These tasty, protein-packed hash brown egg white nests are a great way to start your day off right, and an easy make-ahead breakfast!
Hash Brown Egg White Nests
Packed with protein and full of flavor, these Hash Brown Egg White Nests are a delicious and convenient breakfast or brunch option. I love adding ham, veggies, and cheese, but you can customize them with your favorite vegetables and herbs. They are made in individual portions, making them easy to reheat in the air fryer, oven or microwave. These nests are perfect for busy mornings because they can be made in advance.
What are Hash Brown Egg White Nests?
When I first started blogging, my friend Mary shared this recipe with me back in 2011. Since then, I’ve been making them regularly as an easy breakfast dish. They are egg white bites with a hash brown crust baked in a muffin tin.
How To Make
To create the nest, you simply mix together shredded potatoes (or frozen hash browns) and bake them. Once they are golden brown, fill the nest with a mixture of beaten egg whites and other ingredients like vegetables, cheese, and herbs. You can customize the nests with a variety of different ingredients to suit your tastes and preferences.
Helpful Tip
Be sure to generously spray the tin and use a non-stick muffin pan to avoid sticking.
This recipe can easily be doubled.
Make Ahead and Reheat
You can double the recipe to make ahead for meal prep. Leftovers can be refrigerated for up to 4 days. To reheat you can follow these steps:
- Preheat your oven to 350°F.
- Place the nests on a baking sheet and place them in the oven.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until the nests are heated through and the eggs are hot.
- Remove the baking sheet from the oven and let the nests cool for a few minutes before serving.
Alternatively, you can also reheat them in the air fryer or microwave. To do so, air fryer 350F 5 minutes or until heated through. For the microwave, place on a microwave-safe plate and heat on high for 1-2 minutes, or until heated through.
More Muffin Tin Eggs
More Healthy Breakfast Ideas
Hash Brown Egg White Nests
Ingredients
For the Hash brown Mix:
- olive oil spray
- 1/2 cup onion, minced
- 1 cup shredded potatoes, I used frozen Simply potatoes
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- salt and pepper to taste
Egg Mixture:
- 1 cup egg whites or egg beaters, beaten
- 2 tbsp onions, diced
- 1/4 cup bell peppers, diced
- 1 oz reduced fat Swiss cheese, chopped
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 oz turkey ham, or regular ham, diced
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F°. Lightly spray a nonstick 6-muffin tin with oil spray.Â
- Combine potatoes, 1/2 cup onion, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Fill each muffin tin with 1/4 cup of potatoes and press along the side of the tin so that it forms a nest.
- Bake 35 minutes or until golden brown and edges are crispy.
- While nests are baking, combine the egg whites with remaining ingredients in a medium bowl.
- Remove nests from the oven when golden brown.
- Fill each cup with about 3 tbsp of egg mixture. Return to the oven and bake an additional 17-20 minutes or until eggs are fully cooked.
These were delicious and are open to lots of substitutions. I think that I’ll try reduced fat cheddar for the swiss, and/or turkey bacon for the ham, etc. Thank you for the wonderful recipe!
This recipe is great!! My only complaint is that it said 35 minutes to cook (at the top of the recipe) so I thought I’d have enough time before school this morning. I didn’t notice until reading the recipe that it’s 35 minutes for the potatoes to cook, then another 17-20 minutes after, so that part was a little misleading.
Updated! Sorry for the typo!
We LOVED these! The whole family thought they were SO fun!! Thank you, Gina!
FYI: this is for 6 nests, and doubling it worked just perfectly. Spray the muffin tins SO well, and really dice those onions!
GREAT!!
Can someone please tell me if these are mini muffins or regular muffins, like a cupcake pan?
I make them mini the first time and I am thinking maybe they should have been regular size? I looked at recipe and photos, but couldn’t tell, sorry if I am missing something! Thank you for another great recipe!!
Regular size. I would say mini, if I used it just so you know.
Can this recipe be used to make the egg bites in an Instant Pot using the silicone egg bite mold?
I dont think the potatoes would be crisp.
Another great recipe by you! These are really good. I used what I had on hand, spinach, canadian bacon, green onions. I can see a few other veggies I am going to try. I sprayed my pan well and had no problem with them popping out. I also baked them til they looked crispy. Definitely a repeat recipe! Thank you!
yes! whatever’s in your fridge : )
Love your recipes!
thanks!
I don't know if you're still replying to this, Gina, but I'm wondering what your thoughts would be on making these ahead? I made these last year for a brunch, which I'm doing again, but I did it the morning of, and I'm trying to avoid that. Could I either:
1) Make the nests the night before and then just do the egg portion in the morning? Would the nests get soggy or not work well cold? or
2) Make them entirely the night before and reheat? I suspect they may be better fresh from the oven. 🙂
I'm having a holiday brunch at my house this Saturday, and always try to do as much make ahead and bake in the morning as possible. I'm making a breakfast casserole, but I have a couple of vegetarians in my group, so I'm doing these as an all-veggie alternative since the casserole has sausage.
THANKS SO MUCH! Love your site and your recipes!!
I like the idea of your 1st option!
Hi Gina, I have been using your site for years and thought I should take a moment to comment. I made these hashbrown nests for breakfast today and it was so delicious! I didn't have any ham so I did broccoli, red and green peppers and spinach with a half tsp of cheddar cheese on top! I overindulged with 3 cups 🙂
GREAT!!
These are fantastic! I seasoned with a little powdered red chiltepan ( very hot pepper, sort of like Thai red pepper or habenero) and also a bit of smoked paprika. We didn't have Swiss so I used a little grated Parmesan, instead.This recipe is easy and has so many possibilities! I used regular potato and have leftover potato for another recipe. I could make this a couple of times a week or even freeze a bunch of potato/onion mixture to make this. I have chickens and they get ahead of me on eggs all the time. By doing egg whites and feeding yolks to the dogs, I use a bunch of eggs. Or, I could even use the yolks for something else, maybe freeze until I want to make ice cream or some other treat. This morning, the dogs got a bunch of yolks, which they love.
These are amazing! So simple but very yummy 🙂 I love having a breakfast I can make once a reheat throughout the week and these are great for that 🙂
What can I use instead of onions in the two parts of this recipe?? Hubby dislikes onions.
I made a dozen of these last night (doubled the recipe). Put them in the freezer. Had 2 microwaved for breakfast — absolutely delicious!
Will be trying these over the weekend! I'm a breakfast FANATIC and I love trying new breakfast recipes that are quick for my working family! Can't wait to try these babies!! 🙂
I am a novice cook and am a bit mixed up with this recipe. Please help! It seems I didn't bother to notice the total serving size as 6 muffins, and only have a 12 muffin pan. Are the muffin sizes in a 12 pan the same as a 6? So could I possibly just double the recipe?
These were great. Substituted Pancectta instead of ham and parmesean cheese for the Swiss cheese. Big hit in our house. Thanks!