I’ve tried a lot of breakfast burritos in my day (love them!), and these are definitely the best easy freezer breakfast burritos! So simple…so delicious!
These easy freezer breakfast burritos are AMAZING. Really, really amazing.
I happen to be a breakfast burrito connoisseur (fancy name for snob), and these are the best breakfast burritos I’ve ever had.
And while they freeze great for breakfasts (and lunches and dinners) on the go, they have also become a go-to, straightaway dinner.
The filling is hearty and so flavorful without being dry and heavy.
The Best Way to Make Breakfast Burritos
Come to find out, this make-ahead tater tot breakfast casserole is the way to make the best breakfast burritos of your life.
I made a few tweaks to the original recipe to make it perfect for breakfast burritos. It’s delicious for a breakfast casserole, but for breakfast burritos I wanted a higher egg to potato ratio and I wanted to enhance the creamy texture just a bit.
Here is a little more scientific research that shows why this casserole is the best way to get breakfast burritos into your life:
- simpler than cooking everything (meat, potatoes, eggs, veggies) separately and layering it all in tortillas
- texture is so much creamier than doing the separatist approach above
- the casserole can be made up to 24 hours in advance before baking (but it can also be baked right away)
If you’re making the breakfast burritos to eat right away (they make the best dinner), once the casserole is done baking, you can start scooping the filling onto tortillas, sprinkling with cheese, rolling up, and eating.
The hot filling will melt the cheese. We love serving these with sliced avocados, salsa, sour cream, etc. But they are delicious plain as can be, too.
How to freeze the breakfast burritos
If you’re going to freeze the breakfast burritos and not serve them right away, let the casserole cool to warm or room temperature before assembling the burritos.
This will help avoid soggy tortillas. And soggy tortillas are the devil. So we avoid them at all costs.
Once the burritos are rolled up, they can be strategically placed in a freezer ziploc bag. If you want to wrap each burrito in plastic wrap prior to putting in the bag, you can do that.
Reheating the burritos
We usually reheat the burritos in the microwave with no exact scientific approach. Unwrapped, they usually reheat in 1-2 minutes (we usually do 70% power and poke holes in the burrito with a fork after the first minute to help them heat through evenly).
Full disclosure after my rant above: the tortillas do soften quite a bit upon reheating in the microwave and I haven’t found a great way to avoid this, but they aren’t soft to the point of soggy in my experience.
The burritos can also be reheated in the oven in a covered dish at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, uncover the dish and continue baking until heated through – another 20-30 minutes. The tortillas usually don’t get quite as soft when reheating in the oven.
But also, I usually don’t plan far enough in advance to reheat in the oven, so the microwave is a quick fix.
I’ve learned that easy freezer breakfast burritos can change my mood from sluggish and grumpy to happy and peppy in no time at all. Who knew?
I have dozens of these in my freezer, and they’ve become my favorite lunch during these weird, weird times.
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Yield: 12-15 burritos
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Additional Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
Ingredients
- 16-24 ounces breakfast sausage (see note)
- 1 cup small diced bell peppers (any color)
- 1/2 cup small diced onion
- 10 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 3/4 cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 30 ounces (about 7-8 cups) frozen tater tots
- 10-inch (burrito size) flour tortillas
- 3-4 cups shredded cheese (cheddar, Monterey Jack, etc)
Instructions
- In a large skillet over medium heat, cook the sausage, peppers and onions, crumbling the sausage into small pieces as it cooks, until it is no longer pink and cooked through and the veggies are tender. Drain the grease (you can let the sausage/veggies hang out in the skillet for a minute or remove them to a plate).
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, sour cream, salt and pepper until smooth.
- Lightly grease a 9X13-inch baking pan. Place the tater tots in the bottom of the pan (it’s ok if they are overlapping a bit).
- Sprinkle the sausage and veggie mixture over the tater tots. Pour the egg mixture evenly over and across the top. Bake right away OR cover the dish and refrigerate (up to 18 hours).
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake covered for 25 minutes. Uncover and bake 20-25 minutes longer until golden, bubbly, and set.
- If freezing the burritos, let the casserole cool until just warm or room temperature. If serving right away, go right on ahead with step #7.
- Scoop about 1/2 cup of the casserole onto each tortilla (if using smaller tortillas, adapt the amount as needed). Sprinkle with shredded cheese. Fold the sides in and roll up into a burrito. Serve warm with avocados, sour cream, and/or salsa, if desired (they’re tasty plain, too).
Notes
Sausage/Meat: this recipe is super adaptable to changing what kind of meat you use OR it can easily be left meatless. Chopped ham or cooked bacon would work great, too, in place of the sausage or in addition to.
Freezing: to freeze, put the cooled, rolled burritos in a freezer ziploc bag (you can individually wrap each burrito in plastic wrap before pacing in the bag, if desired). The burritos can be reheated in the microwave or in the oven (unwrap, place in baking dish, cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, uncover and continue to bake until heated through, another 20-30 minutes).
Recipe Source: from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe (inspiration from this make-ahead breakfast casserole)
