Melted cheese, crispy hash browns, rich eggs, and wild turkey sausage make this dish a favorite in camp. But don’t wait to cook this over a fire — my family loves it so much we eat it for dinner at least once a month. Grinding your own wild turkey sausage (see below) is a fine way to eat your Spring bird, but this dish can also be made with any bulk sausage or ground meat.
You can use your dutch oven or any oven-safe skillet with a lid. I used my CampChef #12 skillet with the lid from my #12 dutch oven. Use less meat for a smaller pan. When it’s hot outside, I use my pellet grill and propane burner to do the cooking so I don’t heat up the house.
What You Need
Turkey Sausage:
- 1 pound of wild turkey meat (about one leg’s worth)
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes — more or less for heat
- Optional: a few cubes of pork fat
Breakfast
- 1 pound sausage
- 1 package shredded hash browns
- Cooking oil
- 1 dozen eggs
- 2-3 Cups shredded cheese
What You Do
Turkey Sausage
Start by slicing your turkey into strips and grind it with a course plate. Then mix in all the spices and grind it again with a finer plate.
Now the turkey sausage is ready to cook.
Breakfast
Start by preheating the oven to 400°F with the lid in the oven so it’s hot when you put the skillet in later.
Brown the sausage over high heat in the skillet or dutch oven you’ll use for the whole meal. Remember not to stir it too much or it won’t brown. Don’t overcook it now because it will continue to cook with the other ingredients.
Put a little more oil in the pan and add the hash browns and stir together with the sausage. Turn off the heat on the stove and don’t stir the hash browns anymore so that they can start to make a crispy crust.
Use a spoon and make small depressions around the outside of the pan and in the center to drop eggs into. Add as many as you like, but a dozen should fit in a #12 pan. Season the eggs with salt and pepper.
Cover it all with cheese, then place in the oven with the lid on.
You’ve got options for how long to leave it in the oven. The longer you leave it, the more the egg yolks will be cooked. If you like runny eggs, try 10 minutes — and this is really good with soft yolks. 15 minutes if you like them hard. The cheese should be melted and the edges should be a little crispy.
If you do it in a fire, be sure to add coals primarily to the top so that the eggs can cook.
You can serve it straight from the pan, and salsa and avocados are a nice pairing. If you have leftovers (unlikely) they reheat in the microwave well.
