Breakfast Cups are crispy tater tots that are smashed and topped with cheese, bacon, and filled with an egg mixture, all baked in a muffin tin. If these sound good to you, be sure to try my Loaded Breakfast Tater Tot Casserole.
Breakfast Cups
Breakfast Cups are a delicious way to enjoy crispy tater tots, scrambled eggs, bacon, and cheese all in a cute muffin form. They are a quick grab-and-go breakfast if you make them ahead of time. They are also a wonderful addition to your brunch menu. And, you can easily make the recipe your own by adding your favorite vegetables or protein to the mix.
Ingredients
Potatoes: I used frozen tater tots that were already seasoned. You could also use regular tater tots and season with seasoned salt. They will be baked for about 20 minutes before you add the fillings; then, they will be baked again when filled. This will help them get nice and crispy.
Bacon: I cooked and crumbled the thick-cut bacon ahead of time. To do this, bake it on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet in the oven for 18-20 minutes at 415°F.
Cheese: Mild cheddar cheese was my cheese of choice. You could use your favorite kind of cheese or a blend of shredded cheeses.
Eggs: The egg mixture had added onions and will be poured on top of the cheese and bacon before being baked.
Pre-Baking the Tater Tots
To get started with this recipe, first, place 5 tater tots into each muffin cup of a muffin tin. Bake them for 15-20 minutes, or until the tots are slightly crispy. (They will bake more after the toppings are added.) Once slightly crispy, remove the tater tots from the oven. Then, use the back of a spoon or the bottom of a glass to smash the tots into the base and up the sides of each cup. Now, it’s time to get the cups filled and baked.
How to Make Breakfast Cups
Once the tater tots have been pre-baked and smashed, they are ready to be filled. Add about a tablespoon of shredded cheese to each cup, followed by a tablespoon of cooked and crumbled bacon to each. Reserve a little bit of bacon for garnish (optional).
After the cheese and bacon have been added, whisk together the egg mixture. Evenly pour the egg mixture into each cup, filling them about 2/3 of the way full. Finally, bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the centers are no longer jiggly. If you want to be sure the breakfast egg muffin cups are fully cooked, an inserted thermometer should read 160°F.
Remove the egg muffin cups from the oven and top with the reserved crumbled bacon and parsley. Let them rest for about 5 minutes before serving.
How to Store Breakfast Cups
As I stated above, these are great grab-and-go breakfasts. To store the egg breakfast cups, let them cool completely. Then, store them in a sealed container or storage bags in the refrigerator for up to a week. When you are craving one, simply pop one in the microwave for about a minute and enjoy!
Can I Freeze this Breakfast?
Yes! To freeze them, first, let them cool completely. Then, store them in freezer-safe containers for up to 6 months. Be sure to label and date the container. When ready to enjoy, let them thaw in the refrigerator before reheating.
Variations to Breakfast Cups
There are lots of ways to make these to satisfy your taste buds. Here are a few ideas you could try:
- Try these with a different protein, like cooked breakfast sausage, turkey sausage, or even leftover ham.
- Leave out the bacon altogether and go meatless. (I would add more veggies in place of the bacon.)
- Add a variety of your favorite vegetables like peppers, spinach, and mushrooms.
- Use a shredded cheese blend or your favorite kind of cheese.
- Substitute hash browns for the tater tots.
- Top with hot sauce, ketchup, or your favorite sauce.
More Breakfast Recipes
Breakfast Cups
Ingredients
Potatoes
- 1 package frozen tater tots, seasoned
Egg Mixture
- 8 large eggs, room temperature
- ¼ cup yellow onion, finely diced
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 8 slices thick-cut bacon, cooked and crumbled (reserve some for topping), divided
- ½ cup mild cheddar cheese, shredded, divided
- parsley, minced (for garnish)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and spray a muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. (Don't skip this step! You can also use muffin liners)
- Place 5 frozen tater tots into each cup.
- Bake 15-20 (or until slightly crispy); they will continue to cook in a later step.
- Remove the tater tots from the oven and use a glass or the round edge of a spoon to press and form the tater tots into the base and up the sides of the muffin cups.
- Top each with ½-1 tablespoon of shredded cheese.
- Top with about 1 tablespoon crumbled bacon.
- In a medium bowl combine eggs, onion, salt, and pepper. Whisk to combine.
- Evenly distribute the egg mixture into each muffin cup, filling each about ⅔ full.
- Bake 15-20 minutes, or until cooked through and no longer jiggly in the center.
- Garnish with reserved bacon and parsley. Let them rest about 5 minutes before serving.
Did you make this recipe?
You can tag me at @iamhomesteader.
I would like to use the jumbo muffin tin. Do I do anything different, ie cooling time?
I made these for brunch today and I mean they were absolutely delicious. It was was easy and so tasty. I allowed mine to cool for 5 minutes and they popped right out of the muffin pan. They did not stick at all. Thank you for sharing.
Made these, but, bye the time it took to push tater tots into a muffin tin, just to have them stick like crazy ( yes I sprayed the tin cups), and I used ham instead of bacon it just didn’t seem worth the effort. Husband ate 1, I ate 1 and the rest sat in fridge till I threw them out.
I said right in the recipe you can use liners. And every step you have described is written out, so I’m not sure how it is a surprise. Sorry you didn’t like the effort involved. Sorry that you wasted food and threw it away. Seems wasteful for perfectly good food.
What size cupcake/muffin tins are used?
Standard
These are fantastic! Delicious! They do stick to the pan but I rounded it with a knife and carefully scooped it out with a spoon and hardly lost any potato that way. A little, sadly, but not bad. The pan is a mess but I’m sure soaking it first will take care of that too. Not worth the investment in silicone cups in my case. I used Canadian bacon since that’s what I had. Loved them!
How many muffin cups does this yield?
These are great, love them! I put pepperjack and cheddar with cut up bacon and ham in little pieces. Used the mini tator tots. Very filling too!
I tried this recipe and wanted to love it but, like many others, they stuck both to the muffin tin and with liners. In her comments, Dawn suggested silicone cupcake liners-GAME CHANGER! Most of you know, I’m sure, lining the cups with the potatoes is key. With the silicone liners I could press as hard as I wanted and create the ‘well’ for the ingredients. They did not stick. I didn’t have a glass small enough at the bottom so I used a shot glass. It wasn’t perfect, but it did give me a start to the well. The recipe is so versatile. I will be making it again and again, changing up the ingredients according to what’s in my fridge.Lynne
My 10 year old daughter and I made these today. They’re amazing! Not only did my daughter try something new and love it, but she said that next time we need to add more bacon. 😂 Thank you for a great recipe!
I AM VERY ALLERGIC TO EGGS. IS THERE ANOTHER SOLUTION TO THE EGGS LAYER? I HAVE HEARD THAT APPLESAUCE OR CREAMED BANANA CAN BE SUBSTITUTED. WHAT ABOUT EXPANDING AND LIQUIDIZING THE CHEESE MIXTURE?
I’m sorry to hear about your allergy. There seems to be vegan egg options in the grocery stores, maybe checking them out would be helpful.
For those saying they stick get reusable silicone cup cake liners best purchase I ever made!
I am wondering if it would be better to use cupcake papers?
It doesn’t stay in the recipe whether the bacon is cooked prior to adding it to the eggs. For those of you who’ve made those do you cook the bacon first? Do you half cook the bacon chop into bits and add it, cooking the remaining fully for the garnish?
It says in the Ingredient list:
“8 slices thick-cut bacon, cooked and crumbled (reserve some for topping), divided”
So yes, it is cooked and then crumbled prior to adding to the breakfast cup.
Can you use cupcake wrappers so they don’t stick to the pan?
Yes!
I’ve tried several times to not have them stick to the pan and have had no success. Trying to clean the muffin pan after making these just doesn’t seem with it.
I like all recipe.
Made these today. Saw the comment about them sticking to the pan, so after I baked the tater tots, I re-sprayed the tin. Unfortunately they still stuck a bit. Easy to make, but would add more spices next time as they were a bit bland. Will make again but with a few tweaks! Thanks for the inspiration.
Looks great and easy to make
I followed the recipe pretty closely, and they turned out great. My only problem was that they did not want to release from the bottom of the tin. (I had sprayed the inside of the cups.) So cleaning the muffin tin is very labor intensive. I’m not sure the best way to solve this if I made them again.
Use large cupcake papers, or silicone cupcake cups
Cupcake liners
Looks yuma