Review: Cracker Barrel's Campfire Breakfast Skillet Feels More Like Glamping (And That's Not A Bad Thing)

When it comes to comfort food, Cracker Barrel is hard to beat. My ancestors hail from Appalachia, so having a meal at Cracker Barrel feels a lot like sitting down to supper at my great-grandmother's kitchen table. And the chain leans heavily into that sense of nostalgia. After a virally controversial logo change in 2025, Cracker Barrel had to assure its fans that it's still committed to the classics.

Though seasonal menu changes aren't unusual for any restaurant, Cracker Barrel's releases strike a balance between novel surprises and familiar favorites. Recent seasonal menu updates have prioritized reviving long-lost items while still bringing something new to the table. And this summer's menu update is a great example of how Cracker Barrel dances on the line between new and old, featuring two returning dishes — Campfire Chicken and Campfire Beef — as well as the new Campfire Breakfast Skillet.

Skipping the chain's seasonal menu is one of the biggest mistakes you can make at Cracker Barrel. I fell in love with one of its seasonal releases earlier this year, so I had high expectations for the Campfire Breakfast Skillet. With smoked sausage, chopped bacon, Colby cheese, and three scrambled eggs, it sounded heavenly. But there were also so many ways it could go wrong — could this new menu item possibly live up to the hype?

I ordered the new Campfire Breakfast Skillet exactly as it's promoted on the menu — with a side of country homestyle potatoes — to enjoy it as it was intended. I sampled every component of the skillet individually — the homestyle potatoes, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, and cheese — and then combined them in a single "perfect bite" to get a feel for how the different flavors played together. Finally, I evaluated the dish as a whole based on a few criteria: flavor (obviously), texture, overall satisfaction, and value for the price.

Flavor was the most important factor, of course, but even a perfectly seasoned dish would be unbearable to eat if the eggs were rubbery or the potatoes were gluey, for example. Likewise, an inexpensive meal is no good if it leaves me hungry afterward. So while flavor was the top criterion, I balanced it carefully with all the other factors.

And while I did get two buttermilk biscuits with my meal — they were recommended as the bread option in the promotional materials — I did not factor them into my evaluation at all, for two reasons. First, they had no impact on the breakfast skillet itself; I could have gotten cornbread instead, so they were entirely optional. But secondly, and more importantly, they were terrible. Perhaps this shouldn't have surprised me, as they ranked worst in our taste test of chain restaurant biscuits, but regardless, I wasn't about to let them spoil the rest of the meal.

The Campfire Breakfast Skillet arrived at my table piping hot before I could even finish one round of the peg game. It looks deceptively small at first glance — around two thirds the width of the typical oblong plates — but I quickly learned that it's a much heartier dish than it appears. I dug into the country homestyle potatoes and scrambled eggs first, as their quality falls off quickly as the temperature drops. I appreciated the texture of both: The potatoes are pleasantly crisp on the outside and tender and fluffy on the inside, while the eggs are moist and light throughout. Both are very lightly seasoned, which was a disappointment at first, but I soon understood why.

I wish there were more roasted red peppers and onions. They're tender, juicy, and buttery-smooth. I could make a whole meal out of those alone, but there were just a few slivers of each. The bacon and smoked sausage, cut on a bias, are phenomenal, with a smoky char and a lovely crust from the melted Colby cheese, and they seem to have gotten the bulk of Cracker Barrel's mysterious Campfire Seasoning. I don't know for sure what's in it other than an abundance of black pepper and what appears to be coarse garlic salt, but it's quite intense on the meats.

Fortunately, it all comes together in a carefully curated perfect bite, with just a little bit of each element on the fork. There, the logic of under-seasoning the eggs becomes apparent, as they balance out the almost-too-heavy black pepper in the Campfire Seasoning.

Having spent the better part of a year bouncing around national forests in a camper van, I'm no stranger to campfire meals, and Cracker Barrel's Campfire Breakfast Skillet certainly fits the bill. Sausage with peppers and onions was a staple dish for me, and this skillet is very reminiscent of that, right down to the sneeze-inducing amount of black pepper.

But as reluctant as I am to admit it, the Campfire Breakfast Skillet is better than anything I've ever made on a camp stove. I certainly never could have prepared all the different elements in just one pan, and I'm sure Cracker Barrel didn't, either. There are some things that are just plain hard to cook over a campfire, even if you've got all the right cooking gear for your camping trip.

But that's what makes the Campfire Breakfast Skillet a hit for me — it's an idealized example of what a camping breakfast could be, if you could take an entire kitchen with you. It's also unbelievably filling, and I ended up leaving some of the eggs and potatoes behind, though I picked the skillet clean of all the other bits. It would make a perfect hearty breakfast before an active day outdoors, or any other time you're craving something deeply satisfying. And to be so full for under $15 is just shy of a miracle these days, so the value is excellent.

I got the Campfire Breakfast Skillet for $14.49 at the Cracker Barrel in my small, rural town, though prices may vary by location and potentially be higher elsewhere, particularly in larger metro areas. Though "breakfast" is in the name, it's available all day, but like the other Campfire Meals, it's only there for a limited time. There's no publicly available end date, so if you want to get your hands on this or any of the other seasonal dishes, you'll want to get to Cracker Barrel sooner rather than later.

The Campfire Breakfast Skillet is surprisingly nutritious compared to many of Cracker Barrel's other menu items. At 910 calories — including the homestyle potatoes but not counting the biscuits and butter — it's the lightest of all the current seasonal entrees, and it has a whopping 50 grams of protein, so it'll definitely keep you full for a while. 

But it's not all good news, I'm afraid. Like most restaurant entrees, including (and perhaps especially) Cracker Barrel's, the Campfire Breakfast Skillet is loaded with sodium — 3,610 milligrams, to be exact. There are no available modifications that will reduce the sodium content, either, so if that's a concern for you, you may want to steer clear of this dish.