Breakfast on the Egg - Grits & Sausage Casserole

Happy New Year to everyone!

I’ve been stir frying my way through the end of the year, but nothing real new or exciting there, so I haven’t been posting pictures. We’ve been having a mild and low snow winter so far. Yesterday morning the air temp was 12 degrees (-11C) and I wanted to come up with something to make for breakfast, so I could get some cold weather practice in on the Egg. I finally settled on the recipe Stone-Ground Grits & Sausage Casserole from The Big Green Egg Cookbook. Better yet other than the grits and sausage, I had everything around. Now I love grits, having discovered their wonder on several trips to Atlanta. But around here most folks probably think grits are the dirt you find when you clean under your couch cushions. I wasn’t sure I’d even be able to find grits of any kind at the supermarket. I couldn’t get the slow cook variety, my choice was either instant or a so called quick cook that cooked up in 5 minutes. I settled for the quick cook and adjusted the water to grits ratio away from what the recipe called for for the slow cooked version, to something closer to what the box called for. Other than the grits cooking in 5 minutes vs. 30 minutes it worked out fine. The other change I made, this time by choice and not necessity, was to use ground sausage instead of sausage links I grind up. Same results & far easier to cook . 

Before moving onto the pictures, I’ll talk about the end results. Other than me being colder if I left my jacket in the Kitchen, grilling at 12 degrees (-11C) was no different than grilling at any other temperature I’ve grilled at. The instant grits worked out fine, they just moved things along quicker. I plan to keep looking for the stone-ground slow cook grits. The end results were great and it made for a hearty brunch. When I finished eating the casserole dish was still hot and I had an idea. I called my parents to see if my mother had done anything about their lunch yet. She hadn’t, so I put the dish of grits in a food warming bag and brought them over. My dad lived in Tennessee for a number of years and he loved them. He said it reminded him f things they used to do to grits down there. Both he and my mom had two big portions and I left them with half the leftovers. So the meal was a success all around.

The ingredients are gathered: ground sausage, a stick of butter cubed, chives, salt & pepper, panko, heavy cream, white cheddar cheese, & grits.

The grits are cooking on the back burner & the sausage is browning on the front burner.

The grits are done and almost all of the water has been absorbed.

The butter & chives are folded in.

Everything is mixed through...

Half of the cheddar cheese gets mixed in...

The sausage is next...

After the sausage is mixed through, the mixture is poured into a greased 13 x 9 inch  (32 x 24 cm) casserole dish and gets spread around with a spatula to level it off.

The other half of the white cheddar cheese gets spread across the top.

The panko goes on next and it is now time to head out to the Egg.

The Egg has been pre-heated to 400 F (205 C) The plate setter is installed legs down and I placed 6 plumbing T's to use as shims. 

30 minutes later and the Grits and Sausage Casserole is done.

The casserole rests for 10 minutes.

Time to eat!

This was a hearty tasty dish  with a creamy buttery texture. It had little bursts of flavor from the sausage and chives and a nice little crunchy texture on top from the panko.

Oh one more thing. The recipe says it serves 6, this is more like 16. I am wondering how you would reheat the leftovers. I don't want to loose the crunchiness of the panko, so nuking it is probably out of the question. But doing it in the oven might burn the panko before everything heats through. Ideas? 

TIA

Jim