Dutch Oven Potato Boats

You've probably seen these in the first Outdoor Cooking Magic Picture of the Week. You've probably also been wondering how to make these, and now I reveal the answer. They are actually pretty easy, with one exception, and they taste great. All they take is potatoes, sausage, eggs, some seasonings, and cheese. And a Dutch oven! They would be perfect for an addition to a dinner that you've cooked on the grill, or even as breakfast when you are camping. They are kind of like Dutch Oven Mountain Man Hash, but without the hash. They are:

Dutch Oven Potato Boats

The first thing to do is get some coals going for your Dutch oven.

While that is happening, get your potatoes ready. Use 6-8 good size potatoes. Some of mine where too small. Make sure they'll all fit in the bottom of your Dutch oven. Cook the potatoes. You can cook these in the dutch oven, or cheat, like I did, and cook them in the microwave. Normally I would try and cook everything outdoors (it always tastes better when you do that 🙂 ) but I was running out of light, so in the interest in time, I used the microwave.

When the potatoes are done, take a pound of sausage and start it cooking in your Dutch oven, stirring, and breaking it up so that it is somewhat crumbly.

While that is happening, take each one of your potatoes and slice them lengthwise in half. Take each half and cut 1/4" of the bottom off.

Now make hash cuts in the potatoes so that you can remove most of the white potato flesh. Don't cut all the way through the potato or it will be difficult to make the boats.

Take a spoon and spoon out most of flesh. The leftover parts of the potatoes are the hulls of the boats.

When the sausage is all cooked, add the potato flesh to the Dutch oven, mix well, and let it cook together, even browning if you can get that to happen. Add some salt and pepper to taste.

When the potato-sausage mixture is done (warm all the way through), remove Dutch oven. Put some coals on the Dutch oven lid to get is started heating up.

Start spooning the potato-sausage mixture into the potato boats. Don't fill them completely full. In fact, I'd suggest filling them just half full. If your boats are a little weak, you might want to put them into the Dutch oven before you start filling them, to reduce the handling needed.

Take 5-6 eggs, mix well, and then pour a little bit of the egg mixture into each of the boats. If you run out, beat another egg and continue. Spoon more of the potato-sausage mixture onto each of the boats, heaping it up.

Finally, sprinkle cheese of the top of each boat.

Put the Dutch oven back on the coals and put the lid back on. The heat from the coals on the lid should melt the cheese and the overall heat cook the eggs.

Let it cook until the cheese is melted and the eggs are done, probably around 20-30 minutes.