Crockpot Breakfast Potatoes

This crockpot breakfast potatoes recipe is so easy you can simply load everything in the slow cooker and let it cook overnight. However, if you are an early riser the potatoes will be perfectly tender and ready to eat in two hours. Best of all, you can keep them in the slow cooker until you are ready to eat! A delicious meal, and one less thing to worry about in the morning - a perfect weekend breakfast!

What are breakfast potatoes?

Breakfast potatoes are simply cubed and seasoned potatoes served in place of hash browns with other breakfast favorites like eggs, or breakfast meat like bacon or breakfast sausage. Breakfast potatoes are most commonly roasted in the oven, however, my slow cooker breakfast potatoes recipe uses a crockpot to slowly transform these into delicious tender morsels.

What potato should I use?

When cooking potatoes in a slow cooker it is important to use a waxy potato like Yukon golds or red potatoes. Waxy potatoes will retain their shape even after sitting through hours of cooking. Russet potatoes, or baking potatoes, by comparison, are more starchy and will fall apart.

Ingredients and Substitutions

• Yukon gold potatoes - Red potatoes are an equally good substitute.
• Butter - Olive oil can be substituted as well.
• Garlic cloves - 1 teaspoon of garlic powder can be substituted.
• Onion powder - You can add chopped onions instead. Yellow onion or a sweet onion would be best, but red onion works too if you want a stronger flavor.
• Paprika - Smoked paprika or sweet paprika are great substitutes.
• Cayenne pepper - This can be left out if you don't like a little bit of heat.
• Black pepper
• Kosher salt - My recipe calls for 2 teaspoons, but you can add a full tablespoons if you like your potatoes on the salty side.

How to make them

These easy crock pot breakfast potatoes are pretty effortless to cook. Simply cube the potatoes into one-inch chunks and place potatoes in the slow cooker with the melted butter and seasonings, then stir everything with a spatula to ensure the potatoes are evenly coated.

Set the slow cooker on low heat and let the potatoes cook for two hours. However, they can be left in there for up to eight hours and enjoyed the next day. It is best to reduce the heat to your "keep warm" setting any time after the two-hour mark, or when you wake up the next morning. I don't recommend using high heat overnight, but you can use it in the morning to reduce the cook time.

Customize this recipe

A great way to jazz up this easy recipe is by adding a few of your favorite additions. Feel free to give any of these ideas a try to add your own little twist.

• Bacon - Add ½ cup of cooked and crumbled bacon during or after cooking.
• Onion - Chop one medium onion and add it to the slow cooker with the potatoes.
• Cheese - For cheesy potatoes, add one cup of shredded Cheddar cheese after the potatoes have finished cooking. Mild cheddar melts the easiest, but sharp cheddar cheese has the most flavor. Other cheeses such as pepepr Jack or monterey Jack would also work well.
• Chives - Add ¼ cup of chopped fresh chives, or green onions, after the breakfast potatoes are done cooking.
• Peppers - Some people like adding green bell peppers to the crock pot as well, however, I don't get excited about this addition because the pepper will get too soft and mushy. However, canned green chiles would be delicious to mix in after the potatoes have cooked.
• Sausage - Similar to bacon, breakfast sausage or chicken sausage can be added to cook with the potatoes.

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