These warm, comforting Cheesy Potato & Bacon Scotch Eggs (Breakfast Scotch Eggs) are one of my favourite breakfast recipes! Perfect for snacking, for picnics, and for a warm and cozy start to a cold winter day.
Perfectly cooked eggs with a rich, golden yolk and then wrapped in a potato, bacon and cheese filling that’s deliciously seasoned with spices and herbs, then breaded and fried, are as close to breakfast heaven as you can get!
I love eggs for breakfast and brunch. I’ve shared a bunch of egg recipes on my blog before, because eggs really are a quintessential part of our breakfasts. Recipes like this classic quiche lorraine, sausage frittata, scrambled eggs, pizza egg muffins, bacon and egg pie, egg salad sandwich etc. are frequent guests in our house!
Breakfast scotch eggs
Traditionally, a scotch egg is a hardboiled egg, wrapped in seasoned sausage meat and then breaded and fried. It’s a simple meal packed with nutrition!
In this recipe, I decided to put a twist on the traditional and the result was these egg-tastic Cheesy Potato & Bacon Scotch Eggs, deliciously seasoned with spices and herbs! They are so damn fine you wouldn’t want to eat eggs any other way after this!
Originally scotch eggs came to be as a traveler’s snack, although that origin story is steeped in some mystery. A quick google search will tell you that a London department store called Fortnum & Mason invented scotch eggs in 1738, for posh/affluent coach travelers as a portable snack.
With time they moved down the social ranks and have now become very popular in Britain. An alternative theory claims that it may have been inspired by an Indian dish called nargisi kofta. Yet another theory argues that scotch eggs came to Britain from Africa, by way of France. But no where do they mention Scotland. Apparently scotch eggs are as Scottish as I’m Martian.
So why potatoes? That’s another nod to the anglophile in me. Bubble & Squeak is something I love to say eat for breakfast! You can check out my recipe for bubble and squeak (potato cakes) here, where I made it with potatoes, spring onions, red cabbage, carrots and herbs.
It’s sort of like the British version of hash browns (though not as crispy). I added cheese for some extra gooey, cheesy goodness and then bacon because… well, we all know why! For more similar potato/egg/hash breakfast combo recipes, check out my curried potato hash and steak and sweet potato hash.
One of those things that trip up home cooks sometimes is peeling an egg properly (especially a soft-boiled one). I’m sure you may have your own little trick for it. This is what works for me. 🙂
How to peel eggs properly
- I use slightly older eggs, because they pull away from the shell a little more readily than really new ones.
- Keep them in very cold running water or an ice bath (immediately after cooking), until they are cold enough to handle.
- Crack the egg all over, and peel it under a slow stream of cold water, letting the water get under the shell and loosen it up.
- I start peeling a small strip from the bottom (rounder part) to the top (pointed end) on one side, and then peel the rest of it, moving in one direction.
Like I said, I’m sure you have your own way, so feel free to use whatever trick that works for you. 🙂 But this is the technique I’ve used for years when making everything from ramen eggs to deviled eggs, Japanese egg salad sandwich etc.
How to serve Scotch eggs
For a meal, you could make two scotch eggs per person, to be served with a side salad. I served these with some caramelized chilli sauce, that gave these an awesome Asian twist too!
You can serve these with the spicy sweet chilli sauce I made, which is so easy to make, and would go perfectly with these scotch eggs!
How to make potato and bacon scotch eggs (with tips)
If you like a very runny egg yolk, then you need to softboil your eggs. If you like the yolk cooked further, boil your egg for an extra couple of minutes. This will make it easier to peel as well.
Wait until the potato, bacon and cheese filling has cooled down completely. Make four to five portions out of it. This filling makes enough for 4 eggs, with a generous filling wrapped around it.
It can be stretched out to make for 5, with a thinner filling wrapped around it. I usually go for 4 eggs, because 1 scotch egg with a side salad makes a very filling brunch for me.
Place a piece of saran wrap on the table and flatten out a portion of the filling on it as shown below. Flatten it out to a long oval shape.
Place the cooked egg in the middle, gather up the ends of the plastic wrap and wrap the filling around the egg as shown below. Make sure to spread the filling evenly and smoothly around the egg using the plastic wrap.
Now hold the ends of the plastic wrap in one hand and twist the egg with your other hand to make sure the filling wraps firmly around the egg. Since the potato mix is sticky, it should come together and be smooth.
Leave this in the fridge for at least one hour, or overnight, for the scotch egg to hold it’s shape. This is especially helpful when you are breading the scotch eggs.
I love using crushed cornflakes instead of regular breadcrumbs. It definitely adds a lovely crispy coating to these scotch eggs. You can use panko crumbs instead too and it will still be really crispy.
If you use regular bread crumbs that are really fine, I recommend a double coating, as a thicker shell/extra breading will be better.
Regular scotch eggs need to be fried (and then warmed in the oven), until the sausage filling is cooked through. With this cheese potato and bacon scotch eggs recipe, you don’t need to worry about that because the filling is already cooked through.
You only need to fry the scotch eggs until the coating is nice and crispy and the scotch egg is warmed through – only about 1 – 2 minutes!
Unlike traditional scotch eggs that have a relatively hard wrapping made out of sausage meat, these ones have a soft filling encasing that beautiful, rich, golden egg yolk that’s just set around the edges and runny in the middle.
And that filling is all bacon bits, potato, cheese, spring onions and herbs! How freaking fantastic does that sound? And they taste even better! And with a little drizzle of sweet chilli sauce on top – this is breakfast heaven folks!
Even if you’re the kind of strange alien who doesn’t like hardboiled egg or anything egg (I’m looking at you Guy Fieri!), you couldn’t possibly resist a perfectly cooked egg wrapped in all this deliciousness and then breaded and fried, could you? These are also great as snacks or picnic food or a light meal with a salad.
These scotch eggs are the kind of thing that makes me LOVE what I do! These are so damn awesome! This is quite possibly my favourite way to eat eggs now.
And Mr K goes crazy for these scotch eggs too. So much so that he often requests this on weekends.
Recipe video
Recipe
Potato and Bacon Scotch Eggs (Breakfast Scotch Eggs)
US based cup, teaspoon, tablespoon measurements. Weight measurements are recommended for accurate results whenever available.
Common Measurement ConversionsIngredients:
Filling
- 8 slices bacon Chopped, cooked and the oil drained
- 226 g potatoes boiled (leftovers are even better)
- 2 spring onions finely chopped
- 4 oz grated cheese something like cheddar, mozzarella, pepper jack or provolone
- ½ handful of parsley leaves roughly chopped (two tablespoons)
- 2 jalapeno chopped
- 1-2 tsp lemon juice to taste
- salt and pepper to taste
Scotch Eggs
- 4 eggs soft-boiled (Cooked in boiling water for 5½ minutes, peeled and cooled)
- 1 large Egg lightly whisked (egg wash)
- 3 cups cornflakes alternatively, 2 cups of Panko crumbs can be used as well
- ½ cup flour
- Oil to deep fry
Instructions:
- Place the boiled potatoes in a bowl and mash them up with a fork. The potatoes need to be lumpy, so do not use a ricer. However, if you have leftover mashed potatoes, they can be used instead as well.
- Add the bacon, spring onions, cheese, parsley, jalapeno and mix until well combined and the mix is moist and you can form a ball in your hands.
- Add salt, pepper and lemon to taste. Set aside.
- Bring a pot of water to boil. Place the eggs carefully in the pot and cover and simmer for exactly 5½ minutes. Remove the eggs, and place them in an ice bath to cool down.
- Peel the chilled eggs and place them on a paper towel and pat them dry. Do this carefully as the eggs are very delicate.
- Place a piece of plastic wrap on your table and then a ¼ of the filling on it. Using your hands, flatten it out to a long oval shape (roughly equal to the size of the egg in height and slightly longer than the circumference of the egg in width – see picture and video in post).
- Place the egg in the middle and gather the ends of the plastic wrap so that the egg is enclosed with the filling. Make sure the egg is covered evenly and smoothly with the filling. Wrap the eggs with the plastic wraps and chill them for about an hour. Repeat with all the eggs.
- Crush the cornflakes into crumbs. Set aside until needed (you can use Panko crumbs instead too).
- When you’re ready to serve, coat the egg with flour, then the lightly whisked egg, and finally with cornflakes crumbs. You may need to press the cornflakes into the coating for them to stick.
- Heat some oil (deep enough to cover the eggs) to 180°C/350°F (or until a small piece of bread dropped into the oil browns in 10 seconds). Fry 1-2 eggs at a time, depending on the size of your pan (do not overcrowd the pan). These scotch eggs only need to be fried 1 – 2 minutes per side, just until it’s crispy on the outside and warmed throughout.
- Flip them over gently halfway through frying. Remove from the hot oil with a slotted spoon when they turn a dark shade of golden brown in color, and let them rest on a paper towel.
- Serve warm with sweet chili sauce and a salad. Enjoy!
Nutrition Information:
“This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.”
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