Easy Freezer Breakfast Burritos
I’ve tried a lot of breakfast burritos in my day, 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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Five Years Ago: Simple and Delicious Sour Cream Muffins
Six Years Ago: Easy Brazilian Cheese Bread {Pao de Queijo}
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Easy Freezer Breakfast Burritos
Ingredients
- 16-24 ounces breakfast sausage (see note)
- 1 cup small diced bell peppers, any color
- ½ cup small diced onion
- 10 large eggs
- 1 ½ cups milk
- ¾ cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 30 ounces frozen tater tots, about 7-8 cups
- 12-15 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 30 minutes. Uncover and bake 25-45 minutes longer until golden, bubbly, and set (UPDATE: don’t panic if you have to add more time – continue to bake until the casserole is no longer liquidy).
- 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
Recipe Source: from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe (inspiration from this make-ahead breakfast casserole)
I have made these so many times! Such a great recipe! Perfect to microwave for a quick breakfast on the way out the door!
I make these everytime I have to feed guest breakfast. It’s so good and feeds a bunch of people. The best part is, you can make it the night before. I love to freeze the rest and eat them for breakfast throughout the next month.
A winner! I’ve made these twice in the last month, and they are such a big hit that none ever make it to the freezer! Three of my kids are active teenage boys who are constantly hungry; I load each tortilla with lots of cheese for extra calories. The first time I made them, the bottom of the casserole got a little overcooked; this time I loosely wrapped the bottom of the pan in foil, and everything was cooked through perfectly. Keeping a family fed isn’t easy—thank you for sharing all of your great recipes!
Holy breakfast burrito! I am a HUGE texture person. These are so light yet still very filling. Will definitely make on repeat!
Mel, could you make and bake the casserole and freeze the whole thing if not making burritos? Warm it up slowly when you need it?
I think you could probably do that (haven’t tried it myself but it is worth experimenting)
I’ve been making these for a while. Then my dad tried them. He fell in love. I began making them for him in large batches and freezing or sending them to him with dry ice. It was his favorite. He died in October. I’ve been very sad. I made this recipe today. It makes me think of him. We added hatch green chillies or chilies in adobo to give it some kick. Thank you for helping create some great memories.
So much love to you and the memories of your sweet dad, Theresa.
My family love these breakfast burritos! Instead of tater tots we use hasbrown and they are just as good. They are so nice to have in the freezer for a quick grab and go breakfast.
Soooo good!
These are delicious (and easy)! I just made a large batch to freeze for post-baby breakfasts and am already looking forward to them.
We love these at our house. I’ve made them many times now. Thanks for sharing.
Delicious! I find it impossible to get my hubby to eat breakfast before he runs off to work and this was a great solution! I found a solution to the soggy microwave problem! I just microwaved it and then pressed it real quick on the panini press! Yum!
This is the best egg-related breakfast burrito that I have made! You were right about the texture being delightfully creamy. I’m also not a big fan of eggs but found that they worked just right without overpowering the burrito.
I’m assuming I could bake the casserole, cool, and refrigerate one day and then the following day assemble, bake, and serve the burritos?
Yes, I think you definitely could!
These are the best. I double or triple the bell peppers just because we love them. My husband loves having these in the freezer to take to work for breakfast. I wanted to cut the fat content a bit so I tried dumping frozen hashbrowns into the mix instead of tater tots. There was a little too much water in the hashbrowns (I guess too much ice on them from the freezer?) And the burritos were a bit soggy. I may try it again but brown the hashbrowns first. Anyway, great recipe!
Amazingly easy and delicious recipe! Every recipe I looked up requires the meat and eggs to be cooked separately. I’m gonna be thanking you each morning that my kids have this and I’m sitting back, sipping my coffee. 🙂
I love these burritos! They are so easy to make. I always double the recipe so that I have some for dinner a d some for the freezer.
Can these sit in the fridge a couple days & then bake them? I want to prep them early but won’t be serving them for 1 1/2 days & didn’t want to freeze them. Can you advise?
I don’t know how I missed this recipe this year, but they look delicious! I’ll bet if you reheat in the microwave, then stick them on a griddle for a few minutes per side, it’d crisp that tortilla back up and be crispy delicious!
Thanks for all your yummy recipes and for your wonderful sense of humor! Happy New Year!
Do you add the tater tots frozen or thaw them first?
I use them frozen.
MEL!!
The best way to reheat and not have soggy burritos is to nuke them to heat them up, then put them in a dry frying pan to crisp up!
I do the same thing for leftover pizza!
Yer Welcome
Not sure if anybody has recommended this, but if you have an air fryer I’ve heard that they’re excellent for reheating burritos.
I made these with almond milk, siete tortillas, and sweet potatoes (instead of tater tots), for a lower glycemic index meal, and it was fantastic! Very delicious. Thanks Mel!
You are a genius Mel! Made these yesterday, popped half in the fridge and half in the freezer. The kids devoured them for breakfast. Filling and delicious! Such a handy thing to have on hand during virtual school at home! Thank you!
I made with 20 oz bag of hash browns (in fridge section of store) that I browned in a pan. I also sautéed mushrooms, onion, and peppers and used pre-cooked bacon. Layered it up per recipe and it baked a little under the time listed. Delicious!
These burritos are the bomb.com! I cook for the masses! I have 5 grown boys (17-27 years old) and a married daughter and grandkids. I doubled the recipe for these this morning, and they were a HUGE hit!!! Thanks for the wonderful recipes! (Some of my boys don’t like onions, so I only chopped one jalapeno into the mixture, sauted it with the sausage. It was just the right amount of heat for my family.)
We love the breakfast casserole on its own, but now as a burrito — GENIUS!! What a great way to use up leftovers before they go bad! To avoid soggy tortillas, I’ve been using whole wheat rather than flour. I’ve made breakfast burritos and have found that the whole wheat ones stand up better to being frozen & reheated than the flour ones. Only bummer is that it’s hard to find burrito-sized whole wheat tortillas — I just use the soft taco sized and just make smaller portions 🙂
Your instructions on reheating the burritos, is that after freezing? Or just refrigerating? Also do you defrost the burritos overnight in the refrigerator? Thanks for your help.
The reheating instructions are for frozen burritos (I don’t thaw in the fridge the night before, but you could – they’ll need quite a bit less time to reheat if doing it that way)