Baked Scotch eggs combine two of my favorite keto protein foods - meatballs and hard-boiled eggs. They are easy to make, portable and delicious!
I'm always looking for tasty and easy to make snacks, ones that are keto, paleo, and ideally can be enjoyed on the go.
These baked Scotch eggs make a fun, tasty meal or snack. They're great for dinner, lunch, or breakfast, and can be enjoyed warm, at room temperature or straight out of the fridge.
What is a Scotch egg?
Traditionally, it's a snack that consists of a hard or soft-boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat, coated in bread crumbs and baked or deep-fried.
In my version, I bake the eggs instead of frying, and I skip the breading. Baking is so much easier than deep-frying, and the result is absolutely delicious. So I don't think you will miss the deep frying - or the breading - at all.
The ingredients you'll need
The list of ingredients for making this tasty recipe is quite short, thankfully (the exact measurements are in the recipe card below):
Eggs: I use large eggs in most of my recipes, this one included.
Lean ground beef: I wouldn't use extra-lean ground beef. I think it's too dry.
Kosher salt and black pepper: If using fine salt, you should reduce the amount you use, or the dish could end up too salty.
Spices: Garlic powder and paprika. Make sure they are fresh! A stale spice can easily ruin a dish.
Olive oil spray: To lightly spray the dish before baking it.
How to bake Scotch eggs
It's easy! Scroll down to the recipe card for the detailed instructions. Here are the basic steps:
If you don't have any premade, start by cooking some hard-boiled eggs.
Mix the ground beef with the spices. Form into four patties.
Place a hard-boiled egg in the center of each beef patty. Gently stretch the beef to wrap the egg.
Place on a baking pan fitted with a greased rack. Spray with oil and sprinkle with paprika.
Bake until done to your liking, 20-30 minutes at 400°F.
How to serve them?
They're usually considered a snack rather than part of a full meal. And needless to say, the unbreaded and baked version is the perfect keto and paleo party or game day food!
I also like them for my lunch the day after I make them, with salad and quick pickles. And sometimes I do serve them for dinner, warm, with a salad.
How these are different than the traditional recipe
The traditional deep-fried recipe is often considered as a highly processed snack. But it's easy to make a homemade version. Here's what I do:
1. I bake them instead of deep-frying. They are really good when baked, so I think it's worth it. Especially because baking is so much easier than frying!
2. Rather than using store-bought sausage, I use fresh ground beef and add my own seasonings.
3. To keep them keto and paleo, I use no bread crumbs in my recipe.
What about leftovers?
You can keep leftovers of these keto baked Scotch eggs in the fridge, in an airtight container, for 2-3 days.
Reheat them very gently, in the microwave on 50% power. But cut them in two before reheating, or the eggs could explode in the microwave.
Or simply enjoy them cold. I sometimes grab one straight out of the fridge and eat it cold, when I feel like a quick low-carb snack.
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Baked Scotch Eggs
INGREDIENTS
- 4 large eggs
- 1 lb. lean ground beef
- 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- Olive oil spray
- ½ teaspoon paprika
INSTRUCTIONS
- Cook the eggs: remove the eggs from the fridge. Fill a small saucepan with water and bring the water to a boil. Carefully lower the eggs, one by one, into the boiling water. When the water comes back to a rolling boil, turn the heat off, cover, and remove the saucepan from the heat. Allow the eggs to cook in the residual heat for 8 minutes, then pour out the hot water and fill the saucepan with cold water. Keep the cold water running while you peel the eggs. This method should result in very easy to peel eggs.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and fit it with a wire rack. Spray the rack with olive oil.
- In a medium bowl, mix the ground beef with the salt, pepper and garlic powder. Divide into four balls. Pat each ball into a round patty. Alternatively, you can use pre-formed beef patties and sprinkle them with salt, pepper and garlic powder.
- Place each egg in the center of each beef patty. Gently stretch the beef to wrap the egg, shaping and molding it with your hands, pinching together areas where it comes apart, until each egg is fully wrapped by a ball of beef. This takes patience, but is quite doable, so don’t give up.
- Place the beef balls on the prepared wire rack. Spray them with olive oil and sprinkle the tops with paprika – this will give them a nice color in addition to flavor.
- Bake the Scotch eggs until browned on the outside and done to your liking on the inside – I like my ground beef pink in the middle, so I bake them for 20 minutes. If you prefer yours more done, loosely cover the Scotch eggs with foil after 20 minutes and continue baking for 5-10 more minutes.
- Allow the baked Scotch eggs to rest 5-10 minutes before serving. Leftovers are very tasty cold, with some hot sauce or mustard. In fact, baked Scotch eggs make a perfect picnic food, or portable snack.
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Vered DeLeeuw, LL.M., CNC, has been following a low-carb real-food diet and blogging about it since 2011. She's a Certified Nutrition Coach (NASM-CNC), has taken courses at the Harvard School of Public Health, and has earned a Nutrition and Healthy Living Certificate from Cornell University. Her work has appeared in several major media outlets, including Healthline, HuffPost, Today, Women's Health, Shape, and Country Living.