I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with cast iron. I love all of my enameled Le Creuset pieces but the regular cast iron drives me crazy.
It’s an amazing conductor of heat. It makes the best crust you’ll ever have on a steak and is also perfect for skillet cakes and baked egg dishes. But it can be SUCH a pain to clean.
I know proper seasoning makes all the difference, but I bet everyone who uses cast iron has at least one story of endless scouring.
Mine happened just the other day when I pulled these mini-skillets out of storage. There was rust on the sides! NOOOOOOOOOO. What a pain it was to clean.
No matter how much coarse salt I used, the rust just wouldn’t go away completely. I tried salt, heating the pans until they were smoking and then scouring, more salt… finally it seemed as though I had a clean skillet, ready to be re-seasoned and used.
Until I go and mess everything up again.
But these baked eggs with chorizo kind of made the whole ordeal worth it. I bought some fantastic sausage from the local butcher.
I don’t eat a lot of meat, but when I do I try to get the good stuff. I have no time for cheap sausage in my life. I kept adding ingredients as I went along.
The few remaining grape tomatoes from my garden… some Sriracha to tickle my palate. Baby arugula for a splash of green and a bit more spice.
Tell me, readers, what are your tricks for dealing with pesky cast iron?
Baked Chorizo and Eggs
Ingredients
- 2 chorizo links, preferably fresh
- 1 15 ounce can plain tomato sauce
- Sriracha or your hot sauce of choice
- 1/2 yellow onion, chopped
- 6-8 grape tomatoes, halved
- baby arugula
- 2 large eggs
- kosher salt and ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- If using fresh chorizo, slowly render the fat in a skillet over low heat. Gradually begin turning up the heat, allowing all sides of the chorizo to cook and eventually brown. Periodically deglaze the pan with water and scrape up the brown bits. This will prevent the bottom of the pan from burning and it will incorporate the yummy caramelized bits back onto the sausage. This should take approximately 20 minutes, give or take.
- Allow the sausage to cool for a bit and then slice each link into 10-12 pieces.
- Briefly saute the chopped onions in the leftover chorizo fat (you can also use olive oil if pre-cooked chorizo was used).
- Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
- Ladle 1/4 cup of tomato sauce into the bottom of mini cast iron skillets or ramekins.
- Drizzle some Sriracha on top of the tomato sauce (the amount will depend on your preference for heat. I used about 2 tablespoons per pan.)
- Line the chorizo slices in the bottom of each skillet and top with another dollop of tomato sauce (approximately 2 tablespoons per pan, doesn't need to be exact.
- Divide the onions in half and evenly spread over the chorizo.
- Layer on the cherry tomatoes followed by the arugula.
- Break the eggs into separate ramekins, leaving the yolk intact, and then carefully pour the into each skillet.
- Bake until the egg whites are just set, 10-15 minutes (they will continue to cook outside of the oven).
- Sprinkle salt and fresh ground pepper on top before serving
Please read my full post for additional recipe notes, tips, and serving suggestions!
Nutrition
Recipe Troubleshooting
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If you have food that sticks; put enough water to half fill the skillet place on stove and let it come to a boil. After it reaches boiling remove and run hot water over the skillet. Take a scrubbing sponge wash with hot water. All the build up will be removed.
Now, you will have to re season the skillet. Take crisco and cover all the interior of the skillet; turn oven on to 300; place skillet bottom up on cookie sheet covered in alum foil and bake for 1 hour. turn off oven let cool and skillet is ready to go again. You have to season a skillet every time you use it until it build up. When you have the correct amount of build up water will run off like a non stick pan does.
The real problem you may have thought the skillets were seasoned. A lot of companies say they season them but when you use them you get a mess.
I keep crisco shortening and use it to season the skillets. I have one skillet that was given to my grandmother when she married in 1900.
It seems like a little work but the rewards far out way the time it takes.
Hope this helps
Amby
Thanks so much for the helpful tips!
I have a cast iron skillet that I bought at a Salvation Army store in 1978. This skillet has traveled and camped with me for all these years and is still being used four days a week!! I have scrubbed it with everything imaginable; creek sand, ocean sand, all different kinds of salt and yes, I do and have used dish soap on it. It is still doing it’s job and I oil it down often but not after every wash (with soap). I have no idea how old the skillet was when I bought it but I’ve had it for 34 years!! It’s my burner oven at times also…
I’m still getting used to my cast iron too. My mother-in-law recently gave me a helpful recommendation about cleaning cast iron: when your food is done cooking, pour water into the pan while it is still hot. It will sizzle and create a lot steam, but all of the extra stuck on food bits then come up very easy. I was able to carefully dump the water into the sink, wipe down my skillet and re-season it. It was the easiest clean up I’ve had yet! Good luck!
Thanks for the suggestion, Karen! :)
When getting rust off of cast iron pans use steel wool. Yes you can, just for removing rust. Then treat as usual. Always use shortening, lard or bacon grease to treat. Never use an oil, will leave it sticky& can turn rancid.
This sounds really good. Pinning it for the future.
This looks like a great recipe!My husband would love this because he loves chorizo.I don’t have a cast iron pan yet.I can’t wait to get one one day because I heard it cooks the food so much better.
This recipe looks yummy. I never realized what great use a cast iron skillet could be.
Where do I find a 115-ounce can of tomato sauce? Seems like a lot.
Yikes, looks like a major typo! Thanks so much for spotting it.
Are your mini cast iron skillets 3.5, 5, or 6 inch?
Mine are 6 inch, but you could adjust the recipe to work with any size. I’ve even modified this recipe to cook individual eggs in small ramekins. It’s very forgiving!
My husband just loves chorizo. We will definitely be having these for our next brunch!
Totally love this and I did a similar recipe for a cookbook that’s coming out later! Great minds, my dear!
Chorizo just makes everything better!
After 15 minutes, my eggs were still completely raw! Next time I will try a higher cook temp.