Hash browns have been around since the 1800s — they were once called hashed brown potatoes — and they’ve been a staple of American breakfasts for as long as anybody can remember. So of course the Trader Joe’s frozen food lineup wouldn’t be complete without them. In fact, Trader Joe’s has a few variation on this breakfast food in their freezer aisle, but today we’re focusing on the ones simply called Hashbrowns (one word). This take on the dish comes in patty form.
The box lists two methods for cooking these — stovetop and oven. You can read both of those on our package scan at the bottom of this review.
Even though it’s the longer method, we actually went with the oven this time. And here’s why: when we opened the package, the patties were very greasy, even when still frozen. Since the stovetop method uses cooking oil, we figured these would get even greasier in the pan (and the cooking instructions mention “draining” these on a paper towel, which confirmed our suspicions). We wanted to keep these at a minimum grease level, so it was the oven for us.
In the oven, these do still come out pretty greasy, so don’t let the patty shape trick you into thinking this is a finger food.
This is a simple meal — the ingredients on the package only list five items. Having made hash browns from scratch in the past, we can agree that this is a dish that doesn’t require huge amounts of additives. A simple plate of hash browns is just fine by us.
One of the ingredients is salt, and you can definitely taste that here. These are quite salty — in fact, we’d compare these to a side of fast food french fries. We enjoyed that saltiness, but we also found that dipping the patty in a bit of ketchup helps to offset that salty flavor a little bit.
One package contains ten hash browns, and the nutrition facts list info for one patty. Our assumption is that you’ll probably eat two at a time unless you eat these as the side to a large breakfast. One patty contains 130 calories (70 from fat) and 250 mg of sodium. That means that two contain 260 calories (140 from fat) and 500 mg of sodium. We can definitely live with that.
The Trader Joe’s Hashbrowns go quite well with a side of ketchup and cup of coffee, but they’re also just fine on their own. In fact, we think these are as close to perfection as a frozen hash brown patty can get. If you’ve got a hankerin’ for a hash-brown breakfast, give these a try.
To learn more about the nutrition content, cooking instructions, or ingredients in these Trader Joe’s Hashbrowns, check out our package scan below.
