Easy Breakfast Hash

This easy breakfast hash uses frozen potatoes and gets topped with ham, avocado and a poached egg for a quick weekend breakfast!

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Brunch is one of my favorite meals so on weekends I like to have a little fun and get creative!  This easy breakfast hash is a great fall/winter dish and in a pinch can even serve as a quick stand-in for dinner.

While I'm all about non-processed foods and fresh ingredients, for something like this, where a lot of other flavors are involved, and you want to pull together a quick, filling breakfast, I find it easier to use frozen shredded potatoes. You don't have to worry about making sure you get all the water out and I always keep a bag of them in my freezer so I can make this anytime!  

I know it's not always easy to find recipes that are designed to make smaller quantities, so I mostly focus on providing options that are designed to create 2-3 servings. This recipe will serve 1 person as a rather large portion. If you add the poached egg it will easily serve two people, unless one of you is really, really hungry!  If want to serve a larger group,  just use a larger pan and double or triple the recipe.

Recipe Ingredients

This recipe a combination of frozen hash browns and fresh breakfast ingredients. Here’s what you’ll need:

• Frozen hash brown potatoes: Chose your favorite brand.
• Onion: You'll want to use yellow onion, not a sweet onion.
• Green pepper: In this dish, I prefer a standard green bell pepper but you could substitute a red, yellow or orange pepper if that's what you have on hand.
• Mushrooms: Either regular white mushrooms or baby bella mushrooms work best in this recipe.
• Ham: Black forest ham is my personal favorite, however, any ham will work.
• Cheddar cheese: I recommend grating cheese yourself as it melts better, however, you can substitute pre-grated, bagged cheese.
• Avocado: You'll need half of a ripe avocado.
• Green onion: This is an optional topping but gives the dish a nice extra flavor.
• Eggs: Also, optional, however, adding a poached egg really gives a nice finish to the dish and creates a complete meal with a good source of protein.
• Pantry staples: olive oil, sea salt, ground pepper.

How to make breakfast hash

This is a super quick and simple recipe that essentially involves sautéing the veggies, cooking the potatoes and putting everything together to finish the dish.

To make the recipe as written you'll want to use an 8-inch non-stick pan. If you are doubling the recipe use a 10" pan and if tripling I'd recommend a 12" pan if you have one.

Meal prep tip: You can chop all of the veggies and the ham the night before. And also grate the cheese. This will reduce your total time to about 15 minutes.

Poach the eggs: If you are planning to add the eggs, start poaching them first to ensure they are done when the hash browns are done cooking. See below for my preferred egg poacher.

Sauté the veggies. You'll start with the onions and green pepper since they take longer to cook. Then add the mushroom and give them a quick stir.

Cook the hashbrowns. You'll add the hashbrowns to the same pan with the veggies, give them a quick stir and them spread them out to cover the bottom of the pan.

Add the ham and cheese: You'll add both the pan and give everything a quick stir. Then let it cook for a minute or two so the cheese melts.

Finish the dish: Remove the pan from the heat. You can transfer the hash brown mixture to a plate or bowl or just leave it in the pan (just be cautious of the hot pan). Top with the avocado, green onions and egg. Enjoy!

More easy breakfast ideas

If you more easy breakfast recipes, try this Breakfast Quesadilla or this Ricotta Avocado Toast.

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tools you may want for this recipe

Individual Egg Poachers – These individual silicone egg poachers are perfect when you are poaching one or two eggs.

This post was originally published in May 2017. It was updated in February 2022 with some new information and photos. No changes were made to the original recipe.