Bird’s Nest Breakfast Cups

Bird’s Nest Breakfast Cups are a fun way to eat eggs and hash browns for breakfast. These baked egg cups combine hash browns and cheese to form a “nest” and are topped with an egg.

Serve these breakfast cups with buttermilk waffles, bacon or sausage, and blueberry muffins.

Do you ever have breakfast for dinner? We like to do that sometimes and these eggs in a nest are perfect.

They also warm up really well so you can meal prep them on Sunday and have them ready for breakfast all week.

Ingredients

• Hash browns – Use frozen, shredded hash browns, thawed.
• Olive oil – Use a good quality extra virgin olive oil.
• Cheddar Cheese – Shredded cheddar cheese is what I like to use but mozzarella, Swiss, or American would be good, too.
• Eggs – You’ll need 12 large eggs.
• Cooking Spray – I like to use Trader Joe’s olive oil spray.
• Salt & pepper – To taste.
• Optional Toppings – Crumbled bacon, more cheese.

How to make Bird’s Nest Breakfast Cups

Making these eggs is really easy. If 12 breakfast cups are too many for you, this recipe can easily be halved.

First, preheat your oven to 450 and spray your muffin tin with cooking spray. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix the hash browns, olive oil, cheese, and salt & pepper to taste.

Then, use a cookie scoop to divide the mixture evenly between the 12 muffin tins. Use the back of the cookie scoop (or a Tablespoon…or your thumb) to make an indent in the middle to make your nest.

Give the tops of the nests another spray with cooking spray then bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Take them out and let them cool for about 15 minutes. Reduce your oven temp to 425 in the meantime.

Once slightly cooled, crack an egg into each nest. Top with any toppings, if desired (bacon, salt & pepper, more cheese, etc.)

Bake for 12 more minutes or until set to your favorite level of doneness.

Serve warm.

Helpful Tools

• Muffin Pan – Either the 12 well muffin pan or 6 well, if you want to halve the recipe.
• Spatulas – Spatulas that I use for everything.
• Cookie Scoop – Not only for cookies, using a cookie scoop helps to easily portion out the hash brown mixture into the muffin wells.

Need more breakfast ideas? Try these:

• Bacon & Spinach Breakfast Pizza
• Super Fluffy Pancakes
• Ham & Potato Breakfast Casserole
• Mexican Breakfast Casserole
• Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cups
• Labneh Za’atar Toast

4.34 from 24 votes

Birds Nest Breakfast Cups Recipe

Created by Melissa Williams

Servings: 12

Prep Time: 10 minutes mins

Cook Time: 32 minutes mins

Total Time: 1 hour hr

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Bird’s Nest Breakfast Cups are a fun way to eat eggs and hash browns for breakfast. These baked egg cups combine hash browns and cheese to form a “nest” and are topped with an egg.

Ingredients

 

1x2x3x

• ▢ 16 oz frozen hash browns thawed
• ▢ 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• ▢ 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• ▢ 12 eggs
• ▢ cooking spray
• ▢ salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Spray muffin tin generously with cooking spray. Set aside.
  
• In a large bowl, add hash browns, olive oil, cheddar cheese, and salt and pepper and mix together.
  16 oz frozen hash browns, 2 Tablespoons olive oil, 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, salt and pepper
• Divide hash brown mixture between 12 muffin cups (use a cookie scoop to make your life easier). Each one will hold a generous ¼ cup.
• Press the hash browns in to the muffin tin. Make a small depression in the middle, shaping it into a nest.
• Generously spray the tops of the hash brown nest with cooking spray.
  cooking spray
• Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the hash browns are golden brown. Keep an eye on them for the last few minutes to ensure they don’t burn. Let the hash brown nests cool for about 15 minutes.
• Reduce the oven temperature to 425 degrees.
• Crack an egg into each nest.
  12 eggs
• Bake for 12 minutes, or until the whites are set and the yolk is your desired doneness.
• Serve warm. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Notes

• Once you crack the egg into each cup, before baking them, you can also top with cooked bacon pieces and more cheese, if desired.
• If you like less yolk, before baking the eggs, break each yolk with a fork.

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Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 152kcal | Carbohydrates: 7g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 173mg | Sodium: 129mg | Potassium: 177mg | Vitamin A: 330IU | Vitamin C: 3.1mg | Calcium: 96mg | Iron: 1.2mg

Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.

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Originally published May 12, 2012.