I Tried 7 Frozen Breakfast Sandwiches & There's Only 2 I'd Buy Again
If your childhood was anything like mine, the importance of eating breakfast was probably drilled into you from a very young age. But on those hectic days when just getting out of bed and out the door is a struggle, it can be very easy to skip or completely forget about that all-important morning meal.
Pre-made options like frozen breakfast sandwiches can be a godsend when you're short on time but still want to fit in breakfast. But since there are so many different frozen breakfast sandwich brands out there nowadays, finding the tastiest, most satisfying options is a difficult task.
So, to find the best of the best available right now, I recently sampled seven different frozen breakfast sandwiches from five major brands: Jimmy Dean, Realgood, Sandwich Bros., Odom's Tennessee Pride, and Great Value (Walmart's house brand).
While a couple of these brands offer a wide variety of flavors, I focused on sausage breakfast sandwiches for this experiment because it was the only option offered across all the brands. I prepared each sandwich in the microwave per the package instructions and judged each on flavor and texture. I ended up finding something to like about almost all of the options, but there are only two I'd ever consider buying again.
Read on for my thoughts on each sandwich, starting with my least favorite and ending with my winner!
Realgood Sausage, Egg & Cheddar Cheese Breakfast Sandwich
Realgood Foods Co. specializes in high protein, low carb frozen foods. This option features pork sausage, a scrambled egg patty, and cheddar cheese on cheesy grain-free bread made with cauliflower. A box of four sandwiches cost me $8.49.
The look: This sandwich stuck out like a sore thumb among all of the options because of the unique grain-free cheesy cauliflower bread. It was unexpectedly brown, thin, and rough in texture. At first, I thought the manufacturer had mistakenly put the sausage on top. But no, that's actually the bun—it's just darker than the meat. Meanwhile, the egg, cheese, and actual sausage patty looked pretty standard for a frozen breakfast sandwich.
The taste: For starters, I just want to say that it's great to see brands sell products geared toward people with special dietary restrictions and preferences. And if you already love Realgood's products, you should definitely try these yourself to form your own opinion. But from my end, these low carb, high protein sandwiches were borderline inedible. That grain-free bread was super tough and had a funky, almost metallic taste that really put me off of the whole sandwich. I tasted the sausage, egg, and cheese on their own and thought that they were perfectly fine, but the bread was so unpleasant to me that it overshadowed everything else.
Sandwich Bros. Egg White & Turkey Sausage
The Egg White & Turkey Sausage breakfast sandwich from Sandwich Bros. is made with a pita and an egg white cheddar omelet. A pack of six cost me $6.99.
The look: Out of all the sandwiches I tried, this seems to the best option for people on the go because of the neat pita pocket. But next to all of the stacked croissant and biscuit sandwiches I sampled during this test, the pita did look a little sad and small. While the egg white omelet filled out the pocket pretty well, the sausage was a little too small for the egg and bread.
The taste: Pretty boring, to be completely honest. The pita lacked flavor and its edges became tough and hard in the microwave even though I cooked it for the recommended time. I've always found egg white omelets to be kind of spongy in texture and that certainly held true with this sandwich. The taste of the egg was fine, though I didn't get much cheese flavor from it. The turkey sausage carried the whole sandwich in terms of taste, but it was far from the best or most flavorful sausage I tried during this experiment. If I ever indulged in this breakfast sandwich again—and I don't really plan to—I'd probably have to douse it in Cholula to get the punchy flavor I really want.
Great Value Sausage, Egg & Cheese Croissant Sandwich
The first of two Great Value breakfast sandwiches that I tried comes with American cheese and a pork sausage patty. A box of four cost me $5.78.
The look: This croissant came out of the microwave glistening with moisture, which I expected would make for a slightly soggy sandwich. Otherwise, this looked pretty identical to every other frozen croissant sandwich I've seen in my life: golden pastry, light yellow egg, melty cheese, and a round sausage patty.
The taste: That glistening croissant was the biggest downfall of this sandwich. It was soggy, tough, a little gummy, and barely had any of those buttery flavors I've come to expect in a croissant. The sausage, egg, and cheese were all tasty enough on their own, but the croissant was so bready and thick that I could barely detect them. To be clear, I don't hold frozen croissants to the same standards as I would a freshly baked croissant, but Great Value was pretty disappointing, even by freezer-aisle standards.
Jimmy Dean Sausage, Egg & Cheese Biscuit
This option from Jimmy Dean features American cheese, an egg patty, and a sausage patty made from pork and chicken, all of which is sandwiched inside a buttermilk biscuit. A box of eight cost me $1.99.
The look: The deeply browned color on the biscuit was much darker than the light golden brown displayed on the packaging. While the sausage patty fit nicely, the egg patty was a bit too big for the biscuit.
The taste: There's a lot more to appreciate about this sandwich next to the lower-ranking options. but it still had a few major flaws. On the positive side, the breakfast sausage was pretty tasty. It was salty, peppery, savory, and even had a tiny touch of spice that hit me in the back of the throat. The cheese also melted nicely and the egg, while a little rubbery, was pretty decent. On the negative side, the biscuit was very disappointing. It was crumbly, too soft, and tasted more like flour than anything else. So, even though the inner elements were good enough, the biscuit made for a pretty bland bite. The whole thing also lacked some much-needed texture.
Jimmy Dean Sausage, Egg & Cheese Croissant
The second and final sandwich from Jimmy Dean swaps the buttermilk biscuit for a croissant bun. A box of eight cost me $1.99.
The look: Unlike the Great Value croissant, this one didn't look or feel soggy coming out of the microwave. The croissant was a medium golden brown color and perfectly encased all of the fillings. The sausage patty also looked nicely browned and pretty identical to the pictures on the packaging.
The taste: This was undoubtedly the better of the two Jimmy Dean options I tried, but yet again, far from perfect. I enjoyed the croissant on this sandwich much more than I did with the Great Value sandwich. It was buttery, savory, and a good compliment to the sausage, egg, and cheese. Still, the flavor didn't knock my socks off and the textures were way too soft for my taste.
Odom's Tennessee Pride Sausage & Buttermilk Biscuits
The look: I'm not immune to the charm of mini foods, so these petite biscuits were pretty adorable to me. They also looked surprisingly similar to the type of biscuit I'd get from a fast-food joint like Popeyes or McDonald's. Meanwhile, the sausage was much paler than the dark brown patties advertised on the box.
The taste: While I worried that these mini sandwiches would be a bit too plain to compete with the other options, their simplicity was actually their biggest strength. They boasted some of the most bold and tasty breakfast sausages in the whole entire taste test. Those unassuming biscuits were also buttery, salty, and surprisingly flavorful. Leaving off the egg and cheese really allowed the tasty sausage and biscuits to shine. My only complaint is that the biscuits were slightly dry, but they had much better texture than anything I'd tried up until this point. Aside from my taste test winner, the teeny Tennessee Pride sausage biscuits are the only ones I'd get again.
Great Value Sausage, Egg & Cheese Biscuit Sandwich
Aside from swapping a biscuit for the croissant, the second Great Value sandwich is identical the first. A box of four cost me $5.78
The look: Great Value's biscuit sandwich was a visual step up from Jimmy Dean's version. The biscuit was thick and the perfect golden brown color. The cheese was perfectly melted. The egg patty looked big and filling. But what really caught my eye with this option was the sausage. It looked juicy, glistening, deeply browned, and even more tantalizing that what was advertised on the box.
The taste: If there's anything this taste test has taught me, it's that I should never underestimate a store brand. Great Value had the best breakfast sausage out of any of the brands I tried—juicy, thick, peppery, a little spicy, and full of flavor. And while the biscuit was still a little too soft and crumbly for my preferences, it had a really nice buttery flavor that elevated the taste of the sausage, cheese, and egg.
Overall, I can't say that Great Value's Sausage, Egg & Cheese Biscuit is flawless. But, if you're looking to stock your freezer with convenient and tasty breakfasts for busy mornings, I think this is your best option.
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