Healthier Scotch Eggs (oven baked)

This is a healthy twist on the traditional scotch egg recipe, which is oven baked rather than deep-fried.

It’s not only much healthier than the original recipe, it’s also useful to know if you don’t have a safe deep frying pan or equipment.

Scotch eggs are great as a nutritious snack, full of protein, good fat and minerals (thank you chickens!). It’s also a great food to take for a long walk, picnic or mid night fridge raiding!

Once you make the recipe once, you can easily change the flavour of the scotch eggs by using a different sausagemeat, swap around the herbs (or not use any if you like).

Why make this recipe?

• Oven baked – no frier or other equipment needed
• Healthier than original recipe (no dripping fat)
• Make different sausagemeat mix every time to get a different flavour

PIN THIS RECIPE FOR LATER

MORE EGG RECIPES

• Mini Omelettes >>
• Chinese Marbled Tea Eggs >>
• Egg white turkey omelette >>

This recipe & me

I have to say, that the reason for making these was more the fact that I didn’t want to waste a large amounts of oil, getting burned with hot oil splats and setting the fire alarm on, rather than the health reason.

But once I’ve tried them, I thought they tasted much better than the supermarket version, my other half sometimes buys. The shop-bought ones are so dry, and they often don’t have much flavour to them.

What exactly is ‘Scotch Egg’?

Scotch egg is hard boiled egg, that is wrapped in sausage meat and bread crumbs, which is traditionally fried. It’s eaten cold as a snack, often with sandwiches, crisps, pickles or bread.

Any specialist equipment needed?

You don’t need any specialist equipment for this recipe – only oven to bake your scotch eggs and large saucepan to boil them first.

Allergies & dietary requirements

This healthy Scotch Egg recipe includes meat and gluten and as such is not suitable for vegetarian and vegan diets.

You can easily swap the regular bread crumbs for gluten-free ones, which would make this recipe gluten-free.

I’ve not tried this recipe with plant based meat replacements, but can’t see a reason, why it wouldn’t work.

MORE EGG RECIPES

• Traditional Irish Potato Omelette >>
• Pizza Omelette with Vegetables >>
• Tofu & Scrambled Vegetables >>

Ingredients & Possible Substitutions

• eggs
• sausagemeat – fresh and un-cooked – any type is fine (e.g. mixed, pork etc.)
• parsley – fresh if possible
• mixed dried herbs – rosemary, parsley, chives or similar herbs shop bought or home dried herbs
• sea salt – or flavoured salt
• pepper –  freshly milled if possible
• breadcrumbs – home prepared or shop bought from a regular bread or gluten-free

HOME MADE SALT & SPICES MIXES YOU CAN ADD IN

• Chilli Spice >>
• Guacamole Spice >>
• Everyday Seasoning Salt & Spice Mix >>

How to make oven baked scotch eggs

Boil enough water in a saucepan to submerge the 4 eggs and hard-boil them by placing them carefully into boiling water and boiling for about 10 minutes.

To stop the boiling process (and to get the shells easily off) pour cold water into the saucepan and leave to cool down.

Once completely cold, shell your eggs and keep to one side.

Whilst your eggs are cooling down, prepare the outer layer of your scotch eggs, by mixing together the sausagemeat, parsley, herbs and egg white. Season with salt and pepper to your liking.

Divide the sausage mixture into 4 portions, flatten them with your hand and wrap them around the eggs. If the sausage meat mixture tears a little, you can easily patch it up with spare sausage meat.

Roll the eggs in dried breadcrumbs to coat them completely. Re-roll if necessary.

Place on a tray and chill in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. This helps to form the scotch eggs and they are less likely to go out of shape when you bake them.

Preheat oven to medium heat – Gas Mark 5/190°C/fan oven 170°C/325°F.

Put the eggs on a baking sheet, leaving a bit of space between them and bake for 25 minutes, until golden brown and slightly dry on the top.

Recipe size

This recipe makes 4 oven baked scotch eggs as a snack for 4 people or more substantial snack for 2 people.

Can I scale up or down this recipe?

Whilst I don’t think it’s very economical to scale down this recipe and make just 2 eggs, it’s perfectly possible. Just half all the ingredients and follow the recipe as is. The baking time will be the same.

You can save heating up the whole oven just for 2 eggs, by planning ahead and the eggs in when you are baking other savoury dishes, that need the same temperature – around 180C or 350 F. The 10-20 degree difference will be fine.

This means that you can bake rolls, smaller breads or cook dishes such as lasagne or au gratin potatoes at the same time, saving the energy (and your money!) at the same time.

To scale up this recipe, simply double, triple etc. all the ingredients and get baking!

These scotch eggs are perfect for large parties, and gatherings and they can be also kept for up to 5 days in the fridge if you have any leftovers.

Can this recipe be made in advance?

These oven baked scotch eggs can be made up to 1-2 days in advance (if you are planning a party).

I would still want to serve them as fresh as possible, but making these a day ahead of when you want to eat them, it’s perfectly fine.

How long are oven baked scotch eggs going to last?

Your scotch eggs will be fine for up to 3-5 days (stored in the fridge) or you can freeze them for up to 3 months (the texture might not be the best after defrosting).

How to prepare homemade breadcrumbs

What’s quite important is to get the breadcrumbs right. If you make them at home, make sure it’s from a good bread (not the pappy light white bread), such as sourdough, homebaked rye bread or other artisan bread.

HOMEBAKED BREAD RECIPES YOU CAN USE FOR MAKING BREAD CRUMBS

• Traditional Irish Soda Bread without buttermilk >>
• Wholemeal Bread made with Beer >>
• Easy to make No-Knead Bread >>

Making bread crumbs – natural drying method

I prefer to crumble a few slices of my chosen bread first (you can use bread that’s old, but not mouldy) and leave them to try on a tray with kitchen paper towels.

You can place the tray somewhere where it’s a little warmer such as on direct sun light (inside your kitchen) or close to a warm radiator or other heat source.

Once they are a bit drier, you can make them finer by using your fingers or giving them a few rounds in a mixer to make them even finer.

I don’t really think, it’s a problem if you end up with slightly rougher breadcrumbs as they will form a better layer on the sausage meat and stick better than finer crumbs.

Once completely dry, keep them in a paper bag until you want to use them.

If you keep them somewhere warm, they will be fine for a month of so (the paper bag is breathable, so you’ll be essentially just drying them).

You can also freeze your homemade crumbs and keep them in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Making bread crumbs in the oven

Drying your breadcrumbs at home usually takes a couple of days, but if you want to speed up the process, you can also dry them in the oven on very low heat (say 80-100C) for 10-15 minutes or so.

Keep checking your tray and turn the breadcrumbs regularly to make sure they don’t bake too quickly.

Making bread crumbs without food processor

If you don’t have a food processor you can easily make your breadcrumbs by drying the bread first (cut up or torn in several small pieces).

Afterwards, you can put the bread in a strong plastic bag and using a rolling pin to crush the breadcrumbs until you get fine breadcrumbs.

How to you keep Scotch eggs from splitting when cooking?

There are a couple of ways to prevent this from happening. First of all make sure, that the sausage meat mixture covers all the egg and that there is even coverage.

The next tip is to make sure that you leave the eggs to rest in the fridge for at least 10-20 minutes before you bake them. This helps to firm up the sausage meat.

What goes well with scotch eggs?

I don’t have to tell you that you can eat them as they are! But if you want to make your scotch eggs affair a little fancier, here is what goes extremely well with scotch eggs.

• Pickled Gherkins >>
• Mustard or Mayonaise, Brown Sauce
• Yum Yum pickles or Piccalilli
• Leafy salad to serve with
• Crunchy pickled watermellons >>
• Serve as part of a ploughman’s lunch (chunky bread, pate, cheese, chutney, apples etc.)
• Pickled Onions >>

What flavours can you add to scotch eggs sausage meat?

As I mentioned in my recipe, you can use pretty much any type of sausage meat – flavoured or not and any type of meat.

Each will have a slightly different flavour, which makes it more interesting. You can also add cut up pieces of bacon, black pudding or chorizo sausage.

Instead of herbs, you can play around with savoury spices, such as curry powder, mild chilli or smoked paprika. Always add only a small pinch so that you don’t overpower the meat flavour or make the scotch eggs too spicy!

Can I freeze oven baked scotch eggs ?

Yes, you can freeze scotch eggs safely for up to 3 months (6 months maximum). The potential problem is that freezing the eggs will cause their texture to change a little and they might become a bit rubbery.

Still if it’s a choice between throwing the scotch eggs and freezing them (with a bit of a flavour change), I’d still go for freezing instead of wasting any food.

To freeze your homemade oven baked scotch eggs, first leave them to cool down completely. Then I wrap them up individually into a cling film or other freezer suitable plastic. Even if you use a large bag make sure that the eggs don’t touch each other.

This will allow you to freeze them individually and take them out individually too. This way, you can take out only what you need without having to defrost a large batch of these eggs.

To defrost your scotch egg, simply take it out the night before you want to eat them and leave them to defrost slowly in the fridge overnight (or at least for 5-8 hrs).

This blog post was originally written on 14 September 2020 and last updated on 15 February 2023