Simple Breakfast Sandwiches (Great Make Ahead Option!)

I started making this during the back-to-school season and it was such a hit it continued to be made long after the initial school season ended. My son needed something better than cereal to fill him up, but I did not want to go all out and cook a big breakfast every morning. This sandwich was the answer: toast the muffin, nuke the sausage, add cheese, and you’re done. It takes a max of seven minutes, one plate, and it really does fill you up enough to last through the morning at school or work.

The secret is the Jimmy Dean premade patties. They are fully cooked and shaped and just need one minute in the microwave to be hot! Not one sandwich. Two patties. One patty is a snack. Two patties is an actual meal. That’s the whole setup. Everything else is just assembly.

Why This Works for Busy Mornings

Some breakfasts may seem easy, but most of them keep you stranded at the stove. Whether it’s flipping pancakes or scrambling eggs, you want to avoid that. With this breakfast, you put the muffins in the toaster, and the sausage in the microwave. Once you start the microwave, you can do other things. You can pour your coffee, or even pack your bag. It all comes together in a few minutes. That’s the selling point of a breakfast like this on a school morning.

This food is the real deal, and that is important. We can eat cereal, but by 10 a.m. a child is hungry again. In addition, sausage patties and cheese muffins contain 20 grams of protein, which is enough to suppress a morning crash and keep you going until the next meal.

Ingredients

• English muffins, split and toasted
• Jimmy Dean premade sausage patties (2 per sandwich)
• Kraft cheese slices (1 per sandwich)
• Fruit, for serving (optional)

Ingredient Notes

Jimmy Dean Premade Sausage Patties

The fully cooked and seasoned patties only need to be microwaved for a minute and come out hot all the way through without getting rubbery. For about $5.99 to $6.99 a bag, you get 2 patties per sandwich and it comes out to roughly 50 cents per sandwich. Move over fast food, because the sandwiches won’t sit in a wrapper for 20 minutes first. Each bag contains 26 patties, meaning you can make 13 sandwiches.

I have sampled other brands of frozen premade sausage patties. They do the job, but Jimmy Dean’s has the best seasoning and fat ratio for this sort of thing. They have the perfect amount of seasoning so that they are not too salty, but they are not bland and they do not dry out when microwaved. When you bite into it, you expect the patty to break apart and crumble; however, these remain intact. This is more important than it sounds especially if you are eating these over the sink before school.

Check the sales at local grocery stores and warehouse club stores for Jimmy Dean products. At Sam’s Club and Costco, you can get better deals on large bags and they are priced lower per patty than many grocery stores. When they go on sale, take advantage and buy two bags. They can be stored in the freezer for a long time and can even be reheated from a frozen state without losing any quality.

English Muffins

Toast them until the cut sides are actually golden, not warm. An English muffin that is not toasted sufficiently will go limp the moment the hot sausage hits it. This is the step people skip and then question why the sandwich feels soft and underwhelming. For this, Thomas’ is the reliable choice – the nooks and crannies actually do matter here as they create texture variation that will hold up alongside the sausage and melted cheese. Store-brand muffins are typically just a bit more uniform in texture, and are usually fine for this as well.

Breakfast Sandwich Makers might be worth it if you do these sandwiches often enough, as you can toast the muffin and heat the sausage at the same time, streamlining the entire process even further. The Hamilton Beach model is often on sale and is a great option if your household eats breakfast sandwiches a few times a week.

Cheese

What you want here are Kraft singles or American cheese slices. They will fully melt in the microwave in 20 seconds. A thicker deli slice or block-cheese slice will not melt the same way. You will end up with cheese that is still stiff in the middle while the sausage is already hot. If you want a sharper flavor, use a sharp cheddar single instead of changing cheese formats. The individually wrapped single is designed to melt quickly in the microwave, which is exactly what this recipe requires.

How to Make It

Toast the muffins. Split the English muffins and toast them until the cut sides are golden and firm. While you deal with the sausage, set them open-face on a plate. Try not to let them sit for too long before assembly, as they will cool off quicker than you want.

Warm the sausage. For the Jimmy Dean patties, use the microwave instructions. To cook them from frozen, it’s 60 seconds on high. Make sure they are hot all the way through before taking them out. If you’re doing multiple sandwiches, take turns in batches of 2 to 4 instead of doing them all at the same time. If you crowd them together, they will heat un unequally and some will just be warm instead of hot.

Now create the sandwich. Put 2 hot sausage patties on the bottom half of each toasted muffin. Place one slice of cheese over the patties then microwave the open-face sandwich for about 20 seconds so the cheese can soften and melt over the patties. It should be melted, but not bubbling.

Cap and serve. Add the other muffin half and serve immediately. A side of grapes or sliced strawberries is an easy way to round this out without any effort or additional prep time.

Making These for Multiple People

Making multiple sandwiches requires some extra steps to help things go efficiently. Start by toasting the muffins and laying them on a baking sheet. While the muffins are toasting, heat the sausage patties in the microwave in teams of 2-4. Once a team is fully heated, take them and add cheese to the muffins. The entire baking sheet can go in the oven, set to 350°F for 4-5 minutes. You can skip the step of using the microwave for cheese. Using the oven for this batch method is better than doing multiple microwave rounds, and saves time, too.

For a family of four where everyone wants two sandwiches, the oven method is actually quicker than the microwave method. If you set it up in an assembly-line fashion, you can have everything done in about 10 minutes.

Tips That Actually Help

• Don’t skip the toasting. It is the difference between a sandwich and a soggy mess. One minute in the toaster is worth it every single time.
• Two patties, not one. One patty on an English muffin is a snack. Two is an actual breakfast that holds someone. This is the most important ratio to get right.
• Keep the patties in the freezer. They reheat just as well from frozen as from refrigerated. Freezer storage means you always have them without planning ahead, and they don’t go bad if you skip a few days.
• To hold for 20 minutes: Wrap each assembled sandwich tightly in foil and keep in a 200°F oven. They’ll stay warm and the muffin stays intact up to about 20 minutes. Past that, the muffin steams and softens.
• Wrap for the car. If someone is eating on the go, wrap the assembled sandwich in parchment paper rather than foil. Parchment holds the heat without creating the steam trap that foil does, so the muffin stays firmer longer.

Variations Worth Trying

Add an Egg

For this, take a small microwave-safe bowl, crack an egg in it, and then cover it with a paper towel (not completely cover though). Then give it a good whack on the row and cook it for 45-60 seconds. The egg should hold together, and you should now be able to microwave it without it exploding and creating a nasty mess. Before you pop the egg bowl in the microwave, slide the egg on the muffin on top of the sausage patties. Then, add the cheese, and pop it back in for 15 seconds to let it melt. This takes about two minutes to do, but it definitely makes the sandwich so much more filling and protein-dense. It also transforms the sandwich from a McMuffin-style sandwich to a really hearty full breakfast.

Swap the Bread

Croissants are good, and if you’re feeling adventurous, you can skip the toasting and just use the halved croissants as they are. Your butter layers will still hold up just fine. If you want to make your creation a little more Southern, consider using biscuits. In addition to the Southern spin, the biscuits will make your sandwich a little softer while giving it a richer feel. If you want to add a little more height and a chewier texture, consider using bagel thins. Mini bagels are a good option for kids. Using mini bagels will help to provide the appropriate bread to filling ratio as it scales down. For this combination, the best option is still English muffins because the size is just right and the texture is perfect while the little nooks are great for holding the melted cheese. If that’s what you have handy, the swap is super easy.

Hot Sausage Patties

Jimmy Dean sells hot varied patties using the exact same format. The same cooking time, but noticeably more heat. The level of spice is not overwhelming, but it is present. Younger kids who do not like any heat will have their attention drawn to it. If you want to add some more heat to the household of adults, or if you’re going to make a sandwich on the weekend and want something with a little more kick, these are a good option. If you substitute pepper jack cheese singles for Kraft singles, you will have a breakfast sandwich that is genuinely spicy and really good.

Add Vegetables

You can add some baby spinach, sliced tomatoes, or even some avocado. The tomato is a delicious addition since it’s a nice burst of acidity that compliments the richness of the sausage. Avocado creates a nice creaminess that pairs well with the American cheese. These can add extra substance to the sandwich and will take no more than 30 seconds to prepare. If you are sitting down to eat breakfast, rather than eating on the go, these additions will make the sandwich feel more complete.

Serving Ideas

Since the sandwich is big, you don’t have to do much for sides. Just some grapes, sliced strawberries, or a small orange juice is great. If you want the breakfast to look more put together, you can just add a small bowl of scrambled eggs or a piece of fruit with a glass of milk. Then it looks more complete without you having to do much.

For school mornings, this goes great with hot cocoa or milk in a travel mug and piece of fruit that your kid can eat in the car. The sandwich is also easy to eat with one hand and won’t fall out of the wrapper, which is important when you’re having breakfast on the go between the kitchen and the front door.

Make-Ahead and Freezer Instructions

These sandwiches can go in the microwave like in the video, and can be made and eaten again fresh from the store. The muffins will cool down a bit from the store but that also alters the refrig ability along with the muffins, but the store mini sandwiches will remain equally perfect too. To microwave: Breakfast sandwiches should be soft, fresh, and good. If you assembled the breakfast sandwiches and made them fresh from the store then yes, they will cool a bit, so together they will remain pretty cool. To achieve store perfection: Wrap the sandwiches in the cool and mini store muffins, then in the parchment. Instead, just store them from the video and eat them multiples again fresh from the store. These mini muffins can go in plenty of different store ovens like the breakfast sandwiches.

To freeze, wrap cooled sandwiches in parchment paper and then in foil. They can be stored this way for a month. From frozen, microwave for 90 seconds – 2 minutes, flipping halfway. The sandwiches will turn out better than you’d expect, and this is what a fast food breakfast sandwich does! For an extra consideration, the frozen sandwich will not have a crunchy muffin as you’d expect. If you want to restore the texture, you can microwave it first, but be sure to unwrap it before placing it in the toaster oven. 350°F for 5 minutes will do the trick!

If you know you are going to be busy this week, make six to eight sandwiches, wrap them individually, and freeze them. Each morning, take one out and microwave it. You can solve the entire weekday breakfast dilemma in one Sunday afternoon session that will take you about 15 minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use homemade sausage patties?

While you can do that, you lose the main advantage of this recipe, which is the ease of preparation. If you want to make your own, you’ll need to take seasoned ground pork (with salt, pepper, and fennel and a pinch of red pepper) and make your own patties, fully cook them in a skillet, and let them cool before using them instead of the premade ones. Most of the prep time is gone — instead of two minutes, you’ll take about twenty. The recipe works either way — just know what you’re signing up for. Premade patties exist for a reason.

How many sandwiches does one bag of Jimmy Dean patties make?

A regular bag with 26 patties is $5.99 to $6.99. That makes 13 sandwiches with 2 patties each. This is roughly $0.50 just for the sausage. With an English muffin (30 to 40 cents each) and a cheese slice (about 20 cents each), you still don’t reach $1.25 per sandwich total. Compared to a fast food breakfast sandwich, this is much cheaper. Plus, you’re not spending $2 for a medium hash brown you didn’t want.

Can kids make this themselves?

Yes, older kids. The only things needed for this are a microwave and a toaster, which a middle schooler can safely use and operate by themselves. The assembly is simple enough that a reasonably mature 10 or 11-year-old could do it after having it explained just once. It is a good starter recipe for kids to learn to make their own breakfast as the chances of messing it up are virtually non-existent and the final product is something that they are likely to eat.

What if the cheese doesn’t melt all the way?

American cheese and Kraft singles melt really quickly so 20 seconds is usually the right amount of time, but each microwave is a little different. If your microwave tends to run a little cool, try 25 to 30 seconds. The cheese should be soft and draped over the sausage and not still stiff and rigid at the edges. If you are using a thicker cheese or a different variety, be prepared for it to take a lot longer to melt or to not melt evenly at all in the microwave. That is a format issue and not a technique issue.

Can I add other condiments?

Of course! A thin spread of mayo on the top half of the muffin is a good way to add a bit of richness to the sandwich without changing the flavor a lot. If your family likes heat then hot sauce on the sausage is a great option. A little yellow mustard is an underrated choice and it will give a nice zing to the sandwich. Ketchup is a good option for kids. None of these are required but they’re all great options. Most condiments will work for this sandwich because it has a flexible base.

Is this sandwich good cold?

I guess not really. The sausage is cold is whatever. The muffin on the other hand, cold is just toast. Just sad, dense, dry toast. Please, for the love of all that is holy, just heat it up. Sixty seconds and your life will be changed. Not heating up your breakfast sandwich is a crime. That is not a design choice.

More Quick Breakfast Recipes

• Sausage Croissant Breakfast Casserole — crescent roll base, Jimmy Dean sausage, make-ahead egg custard that feeds eight from one pan with zero morning effort
• Breakfast Potato Casserole for Under $5 — hashbrown crust, ham, cheddar, and an egg custard, all under four dollars
• Quick Breakfast Casserole — minimal prep, a good weekend option when you want eggs without standing at the stove
• Easy Breakfast Pizza — a fun weekend option that works as both breakfast and a late-morning snack