If you love the Starbucks egg bites, but don’t love paying $5 for them, you’re going to flip over these delectable Instant Pot Egg Bites. For a little over the price of one order, you can make a dozen egg bites instant pot style at home for a quick breakfast on the fly!
And not only can you make them less expensively, you can also make them more delicious and customize them to your liking. While these egg bites undoubtedly make a healthy breakfast, my kids and I like to eat them any time of day with hot sauce for an easy, protein rich meal or snack.
Whether we make them with fresh spinach, salsa, bacon bits, goat cheese, pimientos, leftover taco meat, or any number of things, everyone is guaranteed to walk away happy. How many other meals can do that for you?
While eggs are pricier than they have been in ages, this is still a budget-friendly meal option because you can use up small amounts of fresh ingredients you have or leftovers. There are so many different ways to flavour your egg bites.
Creativity is the name of the game, so let’s get cracking! (Please forgive any lousy egg puns…They’re eggstra and entirely intentional.)
Copycat Starbucks Egg Bites Recipe
The Starbucks egg bites recipe packs super high protein and into a small-but-satisfying, portable, delightful, easy to eat package! And even better, you can make a big batch and store them in the refrigerator for 3 days or freeze them for up to a month or even a little longer.
Wonder of wonders, you can customize the recipe for Starbucks egg bites for each member of the family or even for your changing tastes. If you’re keen on spinach and roasted red pepper and your kid prefers bacon and gruyere and your spouse wants taco egg bites, you can accommodate all of those in the same pan!
It all starts with a perfected base recipe that you make in your blender or food processor. The fun comes in when you choose your mix-ins. All it takes is a handful of ingredients to make an almost infinite number of flavor combinations.
No matter which way you make them, you just need a short list of easy to find ingredients. Let’s go over what you need to gather for these delicious copycat Starbucks egg bites.
Egg Bites Instant Pot Base Ingredients
- Eggs
- Cottage Cheese
- Kosher Salt
- Cracked or Ground Black Pepper
- Ground Mustard
- Cayenne Pepper
- Non-stick Cooking Spray
Optional but tasty mix-ins:
Baby spinach, roasted red peppers, green onions, many varieties of diced or shredded cheese, soft cheese like goat cheese, bacon, ham, taco meat, breakfast sausage, sun-dried tomatoes, bacon bits, shredded or diced chicken, salsa, pulled pork, sliced black olives, chives, fresh parsley, cilantro, or more…
The base recipe is so very versatile that you can do just about anything you like with it. You can use cottage cheese with just about any milk-fat content. You can also substitute an equal quantity by volume of sour cream or cream cheese, if you prefer it.
Keep in mind that while you can make these egg bites with lower or no fat cottage cheese, the end product will be a little less succulent. Higher fat cottage cheese yields an egg bite that’s more forgiving to store and reheat.
Another thing to remember is that whatever you choose to mix into your egg bites, you’ll want to slice, dice, mince, or chop it fairly uniformly and small in size. This helps disperse your goodies more evenly through your egg bites.
Instant Pot Egg Bites Recipe
I use an instant pot to make this recipe for Starbucks egg bites because it yields the most delightfully moist, savoury, irresistible egg bites I’ve ever had. You can most certainly make “sous vide” egg bites using an immersion circulator, an oven, or an air fryer, but -for my money- this is the easiest way to get the best results.
The moist heat environment of the pressure cooker mimics that of a water bath with much less hassle. You don’t have to fuss with pouring boiling cups of water around a pan filled with egg.
The Instant Pot version of Starbucks sous vide egg bites doesn’t require a sous vide machine or immersion circulator, but it does require a countertop pressure cooker. Let’s review the list of equipment needed to make our instant pot egg bites recipe.
- Instant Pot
- Silicone Egg Bite Molds, Instant Pot Mini Muffin Pans), Small Ramekins or Egg Cups
- Instant Pot Trivet or Metal Rack
- Blender
- Measuring Cups and Spoons
- Chef Knife
- Cutting Board
Starbucks Sous Vide Egg Bites
You don’t need an “Instant Pot” branded countertop pressure cooker; any reliable brand will do. Likewise, any functional blender will cut the mustard for this recipe.
You have some flexibility in whether to use a silicone mold, mini muffin pan, silicone mini muffin cups on a plate, or small ramekins. Keep in mind that if you opt against a special egg bite mold or choose to use a cooking vessel not made of flexible silicone, you’ll want to grease it generously to help it release the cooked egg bites.
A silicone egg mold is always my first choice for this recipe because you can press up from the underside of the pan to help release the finished pressure cooker egg bites. These handy molds also make it easy to stack one on top of the other without any crazy finagling. If you opt for the muffin tins or ramenkins, you may need two trivets.
In this scenario, the first trivet spaces the ramekins or tins from the bottom of the instant pot while the second trivet separates the first layer from the second layer.
Cooked egg can be a real bear to get out of a rigid ramekin or mini muffin pan intact, but with copious amounts of non-stick spray and a thin spatula or knife, you can do it! Just be patient and let them cool a little closer to room temperature before making the attempt.
Spray the egg bite cups, mini muffin tins, or ramekins generously with nonstick cooking spray. Set this aside.
Add the eggs, cottage cheese, kosher salt, black pepper, ground mustard, and cayenne pepper to the carafe of a blender. Fix the lid in place and blend on high until smooth, about 30 seconds.
Instant Pot Egg Bites:
Place a silicone or metal trivet in your Instant Pot pan. Pour 1 ½ cups of cold water into the pan.
Divide your mix-ins equally between the cups in the prepared silicone pans. Pour the egg mixture into the wells, filling no further than ¾ of the way.
Carefully transfer one of the silicone egg bite molds to the trivet, lay a piece of parchment on top of the mold, then stack the second silicone egg bite pan on top of it. Lay another piece of parchment directly on the top mold.
Fix the lid in place, making sure it is set to sealed, and cook on HIGH pressure for 10 minutes. Allow a natural pressure release for 10 minutes before opening the lid.
Carefully turn the egg bites out onto a plate and serve hot, warm, room temperature, or cold. Leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 5 days or in the freezer, tightly wrapped, for up to 2 months.
To reheat from refrigeration:
Place on a plate covered with a paper towel or clean tea towel and microwave on 50% power in 20 second bursts until hot all the way through.
To reheat from frozen:
You can either thaw overnight, covered, in the refrigerator and heat as directed above or place the desired number of egg bites on a plate.
Cover the plate with a paper towel or clean tea towel and use your microwave defrost setting for about 2 minutes followed by microwaving at 50% power in bursts of 20 seconds or until heated all the way through.
Instant Pot Egg Bites
Equipment
- Instant Pot
- Silicone Egg Bite Molds (or Instant Pot Mini Muffin Pans) or Small Ramekins
- Instant Pot Trivet
- blender
- Measuring Cups and Spoons
- Chef Knife
- cutting board
Ingredients
Base Recipe:
- 8 eggs
- ⅔ cup cottage cheese
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon cracked or ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon ground mustard
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Non-stick cooking spray
Mix Ins:
- Spinach Roasted Red Pepper Egg Bites
- ½ cup baby spinach leaves packed
- ¼ cup diced roasted red peppers
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
Bacon Gruyere Egg Bites
- 8 strips of bacon crumbled
- ½ cup grated Gruyere cheese
Ham and Cheddar Egg Bites
- ½ cup diced ham
- ½ cup shredded or diced cheddar cheese
Taco Egg Bites
- ¼ cup leftover taco meat
- ½ cup shredded pepper jack cheese
- 2 tablespoons thinly sliced green onion
- 2 tablespoons salsa
Instructions
- Spray the egg bite cups, mini muffin tins, or ramekins generously with nonstick cooking spray. Set this aside.
- Add the eggs, cottage cheese, kosher salt, black pepper, ground mustard, and cayenne pepper to the carafe of a blender. Fix the lid in place and blend on high until smooth, about 30 seconds.
Instant Pot Egg Bites:
- Place a silicone or metal trivet in your Instant Pot pan. Pour 1 ½ cups of cold water into the pan.
- Divide your mix-ins equally between the cups in the prepared silicone pans. Pour the egg mixture into the wells, filling no further than ¾ of the way.
- Carefully transfer one of the silicone egg bite containers to the trivet, lay a piece of parchment on the surface, then stack the second silicone egg bite pan on top of it. Lay another piece of parchment directly on the top.
- Fix the lid in place, making sure it is set to sealed, and cook on HIGH pressure for 10 minutes. Allow the pressure to reduce naturally for 10 minutes before opening the lid.
- Carefully turn the egg bites out onto a plate and serve hot, warm, room temperature, or cold. Leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 5 days or in the freezer, tightly wrapped, for up to 2 months.
To reheat from refrigeration:
- Place on a plate covered with a paper towel or clean tea towel and microwave on 50% power in 20 second bursts until hot all the way through.
To reheat from frozen:
- You can either thaw overnight, covered, in the refrigerator and heat as directed above or place the desired number of egg bites on a plate. Cover the plate with a paper towel or clean tea towel and use your microwave defrost setting for about 2 minutes followed by microwaving at 50% power in bursts of 20 seconds or until heated all the way through.