oz
- 44
- protein
- 22 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 30 min
- total time
- 50 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.
- Dinner
- Breakfast
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Canister stove
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Russet potatoes | 4 lb | peeled and sliced thin |
|---|---|---|
| Mild smoked sausage | 14 oz | sliced into coins |
| Hot smoked sausage | 14 oz | sliced into coins; use all mild if the camp objects |
| Salt and black pepper | to taste | |
| Red pepper flakes | a pinch | optional |
| Cooking oil | 2 tbsp | only if the sausage runs lean |
Method
- Peel the potatoes and slice them thin, about an eighth of an inch. Thick slices will not cook through before the outsides burn.
- Cut both sausages into coins.
- Set a 12-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat on a grate above the coals, or on a camp stove. Add the sausage.
- Render 7 to 9 minutes until the edges crisp and grease pools in the pan. Move the sausage to a plate and leave the fat behind.
- Add the potatoes to the hot grease in an even layer. Salt and pepper them. Add oil if the pan looks dry.
- Cook 20 minutes, turning every few minutes with a spatula. Slide the pan off direct flame if the bottom layer is browning faster than the top is softening.
- Return the sausage, add the pepper flakes, and stir once. Two more minutes to heat through, then serve out of the pan.
This is a heavy car-camp meal that lives or dies on grease management. Rendering the sausage first is not a shortcut for washing a second pan — it is where the cooking fat comes from. Smoked sausage gives up enough to fry four pounds of potatoes, and that fat carries the smoke and the spice into every slice. Pull the sausage out before the potatoes go in or it turns to jerky over the next twenty minutes.
Thin slices and heat control are the other half. Cast iron over a fire has no dial, so move the pan instead: closer to the coals to brown, farther off to let the insides soften. An adjustable grate makes this easy, a couple of flat rocks make it possible. There is nothing to rehydrate here and no water needed, which is why this stays a cooler meal rather than a pack meal.
Packing
Sausage rides in the cooler. Potatoes do not — keep them in a paper bag in a dark bin, since cold turns their starch sweet and they brown badly. Slice at camp, not at home; cut potatoes go grey in a few hours.
Variations
- A sliced onion added with the potatoes stretches the pan and sweetens the whole thing.
- Crack eggs into wells at the end and cover the pan for a breakfast version.
- Kielbasa or andouille substitute cleanly for the smoked sausage.
https://realtree.com/timber-2-table-wild-game-recipes/campfire-fried-potatoes-and-sausage