Well, my coworker Lisa brought a tater tot casserole to our office potluck back in October, and I ate two plates of it standing next to the copy machine. She had it in one of those disposable foil pans, the kind that bends when you pick it up. I almost dropped mine on my shoes.
The sausage and eggs in this tater tot casserole were so tasty. I bugged her for the recipe for like a week. She finally sent it over in a text with no punctuation and half the measurements missing. I had to call her on my lunch break to figure out what “some cheese” meant. Yeah, she really meant a lot of cheese.
I fooled around with it a few times at home and ended up with this version. Eggs, bacon, tater tots, cheddar. The whole thing bakes up in one dish, and your kitchen smells like a Saturday morning diner. My neighbor’s kid asked if he could come over for breakfast the next weekend. I said sure. His mom sent him with a Tupperware. Smart woman.
We’ve made this for Easter brunch, random weekday mornings when nobody wants cereal, and one time on a Wednesday night because I forgot to thaw the chicken. No regrets on that last one.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
This tater tot breakfast bake is the kind of meal where people show up to your kitchen in pajamas, and nobody cares, and I tell ya what, the prep takes maybe ten minutes.
- Cheesy tots on the bottom: Frozen tater tots get baked under a blanket of eggs and cheddar. They crisp up on the edges and stay soft in the middle. My husband eats the corner pieces first because that’s where the crunch is best.
- Bacon on top: Thick-cut, fried, crumbled. It adds that salty, smoky bite to every scoop. Lisa uses turkey bacon in hers, but I can’t bring myself to do that.
- One dish, done: Everything goes in a 9×13 pan. Eggs, milk, cheese, tots. You whisk, you pour, you bake. My coworker Raj said it looked too easy to taste that good. He was wrong.
- Feeds a crowd on the cheap: A bag of frozen tots, a dozen eggs, some bacon and cheese. Maybe eight bucks total and you’re feeding six people easy.
Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
You can swap a few things here without messing it up.
- Frozen tater tots: You can use any brand. I’ve used name and store-brands and couldnt’ tell the difference. Whichever one is on sale, that’s my motto.
- Cheddar cheese: Sharp cheddar is what I go with because the flavor is stronger. Colby jack or a Mexican blend works too. Grate it yourself if you can, the bagged stuff has that coating on it and won’t melt as smooth.
- Thick-cut bacon: Regular bacon is fine. I’ll just be crispier and less meaty. Turkey bacon works too, if you’re into that kinda thing. Not judging. I tried it once, but nah.
- 2% milk: Whole milk makes it richer. I’ve used half and half before by accident because I grabbed the wrong carton, and nobody complained, so there’s that.
- Eggs: Twelve large. Don’t skip any of them. I tried cutting it to eight once thinking it would be enough and the middle was all tater tots with barely any egg holding it together. Looked weird.
Tips for Success
Okay, so a few things I’ve figured out from making this a bunch of times now.
- Fry the bacon ahead: Cook it up the night before and crumble it. Saves you a greasy mess in the morning when you’re still half asleep. I store mine in a ziplock bag in the fridge, and it keeps fine.
- Don’t thaw the tots: They go in frozen. If they thaw first, they get mushy and won’t hold up under all that egg.
- Grate your own cheese: I keep saying this in every recipe because it really does make a difference. That pre-shredded stuff has a weird powder on it and it just doesn’t melt right.
- Let it rest before cutting: Ten minutes. If you slice into it too soon, the egg part will be runny, and it’ll fall apart on the spatula. Patience. I struggle with it too.
Storage and Reheating
Stick leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge. They’ll keep for 3 to 4 days. Reheat in the microwave for a quick fix or put a piece back in the oven at 350 for about ten minutes if you want the tots to crisp back up.
Freezing works too. Wrap individual portions in foil or plastic and freeze them for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge and reheat in the oven. The tots soften up a bit after freezing but the flavor’s still good.
Serving Suggestions
This goes with pretty much whatever you’d eat at brunch. Toast, fruit, coffee. I set out a bottle of hot sauce on the table last time and that was a hit.
My friend Lisa does a little side of sour cream with hers, which I thought was odd until I tried it. It’s actually pretty good with the cheesy eggs. I wonder if salsa would work the same way. Haven’t tried it yet.
FAQs
Can I put this together the night before?
Yeah. Layer everything in the dish, cover it, and fridge it. In the morning, just pop it in a cold oven and turn it to 350. Add a few extra minutes to the bake time since it’s starting cold. Don’t put a cold glass dish into a hot oven, or you’re gonna have a bad time.
Can I add sausage to this?
Absolutely. Brown some breakfast sausage, crumble it up, and scatter it over the tots before you pour the egg mixture in. Lisa’s husband does this and calls it “the works.” He also adds jalapeños, which is a choice I respect but don’t always make.
What size dish do I need?
A 9×13 inch baking dish. A 12×9 works too, same thing really. Just make sure the tots fit in one layer on the bottom so everything cooks even.
Notes
This whole recipe happened because Lisa brought a foil pan to a potluck, and I couldn’t stop eating it next to the copy machine. I’ve made it probably fifteen times since then and changed a couple things along the way, like bumping up the eggs from ten to twelve.
She still brings hers to every office event. I bring mine to family stuff. We’ve agreed not to compete directly, which is probably for the best.
Sausage Egg & Tot Bake
Ingredients
- 20 oz. Frozen tater tots
- 1 lb. Raw 99% lean ground turkey breast
- 6 Slices center-cut bacon cooked crisp and crumbled
- 12 Large eggs
- ½ cup Skim milk or whole milk
- 6 oz. Reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese shredded from a block
- ¾ tsp. Ground sage
- ¾ tsp. Ground thyme
- ¼ tsp. Dried marjoram
- ½ tsp. Crushed red pepper flakes divided
- 1 ½ tsp. Kosher salt divided
- ¾ tsp. Black pepper divided
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F and lightly spray a 9×13-inch baking dish with nonstick olive oil cooking spray. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the raw ground turkey breast with three-quarters teaspoon of salt, a half-teaspoon of black pepper, the ground sage, ground thyme, dried marjoram, and a quarter-teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes, hand-kneading the meat until the aromatics are completely distributed.
- Mist a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium flame. Add the seasoned turkey mixture, using a wooden spoon or firm spatula to break the meat into small, uniform crumbles as it cooks for 6 to 8 minutes until entirely browned, then remove the turkey from the skillet and set aside.
- Pour the frozen tater tots straight into the bottom of your prepared 9×13-inch baking dish, spreading them out into a single, flat, and uniform layer. Scatter the fully cooked, seasoned turkey sausage crumbles and the crumbled bacon pieces evenly across the top of the potato baseline.
- In a separate large bowl, combine the 12 large eggs, milk, the remaining three-quarters teaspoon of salt, a quarter-teaspoon of black pepper, and the remaining quarter-teaspoon of red pepper flakes, whisking aggressively for 60 seconds until completely frothy, smooth, and unified.
- Blanket the sausage and potato layer with the shredded sharp cheddar cheese, then slowly pour the beaten egg custard uniformly over the top, allowing the liquid to naturally seep down through the spaces between the tots to insulate the bottom elements.
- Transfer the baking dish uncovered onto the middle rack of your preheated oven and bake at 350°F for 50 to 60 minutes. Watch closely and pull the pan the exact moment the egg center completely sets without fluid rippling and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let the dish rest on a wire rack for 10 minutes so the internal egg proteins can stabilize and tighten before slicing into dense squares.
