Carl’s Jr. Breakfast Burger (Copycat)

by Sabrina Snyder

Last Update:

33 Comments

5 from 3 votes
4 servings
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
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Carl’s Jr. Breakfast Burger with melty cheese, crisp bacon and all your favorite savory breakfast fillings. All the flavor, no drive-thru.

The Carl’s Jr. Breakfast Burger is a standout among all the other fast food Breakfast options along with Bacon and Egg McMuffin. I’ve always been a huge fan of breakfast for dinner, and this burger accomplishes exactly that.

Burger with cheese, bacon and egg

Sabrina’s Carl’s Jr. Breakfast Burger

The burger is pretty popular at Carl’s Jr. on the West Coast and while it isn’t as popular as my In n Out Double Double Cheeseburger, this burger is definitely worthy of your breakfast table this weekend. Since you’re making the burger at home you’ll be using just a handful of ingredients instead of a list full and you’ll actually end up with a burger that looks like the ad instead of a burger that looks like it was sat on.

Recipe Card

Dinner, then Dessert

Carl’s Jr. Breakfast Burger (Copycat) Recipe

Carl's Jr. Breakfast Burger with melty cheese, crisp bacon and all your favorite savory breakfast fillings. All the flavor, no drive-thru.
Yield 4 servings
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Course Breakfast
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder
Burger with cheese, bacon and egg
PrintRate

Ingredients
 

  • 4 Hamburger Buns
  • 32 frozen hash brown crowns , cooked in oven until browned and crispy
  • 1 pound ground beef , (I used 85/15, 80/20 works too)
  • 4 slices American Cheese
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 4 eggs , scrambled
  • 8 slices thick cut bacon
  • Kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper , to taste
  • 1/2 cup ketchup

Instructions

  • In a large cast iron skillet, cook your bacon crisp.
  • Pour out excess oil but leave about a tablespoon.
  • Form the ground beef into four patties, press your thumb into the center of the patty to make an indent (this prevents the patty from becoming misshapen).
  • Season patties with kosher salt and pepper, to taste.
  • On high heat cook the beef patties for 3 minutes on each side.
  • Remove the patties and turn the heat to low.
  • Press the buns into the pan lightly and let brown and toast for a few minutes while cooking the eggs
  • In a large frying pan melt the butter on low in two batches.
  • Cook the eggs on low until they are cooked through but with no browning (this will take a few minutes).
  • Stack with bottom bun, 8 hash browns crowns, ketchup, beef patty, American cheese, ¼ of the egg folded over, two slices of bacon, ketchup and the top of the bun.
  • Serve immediately with extra napkins.

Nutrition

Calories: 867kcal | Carbohydrates: 33g | Protein: 44g | Fat: 61g | Saturated Fat: 24g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 7g | Monounsaturated Fat: 24g | Trans Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 317mg | Sodium: 1474mg | Potassium: 726mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 10g | Vitamin A: 704IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 333mg | Iron: 5mg

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Chef’s Notes

One of the most important parts of any burger is, of course, the beef! For the beef in the Carl’s Jr. Breakfast Burger, I stuck with a simple beef + salt and pepper. The quality of your beef is going to be higher than that of a fast food restaurant and your patty is going to probably be thicker. You can, of course, make the patties as thin as you would like, but the slightly thicker patty makes a great, juicy burger. Don’t be afraid of a thicker, home style patty!

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About This Recipe

I personally remade this burger with all homemade, fresh ingredients, and my own version of this burger definitely featured a runny egg yolk. For this burger, the best information I can give you is to cook the egg in a pancake form without moving it much on low heat. Don’t brown the eggs, just cook them until they set, then cut them and fold them in half to put it onto your piece of cheese.

Tips and Tricks

  • For the bun I used a basic sesame seeded bun, but just as the generic buns are somewhat smaller, I went with a bigger one since this burger is so large.
  • I used my favorite frozen hash brown. Carl’s Jr. also uses frozen hash browns and they use these flatter coin shaped hash browns. For the sake of the copycat burger I’ve done the same and eight hash brown crowns was the perfect addition to the burger.
  • I top the beef with American cheese and a folded sheet of scrambled eggs. Yes, I know what you are thinking, “no egg over easy? No runny yolk?!” No, no runny yolk because the original called for scrambled eggs.
  • I went with thick cut bacon because I am a bit selfish and I LOVE thick cut bacon. It has a slight chew to it instead of just cracking when you bite into it and the flavor of the bacon is much more pronounced.

More Amazing Burger Recipes

Burger stacked with a classic beef patty, hash brown, bacon, cheese and ketchup on a bun.

The following images were used in previous versions of this post:

Breakfast burger with recipe title

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

See more posts by Sabrina

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. this is amazing! definitely gonna make this with my kids, Yandra, 10, billy, 7 they just love food! my boy billy is 700 pounds cause of how much he loves food! this will definitely fatten him up! #LOL

    Reply

  3. This has me super hungry now! This looks really good and like something that would please everyone. We don’t have a Carl’s here so this is perfect!

    Reply

  6. This recipe looks so delicious and easy to make. I will have to get the ingredients i need to try it this week.

    Reply

  8. I’ve never had a breakfast burger before. This looks super delicious. I will have to make these next week sometimes for breakfast.

    Reply

  9. Oh my gosh I have never seen a breakfast burger before!! This looks like an amazing breakfast to make at home!

    Reply

    1. Yes, guys tend to love burgers, so why wouldn’t they love breakfast burgers? Let me know how they like it!

      Reply

  12. We have a Carl’s Jr within walking distance from our home, so the temptation is always there. I would love to create some of their copycat recipes while using my favorite grassfed organic ground beef. YUM!

    Reply

    1. If you can use the same flavors as fast food but with much better ingredients, that’s a win-win in my book!

      Reply

  14. I’ve never actually tried a copy cat burger. I think the guys in my house would go crazy for that, especially my oldest son who seems to be trying every variety possible these days. I’ve also never had an in and out burger. Can you believe it?

    Reply

  15. Oh Sabrina! This looks yummy. I want to face plant into this burger. And uh…I realize it is a copycat, but I love the idea of a burger for breakfast, I have never been one to love traditional breakfast foods. I want something heartier.

    Reply