I Ate Frozen Breakfast Sandwiches Every Day for a Week to Find the Best One

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A hand holding a sandwich with layers of sausage, egg, and cheese on a plate with a blue rim. — Credit: Ali Domrongchai

I love a McDonald’s Egg McMuffin. The egg, sausage, and cheese on a toasted English muffin lives large in my head for many reasons. It’s my go-to for early morning road trips, my dad’s favorite breakfast order, and the thing I’m usually in the mood for on weekend mornings.

But as much as I love them, I don’t like paying anywhere from $4 to $5 for one. Plus, it would be so convenient to be able to enjoy my favorite breakfast sandwich without a trip to the Golden Arches. So I set out to find a suitable stand-in for the McDonald’s Egg McMuffin.

To do so, I spent a week eating a dozen breakfast sandwiches from five different brands. (You’re welcome.) In the end, Jimmy Dean’s English Muffin Egg and Cheese was the closest to my favorite McDonald’s one (and a fraction of the price!).

Credit: Ali Domrongchai

Jimmy Dean’s English Muffin Egg and Cheese Is a Total Dupe for the McDonald’s One

A few years ago, Kate, one of our contributors, found that the Jimmy Dean Sausage Egg and Cheese Biscuit was the ideal match for someone craving the McDonald’s Biscuit (and again, much cheaper). Even though I tasted my way through various brands for my breakfast sandwich taste test (including one from Trader Joe’s, which makes my favorite hash browns), I should’ve known that Jimmy Dean would ultimately take the top spot.

Jimmy Dean's Muffin Sandwich

$7 at Amazon

The elements of both sandwiches are nearly the same: English muffin base, cheddar cheese, sausage, and egg. But the Jimmy Dean sausage has chicken mixed in, and the egg is a scrambled disk (while the McDonald’s one is a whole egg with a hard yolk). The main difference, though, is that the McDonald’s one cost me $4.89 ($7.29 for a meal with a hash brown and coffee), and the Jimmy Dean sandwich package was $8 for four (!) sandwiches. That’s less than half the price per sandwich.

The two look strikingly similar, and I found the Jimmy Dean sandwich to be way less greasy without compromising any of the flavor. The sausage is juicy, the eggs are surprisingly soft even though they were formerly frozen, and the cheese is gooey and sharp.

My trips to McDonald’s are few these days, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t still crave a good breakfast sandwich. And now when I want one, I’ll just open my freezer instead.

This post originally appeared on The Kitchn. See it there: Better (and Cheaper) Than McDonald’s: I Ate Frozen Breakfast Sandwiches Every Day for a Week to Find the Best One

Ali Domrongchai

Contributor

Ali Domrongchai, a Southern-raised, Brooklyn-based food writer, grew up around her family's Thai restaurant that sparked her initial love for food. (Fun fact: her grandparents briefly ran a Thai grocery store in the 70s). In this space, her curiosity on the role that food plays in building community lead her to pursue a Bachelor’s of Arts in American Studies with a focus on the ways in which pad Thai affects the Thai American experience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.She joins The Kitchn as an Associate Editor for the Groceries vertical. Before this role, she held staff positions at Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure, and Allrecipes. Her words and recipes have also been featured in Cook's Country, Simply Recipes, and EatingWell. Oh, and most importantly, she can’t go more than a few hours without a sweet treat.

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