Canned Breakfast Potatoes Recipe

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For a simple and frugal breakfast option, you have to try this canned breakfast potatoes recipe! It's cheap, easy, and so delicious too.

breakfast potatoes in a skillet topped with cheese and green onions

Canned potatoes are a wonderfully frugal ingredient to keep on hand for so many reasons- adding to soups, adding to casseroles, and making a fast side dish to make your meal feel fuller.

My kids love canned potatoes, and these breakfast potatoes are one of their favorite ways to get their potatoes served. As delicious as homemade home fries are, you can't deny that the convenience, cost, and speed of canned potatoes are pretty great!

Serve these potatoes with your favorite breakfast foods like Air Fryer Frozen Waffles, Baked Scrambled Eggs, or Strawberry Cream Cheese Crescents.

Why This Recipe Works

You can make them crispy! Because these potatoes are already cooked, you can simply warm them up or heat them until crispy. You can cook them longer for that added golden crispness if desired, but if you're in a hurry, they taste great simply warmed through too.
Minimal ingredients. You really don't need much to make these potatoes, and the ingredients you will want are customizable too! Add in more toppings or leave some out, depending on what you have on hand. These potatoes taste great either way.
They're frugal. Made for under $3, this side dish is a great low-cost way of bulking up your meal. Add some pancakes and eggs, and you have a filling meal that costs almost nothing to make.

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🥘 Ingredients
🍽 Equipment Needed
🔪 Instructions
🍴 Recipe Tips
🍳 Reheating
👩🏻‍🍳 Storage
💭 FAQs
📖 Recipe
💬 Comments

🥘 Ingredients

Butter- You will need butter to cook the ingredients with. Using butter will give us a richer taste and can give us a golden crisp potato if you cook them for a few extra minutes.

Onion- You will need a diced onion. This will give us a great depth of flavor and bring some natural sweetness.

Canned potatoes- I recommend using already sliced canned potatoes, but diced potatoes work fine too. Drain and rinse under cool water before using.

Bacon bits- I like to use packaged bacon crumbles (the actual bacon pieces) to add a little bacon to my breakfast recipes instead of whole bacon strips. This saves me time and money.

Cheddar cheese- Adding some shredded cheese over the potatoes helps to bring out more flavor to the dish.

Seasonings- We keep our seasonings simple with some garlic powder, salt, and pepper.

Green onions- Adding sliced green onions over the top of the potatoes will give us a little color, flavor, and a fresher taste.

For specific quantities, see the recipe card below.

🍽 Equipment Needed

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🔪 Instructions

Check out how to make Canned Breakfast Potatoes Recipe with these simple step-by-step instructions:

Open your canned potatoes and drain the liquid. Rinse the potatoes under cool water. Set aside.

Dice your onion. Set aside.

Preheat a medium sized skillet over medium-high heat.

Add your butter to the pan and allow it to melt.

diced onions added to skillet of melted butter

Add in the diced onions and cook for 2-3 minutes or until translucent.

canned potatoes added to skillet with diced onions and butter

Add in the canned potatoes.

seasonings added to canned potatoes in skillet

Mix in the seasonings. Cook until the potatoes are to your liking or for 3-4 minutes until warmed through.

bacon bits added to sliced potatoes in a skillet with diced onions

Add in the bacon bits.

bacon and onion tossed sliced potatoes in a skillet

Gently stir together until well mixed.

shredded cheese on top of sliced potatoes with bacon bits and onions

Top the potatoes with some shredded cheese.

green onions added on top of shredded cheese and bacon covered sliced potatoes in a skillet

Add sliced green onions over the top.

Let rest for a minute so that the cheese melts.

Serve warm, and enjoy!

close up of breakfast potatoes on a plate garnished with sliced green onions

🍴 Recipe Tips

Make sure that you're being gentle when stirring the potatoes around in the pan. They will be easy to break apart and accidentally mash.

If you want your potatoes crispy and golden, then you will need to make sure that they become crispy BEFORE adding the bacon, cheese, and green onions.

Doubling the cooking time should be enough to get the potatoes crispy but this will depend heavily upon the type of pan used, the temperature that the potatoes are cooking, and the amount of liquid still on the potatoes when added to the pan.

If needed, you can add another tablespoon or two of butter as the potatoes cook to help prevent them from sticking to the pan.

🍳 Reheating

You can reheat a serving of these potatoes in the microwave in about 1 minute on a microwave safe plate.

👩🏻‍🍳 Storage

Keep any uneaten breakfast potatoes in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3-5 days.

💭 FAQs

Why use canned potatoes?

Canned potatoes are shelf stable and can last a very long time without spoiling, unlike fresh potatoes. They're also pretty cheap (less than $1 per can), making them easy to add to a tight budget. Despite being canned, they're still a good source of nutrients as well.

How long do canned potatoes take to become crispy?

When cooked on the stovetop, you'll find that they take about 9-12 minutes to become crispy.

Do canned potatoes need to be cooked?

Canned potatoes are already partially cooked when they are processed and canned. This means that they should still be cooked before consumption but that they will take much less time than if you were to cook a raw potato.

side view of a pile of breakfast potatoes on a white plate topped with cheese, bacon and sliced green onions

More great breakfast recipes to check out soon

📖 Recipe

aerial view of brekafast potatoes in a skillet

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5 from 1 vote