Meet your new brunch-meets-party obsession – mini crispy hash brown cups, with creamy Boursin, silky smoked salmon, and everything bagel seasoning. Perfect for festive brunch spreads, or when you want a party appetizer that feels totally acceptable to eat for breakfast.
Smoked Salmon Hash Brown Cups, at a Glance
- ⏰ Time: 30 minutes
- 🍽️ Makes: 24 cups
- 🛒 Key Ingredients: Frozen tater tots, smoked salmon, Boursin cheese, everything bagel seasoning
- 💃 Perfect For: Holiday brunch spreads, Christmas morning grazing, make-ahead entertaining, parties of any kind!
Why These Hash Brown Cups Work So Well
- Brunch flavors in a party-ready format. Everything bagel seasoning, hash browns, creamy cheese, and smoked salmon give you boujee bagel and lox vibes in one gorgeous little bite.
- Impressive, with very little fuss. They look beautifully elegant, but only take 30 minutes.
- Prep-ahead friendly. Bake the cups and make the filling ahead of time, then assemble when you’re ready to go.
- Guaranteed crowd-pleasers. Crispy, creamy, salty, zingy, fresh – the combination is always a winner, and they disappear at parties.
They’re basically like if bagels and lox, crispy hash browns, and weekend brunch had a baby, and I think you’ll love them as much as I do.
And if you do, I think you’ll enjoy these make-ahead smoked salmon cucumber bites, and easy baked salmon sushi cups too.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Smoked salmon. Regular cold-smoked salmon is what I’m using here – I actually love using smoked salmon trimmings for these – it’s much cheaper, and absolutely fine to use for a little bite like this. You could also use hot smoked salmon, smoked trout, cooked shrimp, or crab meat.
- Frozen tater tots. These lovely little mini hash brown bites (you might know them as potato gems) work perfectly to form the mini cups. You can use regular hash browns if you can’t find them – you’ll just need to do the first cook out of the pan, then tear them into smaller pieces to press into the cups.
- Boursin cheese. This lovely, garlicky, herby soft cheese is like a better, thicker version of cream cheese. If you can’t find it, regular cream cheese will work – garlic and herb flavored is even better. Or, use whipped cottage cheese, ricotta, or creamy whipped feta.
- Everything bagel seasoning. This is what gives these cups that brunchy, bagel vibe. It’s super easy to make yourself if you can’t find it (try this recipe for easy everything bagel seasoning). Or, just use a little sea salt and sesame seeds.
Step-by-Step: How to Make the Cups
This is a step-by-step photo overview of how to make the cups, the full recipe with ingredient quantities is at the bottom of the page for you.
- Arrange two tater tots in each of your mini muffin holes.
- Bake until softened, then press into little hash brown cups.
- Sprinkle a little everything bagel seasoning into each cup, then pop into the oven to get lovely and golden.
- Mix the Boursin with Greek yogurt, black pepper, lemon juice, and lemon zest.
- Once the hash brown cups look golden and crispy around the edges, remove them from the oven.
- Arrange the cups on a serving platter, then fill with the whipped Boursin (either spoon or pipe it in).
- Arrange the smoked salmon on top, then sprinkle over more everything bagel seasoning, fresh chives, lemon zest, and a slither of pickled red onion, or capers if you like.
Smoked Salmon Hash Brown Cups FAQs
You can! There are a couple of ways to get ahead with this recipe:
The hash brown cups themselves can be baked up to 24 hours ahead of time – just store them in an airtight container in the fridge. Crisp them up the next day in the air fryer or oven (3 minutes at 400°F/200°C in the air fryer and 6 or so minutes in the oven at the same temperature).
The whipped Boursin filling can be made up to 3 days ahead of time, then stored in the fridge until you’re ready to assemble.
Regular cream cheese, or garlic and herb flavored cream cheese, is perfect, or you could use ricotta, whipped cottage cheese, or whipped feta (try this creamy whipped feta dip) instead.
Tater tots are also called potato tots, potato gems, or hash brown bites, so double-check they’re not listed under those names at your grocery store first.
If you can’t find them at all, you can use regular hash browns. Cook them for 10 minutes on a regular sheet pan first, to soften, then tear them into small pieces and press them into your mini muffin pan to form the cups.
I’m using cold-smoked salmon here – but hot-smoked salmon is great too, as is smoked trout. Sometimes you can find ‘smoked salmon trimmings‘ at the store, which are the off-cuts of smoked salmon and tend to be cheaper – they still work very well in these bites.
Cooked shrimp, or crab meat works well too, or crispy bacon, chorizo, sausage meat, or prosciutto is lovely if your guests aren’t keen on seafood.
You want to make sure the cups look deeply golden all the way around before you remove them from the oven, then let them cool a little (5 or 10 minutes) before filling them.
Filling them too early or removing them from the oven too early can cause the base to soften and fall apart.
Like this recipe? Try these easy appetizer ideas next
If you make this recipe, I’d love to hear from you! You can leave a recipe rating and a comment below. And remember to tag @DishedByKate on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok if you’ve made one of my recipes. Seeing your recreations really makes my day 😊.
Mini Smoked Salmon Hash Brown Cups
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Bake the tater tots. Heat your oven to 400°F (200°C fan) and lightly grease a mini muffin pan with the olive oil spray (you can also rub the pan with oil or butter using parchment paper). Arrange 2 frozen tater tots in each hole (they don’t have to fit perfectly at this point). Transfer to the oven and bake for 10 minutes, until they’ve softened but they’re not crispy.
- Form the tots into cups. Remove the pan from the oven, then use the back of a teaspoon to press the tots into little cup shapes, pushing the potato up the sides and pressing down to form a base. Sprinkle the bottom of each cup with a little everything bagel seasoning.
- Bake the cups again until crispy. Pop the mini muffin pan back into the oven for 15 minutes, until the cups are gorgeously golden and crispy around the edges. Remove from the oven, and let them cool in the pan for about five minutes before gently removing them.
- Make the whipped Boursin. While the hash brown cups bake, add the Boursin cheese, two tablespoons of Greek yogurt, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, half the lemon zest, and a good grind of black pepper to a bowl. Mix until soft and fluffy. I like to transfer the mixture to a piping bag at this point for easy assembly, but you can also just spoon the mixture into the cups.
- Assemble the cups. Arrange the crispy hash brown cups on a serving platter. Either pipe or spoon in enough of the whipped Boursin to fill the cups, then top with a couple of slices of smoked salmon. Finish by scattering the cups with everything bagel seasoning, fresh chives, the remaining lemon zest, and a little piece of pickled red onion or a couple of capers if you’re using them. Serve right away.
