Tater Tot Sausage Breakfast Casserole

Tater Tot Sausage Breakfast Casserole is the cozy, crowd-pleasing breakfast that has saved me on countless busy mornings and holiday gatherings! With crispy golden tater tots, savory breakfast sausage, gooey melted cheddar, and a rich egg custard holding it all together, this dish is pure comfort in every bite.

Love More Breakfast Casseroles? Try My Crack Breakfast Casserole or this Sausage and Egg Casserole next.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Cheesy, and loaded with flavor, this Tater Tot Sausage Breakfast Casserole is the ultimate morning comfort food. Layers of golden tater tots, savory sausage, fluffy eggs, and melted cheese bake together into a hearty, crowd-pleasing dish. Perfect for brunch, holidays, or meal prep, it’s an easy favorite everyone will love.

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Ingredient List

For the Casserole:

• 8 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk or heavy cream
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 pound breakfast sausage
• 24 ounces frozen tater tots (one bag)
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

You’ll Also Need:

• Nonstick cooking spray

Friendly Notes: Whole milk lives in my fridge year-round. Heavy cream shows up at Thanksgiving and Christmas when Tom’s mom visits and I need everything to be extra. Generic everything. I’ve never once bought name brand tater tots and nobody knows the difference after they’re baked.

Why These Ingredients Work

Eggs and milk make that custardy goop that glues everything together. Not liquidy, not solid. Somewhere in between where it actually works.

Sausage brings every single bit of flavor to this thing. All that pork fat and seasoning seeps into the tots and eggs and makes it taste like you did something when really you just opened a tube of meat.

Tots stay frozen. They crisp on top, get soft on bottom, soak up egg, and you didn’t peel one single potato. That’s why this recipe exists.

Cheddar gets melty and makes that bubbly brown top that looks decent in photos.

Salt, pepper, garlic powder. Three things. Don’t get fancy. The sausage already has enough going on.

Essential Tools and Equipment

9×13 pan. Skillet. Bowl. Whisk. Foil. Done.

How To Make Tater Tot Sausage Breakfast Casserole

Step 1: Prep Your Oven and Dish

Oven to 375°F. Spray your pan like your life depends on it because scrubbing baked cheese off glass is how you lose your mind on a Sunday afternoon.

Step 2: Brown the Breakfast Sausage

Sausage goes in the skillet. Medium heat. Smash it with a wooden spoon while it cooks. No pink left, maybe 8 minutes. Tip the pan toward the sink and scoop out the grease with a big spoon. Set the cooked sausage somewhere to cool down.

Step 3: Whisk Together the Egg Custard

Eggs in bowl. Milk in bowl. Salt, pepper, garlic powder in bowl. Whisk until there’s no white stringy bits. Thirty seconds tops.

Step 4: Layer the Casserole

Dump frozen tots in the pan. Don’t arrange them, don’t think about it, just dump. Throw the sausage on top. Throw the cheese on top of that. Pour egg stuff over everything. Done.

Step 5: Bake Until Golden and Set

Foil goes on top. Stick it in for 40 minutes. Rip the foil off. Back in for 15-20 more minutes until the middle isn’t jiggly and the top looks brown and crusty. Wait 5 minutes before you cut it unless you want egg soup.

You Must Know

Frozen tots. Not thawed. Not room temperature. FROZEN straight from the bag into the pan. Every time I post this recipe someone asks about thawing and the answer is always absolutely not.

Five minute rest. I never do it but you should because I also end up with messy servings that slide everywhere and then I get mad at myself.

Personal Secret: My sister Lisa uses heavy cream every single time and her casserole is noticeably better than mine. I only use cream twice a year because I refuse to buy it regularly but she’s right and I hate that she’s right.

Pro Tips & Cooking Hacks

Broil it the last 2 minutes if you want extra crispy top. Stay in the kitchen though. Don’t go fold laundry. Broilers burn stuff in seconds and you’ll be scraping black cheese off your pan.

Really drain that sausage. Grease on top of a casserole is gross and makes everyone feel bad about themselves.

Knife in the middle. Clean knife means done.

Half cup of cheese saved for the last 10 minutes makes the top extra cheesy. Do what you want with that information.

Flavor Variations & Suggestions

Bell peppers and onions work if you cook them first and drain all the liquid. I did this once and it was good but also extra work so I haven’t done it since.

Pepper jack for spice. Tom dumps hot sauce on everything anyway so sometimes I just start with spicy cheese.

Half sausage half bacon is excellent. Or leftover ham. Whatever meat is lurking in your fridge.

Turkey sausage if you’re pretending to eat healthy. It’s blander but nobody’s perfect.

Make-Ahead Options

Night before assembly is the whole point. Build it, cover it, refrigerate it. Morning happens, you stick it in the oven, add maybe 10 minutes to the bake time. This saved me when Tom’s entire office came over for New Year’s brunch and I was still hungover.

Cook sausage up to two days early. Keeps in the fridge. Makes everything faster later.

Freeze the whole unbaked thing. Wrap it good. Lasts two months. Thaw overnight in fridge before baking. Did this before we drove to Michigan for spring break and it was perfect.

Recipe Notes & Baker’s Tips

Jimmy Dean regular is what I buy. The tube. Turkey is fine. If you buy pre-seasoned Italian or spicy sausage, use one teaspoon of salt not one and a half.

9×13 is not negotiable. Smaller pan means raw middle. Bigger pan means dry edges.

Metal heats faster than glass but both work fine.

Cold eggs work. Room temperature eggs work. Doesn’t matter.

Serving Suggestions

This is literally the whole meal but here’s what else ends up on the table at my house:

Fruit. Whatever’s not moldy in the crisper. Usually grapes or those cuties oranges.

Toast for people who need more bread for some reason.

Coffee. Lots of coffee. Sometimes mimosas if it’s noon and we’re feeling festive.

Sour cream, salsa, hot sauce, green onions in little bowls so people stop asking me to customize their plates.

How to Store Your Tater Tot Sausage Breakfast Casserole

Don’t leave it out more than two hours. Eggs. Dairy. Bacteria. You know.

Fridge: Cover it. Good 3-4 days.

Freezer: Cut first. Wrap each piece in plastic then foil. Lasts 2 months. Thaw in fridge overnight.

Reheating:

• Microwave 90 seconds.
• Oven 325°F covered for 15 minutes for the whole thing.
• Air fryer 350°F for 5-7 minutes makes the tots crispy again and this is the superior method.

Allergy Information

Contains:

• Eggs
• Dairy
• Maybe gluten (check tot bag)

Substitutions:

• Dairy-Free: Oat milk. Dairy-free cheese. It’ll taste different but you’ll survive.
• Gluten-Free: Most tots are gluten-free already. Read the bag.
• Egg Allergy: Can’t help you. This is egg casserole. That’s literally what it is.

Questions I Get Asked A Lot

Can I use a different type of cheese?

Yeah. Pepper jack, Colby, Mexican blend, that weird smoked gouda Tom’s brother brought last year. Whatever. Just not only mozzarella because it gets rubbery and strange when baked this long.

Do I really need to brown the sausage first, or can I add it raw?

Brown it. Raw sausage dumps grease everywhere while baking and you’ll have an oil slick on top. Plus raw sausage tastes like raw sausage. Takes 8 minutes. Stop being lazy.

My casserole turned out watery in the middle. What happened?

Not cooked long enough. Your oven runs cooler than mine probably. If it jiggles, bake it longer. Or you didn’t drain the sausage grease enough.

How do I know when it’s done baking?

Jiggle test. Shake the pan. Middle should stay solid. Or stick a butter knife in the center. Mostly clean knife means done. Top should be brown and bubbly and look like actual food.

💬 Made this? Tell me in the comments.