We love this recipe for our Hash Brown Crust Bacon and Cheddar Quiche! The hash brown is actually really easy to make and gets crispy around the edge, just the way great hash browns should be. It’s a really great texture to add to the light and fluffy quiche.
This quiche recipe has all your favorite breakfast items in one dish, and makes it a super good option when you’re having people over.
How to Make Our Quiche Recipe
Hash Brown Crust Ingredients
Crust Process
- Squeeze as much liquid from the thawed hash browns as possible and place into a large mixing bowl. This is important to make sure the crust will crisp up.
- Add cheddar, salt and pepper and stir together.
- Lightly grease a 9” spring form pan with cooking spray and add shredded potatoes.
- Evenly press the hash browns mixture into the bottom and sides of the pan.
- Make sure you don’t have any holes within the crust. This is very important to prevent any leakage from happening when you pour the filling into the crust.
- If you do, just covering it with more filling mixture. Place the pan in the freezer and freeze for at least 1 hour.
Quiche Filling Ingredients
Filling Process
- Combine filling mixture into a mixing bowl.
- Whisk together.
- Transfer frozen crust onto a baking sheet.
- Carefully pour filling into crust and bake!
Make Ahead and Freezing Instructions
Make Ahead and Freezing Whole Quiche
To freeze quiche, bake as instructed then cool completely. Place in freezer uncovered until fully frozen. Tightly wrap with foil or plastic wrap. Freeze for up to 3 months for optimal freshness.
When ready to serve preheat oven to 425˚F. Place quiche onto a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until warmed through and crust is crisp. Remove from oven, slice and serve.
Freezing Individual Wedges
Bake and cool the quiche completely. Cut into wedges and follow the same process from above, except once the wedges are frozen wrap each piece individually in foil or plastic wrap before storing in the freezer.
Tips and Tricks for Success
- The most important thing about this recipe is to make sure you’ve filled in every single little gap throughout the hash brown crust. This is to make sure there’s no leakage that occurs when the filling is poured into the par-baked crust.
- I like to use the bottom and sides of a glass or measuring cup to press the crust down into the bottom and sides of the pan, which will help to give you an even crust.
Variations
- The cheddar can be swapped out for almost any cheese of your choice, like crumbled goat cheese, shredded fontina, crumbled feta, or shredded Swiss.
- This recipe can be made vegetarian friendly by swapping the bacon out for sauteed spinach (just make sure to squeeze as much liquid from the spinach before adding it to the filling mixture).
- You can also add diced and par-cooked potatoes or sweet potatoes to double down on the spuds and bulk this quiche up even more.
We also have this version with asparagus instead of bacon for a little variety. We used this spring form pan. Although it costs a little more than the average spring form pan, it’s a great quality and allows the quiche to release from it easily every time!
More Delicious Breakfast Recipes You Will Love
Hash Brown Crust Bacon and Cheddar Quiche
EQUIPMENT
- 9" spring form pan
INGREDIENTS
hash brown crust
- 20 ounces frozen hash browns thawed
- ½ cup white cheddar shredded
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon cracked black pepper
filling
- 2 tbs unsalted butter
- ½ onion thinly sliced
- 6 large eggs lightly beaten
- ½ cup heavy cream or whole milk
- 4 rashers bacon crispy cooked and crumbled (a rasher is a slice of bacon)
- 1 cup white cheddar cheese shredded
- 1 tbs chives thinly sliced, plus more for garnish
- salt and pepper to taste
INSTRUCTIONS
- Squeeze as much liquid from the thawed hash browns as possible and place into a large mixing bowl. Add cheddar, salt and pepper and stir together.
- Lightly grease a 9” spring form pan with cooking spray and evenly press the hash browns mixture into the bottom and sides of the pan, making sure you don't have any holes within the crust (this is important to prevent any leakage)
- Place the pan in the freezer and freeze for at least 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 425˚F.
- Place frozen crust until the oven and par-bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and slightly cool.
- In a skillet melt butter over medium heat. Add onions and lightly caramelize for 10 to 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs and cream. Whisk together until light and fluffy. Add remaining ingredients, including caramelized onions and stir together until mixed up. Season with salt and pepper.
- Pour filling mixture into the par-baked crust and place into the oven.
- Lower oven temperature to 375˚F and bake the quiche for 25 to 30 minutes or until the eggs have just set.
- Remove quiche from oven and run a paring knife around the perimeter of the springform pan. Loosen springform pan from sides of quiche and place quiche back into the oven for an additional 10 to 15 minutes. (this will help the crust get crisp on the sides)
- Remove quiche form oven and cool for 10 minutes.
- Slice quiches into wedges, top with sliced chives and serve.
NOTES
- We recommend freezing for up to 3 months for optimal freshness.
- The most important thing about this recipe is to make sure you’ve filled in every single little gap throughout the hash brown crust. This is to make sure there’s no leakage that occurs when the filling is poured into the par-baked crust.
- I like to use the bottom and sides of a glass or measuring cup to press the crust down into the bottom and sides of the pan, which will help to give you an even crust.
Did you make this recipe? We want to see!
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Paula
Excellent outcome and so flavourful! I used pancetta instead of bacon, but I believe there are many variations that would work. The crust was yummy and aesthetically pleasing. This was a perfect brunch main that can be made ahead of time.
Lisa
This recipe is meant for American users only. In Europe there is no such thing as frozen hash browns.
Jenny Park
You can shred your own potatoes for this recipe, which many of our readers have!
RON
DE-FRIGGING-LICOUS ! BEST QUICHE I HAVE EVER MADE!
Charlene
The quiche taste awesome! Crowd favorite. I have made it 3 times and the pan was so hard to clean even after spraying the pan generously. What am I doing wrong?
Fi
Very nice but second time I made it the potato crust was very grey once it was par baked. Used freshly grated potato and worked quickly with it before freezing. Any ideas how to avoid this next time?
Jenny Park
If you let the shredded potatoes soak in some cool water with a little bit of vinegar or lemon juice it will help with the greying!
Karen
Were you able to take the quiche off of the springform base to put n a serving plate or do you recommend leaving on the base?
Jenny Park
Once the quiche cools a little you should have no problem transferring it to a serving plate, but it can definitely be left on the base as well
Kara
Looking forward to trying this next weekend. Can this be made a day before and reheated without freezing and still be crispy? If so, any recommendations for reheated cooking times?
Jeff
The first two times I made this was without a springform pan and it turned out great in a 9-inch cake pan but I’ll be using a springform pan for future ones. Reconstituted freeze-dried hash browns were used and they worked perfectly well.
The second one was filled with leftovers from a cheese fondue dinner – roasted Brussels sprouts, hot Italian sausage and oven fried potatoes. It was delicious!
Susan
Can you make this in a 9″ deep dish pie plate?
Anna
Very delicious but I had an issue where my eggs soaked into the crust. Still tasted great. Just not very quiche like…Did I not pre-bake the crust long enough before adding my fillings? Any tips on knowing if I cooked it long enough?
Carolyn
I have made this several times. It’s always a hit!
Donna
Well, embarrassed and retracting onion comment, it’s right there! But, this is a fabulous recipe and takes quiche to a new level. This is impressive! Sorry about previous comment!
Donna
I’ve made this x2 and always been very pleased, but, it appears that there might be a deleted item in the ingredients…onion? I would guess you’re certainly not asking readers to caramelize the chives?? I used 1/2 C of caramelized onion and added to egg mixture. The other thing I did was after squeezing as much water out of shredded potatoes, once they are pushed into the pan, I then took double layer of paper towel and pressed to extract even more of the water, which produces a very nice crispy crust, and never had any leaks.
Christina
Worth the effort! I substituted refrigerated hash browns for frozen (and didn’t have to worry about excess water) pepperjack cheese for the white cheddar, added some thin sliced red bell pepper with the sliced yellow onion, also used green onions instead of chives (because that’s what I had). Topped it with sliced avocado after it cooled down. Delicious!
Mike
Awesome recipe! I made it for breakfast and everyone loved it!
Sandra
Can you make the crust and freeze overnight and than finish it the next a.m.
Jenny Park
absolutely!
Jaclyn
Have you ever made this dairy free? Is yes, what did you use?
Sylvia
I have used Nut Pod creamer in my quiches and it’s worked out great!
Michele
Hello,
Can I use freshly grated potatoes in this recipe? I am looking forward to making this dish.
Jenny Park
Freshly grated potatoes will be just fine. Just make sure to squeeze as much water from them as possible before assembling the crust :)
T
Sounds delish. Need to offer a gluten-free option for AirBnB guests. Could be just the ticket!
Question: what do you mean by ”score the perimeter” (of the baked quiche)?
Jenny Park
Oh great question! I actually just meant to run a butter knife or small offset spatula around the perimeter to loosen it from the pan. I’ll update the instructions, so it’s a bit more clear!
Talene
Made this with things I keep on hand so I didn’t follow the recipe exactly, but it tasted really good. I made this in my cast iron skillet with rehydrated hash browns, fontina cheese, real bacon bits, freeze dried chives, and added some garlic powder and onion powder to the hash browns mixture. I skipped the freezer and went straight to the oven. Cooked the hash browns mixture for the 15 minutes indicated in the recipe but only took 30 minutes to cook the egg mixture in my cast iron. My husband said you can make this every weekend, and it was made with things I always have on hand. Costco sells a large bag of the real bacon bits that are a great shortcut.
Wendy
Hi , I just made your recipe and the quiche came out great. I am freezing it for company in 2 weeks.
My question to you is, can I use a cast iron pan to reheat the quiche once taken off the base ohttps://www.spoonforkbacon.com/bacon-cheddar-and-chive-quiche-with-a-hash-brown-crust/#commentsf the spring form pan. I would heat the pan with oil in the oven , then when hot I would put the quiche in for 20 min to heat and hopefully get a crispy bottom crust. What do you think?
L
Great! Follows the recipe instructions and it came out perfectly.
Tracy
EPIC failure!! I followed the directions perfectly. The egg filler needs to be doubled. I packed the pan with the potato mixture, making sure that there were no open spaces, then set it in the freezer for an hour. When I poured the egg mixture into the pan, almost all of the liquid leaked out and made an enormous mess. I ended up tossing everything into a frying pan to finish it. What a waste of time.
Teri Lyn Fisher
Hi Tracy, it sounds like your crust still had some holes. The filling would not leak out if there were no holes. Maybe your hash browns were not properly thawed? Or too wet? It’s hard to say because we were not there. The filling is the correct amount. It’s to leave an edge at the top of hash brown crust so it gets delicious and crispy – you can see this in the images in the post. Sorry this didn’t work for you.
Debra
Leaking everywhere – and I used extra completely thawed and dry hash browns and made sure there were NO holes. Guess we’ll see how it ends up :(
Jenny Park
If it leaked everywhere, unfortunately it means there were still holes in the crust
Karla
Tracy – Did you blind bake the potato crust or add egg mixture into the raw crust?
Jen
Tracy – Did you par-bake the crust before pouring the egg mixture in?
Shelley
Hi. How do you reheat individual slices?
Kari Johanne Svenneby
Hi.
I study your recept for the Hash brown quiche, but I do not understand what the main ingredience for the shell is. Is it from bread or is it potato?
Greetings from an ignorant norwegian who like to try new dishes.
Jenny Park
Hi! It’s made from frozen, shredded potatoes. If you can’t find shredded, frozen potatoes, you can shred them yourself. Just make sure to squeeze as much water from the shredded potatoes possible!
Joslyn
Wondering if I could speed up waiting for frozen hash browns to thaw? Perhaps par-cook hash browns in a pan? Just wanting to get the crust done and in the freezer, but waiting for hash browns to thaw…