Keep this simple scotch egg recipe handy when you make them for your next party, because everyone will be requesting it after they devour a few.
Happy Friday, folks! Hope you had a great week and are ready to enjoy the weekend. Any fun plans? If you’re planning a Sunday game gathering, I have an awesome recipe for you.
You see these eggs wrapped in minced meat? These are called Scotch egg, a popular pub snack in England. Or so I heard. Never been to England, so don’t quote me on that. Anyway, I had my first Scotch egg when I was a student back in Mongolia, oh about 10 years ago. (Gosh, I feel old…) It used to be quite a popular menu item then. Since I moved to the U.S., I had forgotten about it until I saw it again on social media couple years ago. And it was time for me to recreate it in my own kitchen.
Every time I make these scotch eggs, I get ohs and ahs. It never fails to impress my guests. I had served them as an entrée and as an appetizer. Perfect either way.
Traditionally, scotch eggs are deep-fried. I don’t know about you, but for me, deep-frying is cumbersome process and I try to avoid it by all cost. Instead, I brown the breaded scotch eggs on high heat first, and then continue cooking them in the oven. This method yields equally delicious, crispy on the outside scotch eggs. The biggest challenge of making scotch eggs is preventing the meat from falling apart during cooking. Here is my tip to avoid this problem, carefully roll the “meatballs” between your palms squeezing out the air between the egg and meat and sealing the edges.
Now let’s talk about the hard-boiled eggs for a minute. In the recipe, I asked for hard-boiled eggs, but I thought I would share a few tips here. If you are serving these babies as a dinner entrée, you’re welcome to use soft-to-medium boiled eggs. I find hard-boiled eggs are best for appetizer version, less mess and easy to grab and go.
When you hard-boil the eggs, you don’t want to end up with rubbery egg whites with greyish ring around the yolk, right? Well, here is my fool-proof method. Place the eggs in a saucepan, add water to fully cover them and add 1 teaspoon of salt. Bring it to rolling boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes for hard-boiled eggs. Then immediately drain the hot water and place the eggs in ice-cold water to cool completely. I change the cold water couple of times.
My husband couldn’t wait for me to finish shooting these scotch eggs. He lingered around for awhile, and then impatiently reached for one mid-shoot. 🙂 I’m naming this image “Caught on camera”.
Impress your friends and family with these unusual, yet delicious scotch eggs. There are layers and layers of flavor, from crispy Panko coating, to flavorful savory beef and creamy soft egg. Topped with tangy, slightly spicy mustard sauce. So good!
Scotch Egg
Ingredients
- 4 medium hard-boiled eggs peeled
- 1 lb 450gr lean ground beef, or pork, or a mixture of two
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper sauce
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 medium egg beaten
- 1 cup Panko Japanese breadcrumbs
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
For the sauce:
- 2 tablespoons mayo
- 1 tablespoon sour cream
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper sauce
Instructions
- Place 4 eggs in the saucepan and add cold water to cover the eggs completely. Bring it to boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Pour off hot water and add cold water. Once cooled, peel the eggs and set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
- Beat the remaining one egg in bowl. Place flour and panko in separate bowls as well.
- In a medium bowl, combine ground beef, garlic, cayenne pepper sauce, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Mix everything until combined with your hands. Divide the meat into 4 equal parts. Flatten the meat patties and place hard boiled eggs on each one. Carefully shape the meat around the egg. Pinch the seams together and gently roll it between your palms for a minute or so squeezing out the air between the egg and meat and sealing the edges of the meat. Now, roll each meat-wrapped eggs in the flour, then dip them in the beaten egg, and finally roll them in the Panko.
- Heat the olive oil in the large skillet over medium high heat. Place the meat-wrapped eggs in skillet and brown slightly from all sides, about 1 minute on each side. Transfer onto the baking sheet lined with aluminum foil, or silicone mat. Bake for 15-20 minutes.
- For the sauce, whisk together mayo, sour cream, mustard and cayenne pepper sauce. Cut each Scotch egg into quarters and drizzle the sauce. Serve warm.
Tips & Notes
Nutrition
First time making these, what can I serve these Scotch Eggs with?
Thanks
Any simple green salad would work great, Helena. Hope you enjoy these scotch eggs.
I love these. To cut calories, Air Fry at 400°F for 15 minutes, turning once at about 7 minutes, until golden brown. My guests love these!
Awesome!!! So happy you and your guests loved these, Mateo. And thank you for sharing your Air Fryer directions. Super helpful!
I made these for an appetizer on Christmas Day. I doubled the recipe and they were so popular that I could have made even more. These were easy to make and turned and very tasty. The sauce for this is very good too – I will be using that on burgers, brats and chicken in the future.
Excuse me but scotch egg are wrapped in pork sausage meat not ever do we use ground beef in the uk
Hi, Joy! Hope I didn’t offend you with my version of scotch egg. I’m not particularly a fan of pork sausage, so I’ve always made it with ground beef, and I love it that way. And by no means I claimed it’s an authentic scotch egg recipe.
First time making these, what can I serve these Scotch Eggs with?
I like to serve this with vegetable side for a complete meal, like roasted broccoli, or sautéed mixed vegetables. Hope you’ll enjoy it, Prashika.
I just made your recipe for these for dinner tonight! They turned out wonderfully. It was surprisingly a lot easier than I thought it would be. Also, the sauce for these is perfect! Just the right amount of kick in it. Thanks for the great recipe!
Wonderful, so glad you enjoyed these. And thank you for coming back to leave a feedback, Emma. 🙂
Beautiful presentation! I’m looking forward to preparing this. What would the temperature and time be if using a fryer?
Hi, Ali. Unfortunately, I never tried deep frying my scotch eggs, but I think 350°F would be a good starting point. Good luck!
I really like your presentation on this. Often, when served as a main dish, Scotch Eggs just sit on your plate looking like a great big ball of meat. This has *much* more eye-appeal.
Yeah, it looks beautiful when it’s cut. Thank you, Renee!
I’ve heard of Scotch eggs, but never known how to make them. Thanks for making it look simple – what a fun appetizer or brunch item.
They’re so fun and people love them. Hope you make them soon. 🙂
just wondering if the scotch eggs could be made ahead of time, refrigerated and reheated?
also what temperature do you serve them at ?
The only problem with cooking them in advance and reheating is that they won’t have nice crispy outside. I think you can brown them on the skillet and refrigerate for up to a day and bake them right before serving. (<- I've never done this before though.) They are good served hot as well as at room temperature. I even snacked on them right out of fridge as well. 🙂
traditionally these are kept in the fridge and eaten cold
Also all the extra ingredients is a lil ridiculous. I learnt how to make these (the REAL Ones ) from my Scottish grandmother .and the only required ingredients are eggs, sausage mince, salt pepper, breadcrumbs and an extra egg for coating and crumbing
Hi, Siubhan! It’s so awesome you’ve got to try authentic scotch egg. I bet it’s amazing! I can’t, and I don’t claim my version as authentic by any means, as I’ve never tried authentic one. This is just my version, customized to my liking. And you’re right, when using sausage, you really don’t need extra seasonings as I have, but in my case it’s necessary as I’m calling for plain ground beef and you have to season the meat for flavor. Thank you for your input!
Hello Shinee. Thanks for taking your valuable time and sharing your recipe… Yours sound amazing, and will be making them on the 17th. BTW, your ingredients sound awesome together, NOT ridiculous at all. Thank you again for sharing.
Hi, Allen. Thank you so much for your sweet comment. I really appreciate that and hope you’ll enjoy these scotch eggs as much as we do.