California Breakfast Casserole is loaded with sausage, avocados, and tomatoes. All your favorite California omelet flavors in one hearty casserole, perfect for sharing!
California Breakfast Casserole
This California Breakfast casserole is layered with all the yummy goodness of a California style omelet in a family baked style. It’s one of my favorite breakfast dishes, especially when we have a crowd over for breakfast. I love making this on a warm summer morning and serving out on the patio, but it’s just as scrumptious on Christmas morning! Fresh and light, this breakfast casserole comes together in just minutes. It’s the perfect recipe to together the night before, store overnight in the fridge, then bake it in the morning. And it’s ideal for company, because it makes 12 generous servings. Serve with a side of fruit or toast and you have a healthy, hearty breakfast that everyone will love!
Suggestions for California Breakfast Casserole
- Layering the right way will ensure the breakfast casserole bakes evenly and sets up perfectly. Start with a layer of breakfast sausage patties, and top that with tomatoes and avocados, and then a thick layer of egg and hash browns all topped off with melted cheddar cheese.
- We like to smother our slices of breakfast casserole with sour cream and salsa or diced tomatoes.
- If you are weirded out by the avocado being cooked– don’t! It tastes great! However, if you must leave it out of the casserole and just want to use it as a garnish, that is a tasty option too.
- Using a cup of milk in the recipe makes the egg and hash brown mixture more light and fluffy. But we have made it without and it has turned out fine.
- If your casserole is still runny after baking, this is most commonly caused by now thawing out the hash browns before cooking.If you make the mix the night before you can definitely use frozen hash browns, they will thaw out in the fridge overnight. But if you’re preparing it the day of, make sure to thaw your hash browns before assembling the casserole.
More Delicious Breakfast Dishes
Sweet or savory, breakfast recipes are some of our very favorites! Try our Slow Cooker Breakfast Casserole and traditional Breakfast Casserole for savory options. But if you are in the mood for something sweet that will feed a group for breakfast you should try our Strawberry and Cream Cheese French Toast or Caramel Apple French Toast! During the fall one of my favorites is our Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake, and if I have company over Christmas I like to make a batch of our Eggnog French Toast with Gingerbread Syrup.
How to Make California Breakfast Casserole
Ingredients
Instructions
- Line the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan with sausage.
- Layer tomatoes and avocado slices over sausage.
- In a bowl, beat eggs and milk.
- Stir in all other ingredients.
- Pour hash and egg mixture over the sausage, tomatoes, and avocados.
- Bake at 350 for 45 min or until well set.
- Top with extra cheddar right after pulling out of the oven so it melts all over the top.
- Serve with salsa, diced tomatoes, and sour cream.
Almetta says
One question ? The recipe start with sausage on the bottom and the picture is displaying a layer of something before the sausage is laid. What is the layer before the sausage. t Than
Emily says
The sausage does get put down first. Some of the egg mix just seeps down making it look like an added layer.
Darlene says
will have to try sounds yummy thank you
My first granddaughters name is ” Echo Dawn”
Echo says
What a great name! We have 4 “Echo’s” in our family. 🙂
MS says
Are you suppose to cover while you bake this dish?
Erica says
You don’t need to cover it but if you do it couldn’t hurt!
Carson says
A few adjustments are needed here in my opinion. First of all, adding an entire cup of milk is far too much. It causes the dish to have excess liquid which can make for an unpleasant texture. It makes it seem as if the eggs are still raw. Also I made a base layer of crushed up tortilla chips, using just sausage is a bit awkward when trying to plate. And speaking of sausage, precooked sausage isn’t the best for you. So I opted to use shredded chicken breast! It makes the dish heartier and not as fatty! As for produce, I used Roma tomatoes (for their AMAZING flavour), added white onions, red bell peppers, and jalapeños on one half. My hubby can’t get enough of those! All in all, good idea for a dish. Just needed some tweaking to make it truly fantastic!
Beverly says
Maybe you should share your own recipes on your own blog? Yours sounds very good but so does the one Emily shared with us on her blog. 🙂
Rachel says
Agree! I do not care for chicken so that would not be a “truly fantastic” dish for me. I cannot wait to try this recipe , sausage, milk and all!
Elle says
Something is not right. That photo looks like it has a crust of some kind under the sausage. And it’s not cooked eggs. You can tell from the photo the crust is separate and distinct from the sausage layer.
Erica says
It looks like there is a crust but there is not. It is egg that has seeped beneath the sausage layer. This is the same recipe as the one pictured. Hope this helps!
Abby says
I first had this at a baby shower & it was great! However, it took TWO hours to cook in a 9×13 metal pan when I baked it for a potluck today! Luckily I allowed extra time or I’d have gone dishless! Hoping the tomatoes & avocados held up!
Debbie says
I have made a recipe very similar to this one and I did not use the cup of milk, only the eggs without the milk and it was not liquidy after cooking it for the suggested time or a just a bit longer seeing I don’t like runny eggs. no need to have milk or any liquid in there. Recipe here is a real good one. thanks
Echo says
Thank you for the suggestion!
Christian says
This looks great, but I have one question; what’s under the sausage?
Echo says
Thanks for asking, Christian. When you pour on the egg/milk/hash brown mixture it surrounds the sausage and cooks on the bottom of the pan.
Nicole says
Do u cook the sausage first?
Emily says
Yes, I like to cook and part off the excess grease before adding it to the casserole.
Julie says
The picture makes it look like there is a layer under the sausage. Is there on or is this the milk and other ingredients settling?
Erica says
The egg seeps under the sausage and makes it seem like there is another layer– but there isn’t. Hope this helps!
Sarah says
Any thoughts about substituting vegetarian mock meat??
Erica says
hmmm.. not familiar with “mock meat”…. if you try it let us know how it turns out!
Lorie Scroggs says
I made this today for our Sunday School class. It was a HUGE hit! It turned out perfect and bursting with flavor! Love how colorful it is! I did take your advice and cook it in a ceramic dish. I also added 20 minutes to the cooking time. I am mixing up another as we speak to take to work tomorrow!
Erica says
So glad you liked it! What a lucky Sunday School class! 😀
Barbara Seiwald says
My daughter fixed this last week and everyone loved it. My husband prefers this recipe to the ones that have english muffins or bread. I made it for our pot luck at Palm Sunday, and will make it again on Easter. Very good!
Karen says
I made this this weekend and it turned out fantastic and was a huge hit. After reading some of the comments where there were problems I thought I would share a couple of suggestions. I used a bag of Simply Potatoes Hashbrown, you don’t have to thaw them so no extra moisture like you might get from the frozen kind. Make sure you seed the tomatoes, again eliminating extra juice and finally extra large eggs. Mine baked to perfection in one hour. Definitely recommend this recipe and there are so many possibilities to tweak it to fit your personal preference. Hope this helps.
christina says
oh man… I totally didn’t thaw the hashbrowns :(. It’s so watery! ahhhhh
Erica says
Shoot, hopefully they still ended up ok!
Jessica says
I’ve read through all the comments and it doesn’t look like anyone has tried freezing this. I’m pregnant and due any day with baby #2 and I’m wanting to make this now and freeze it so I have some thing ready and don’t have to worry about making breakfast every day for me and my daughter. I’m wondering if anyone has any thoughts on whether I should freeze it before baking it Or bake it first and then freeze? Not sure how the eggs will turn out either way…
Erica says
First of all, congratulations! Secondly– this probably isn’t one I would freeze… if you MUST freeze it, I would probably freeze it AFTER baking but I can’t promise it will taste quite as good. :/
Leslie says
When you use bacon, instead of sausage, do you cook the bacon first? Or use the uncooked bacon to line the bottom? So excited to try this for christmas morning 🙂
Echo says
We cook the bacon first – thanks for asking! You will love this breakfast. Merry Christmas!
Ashley says
Has any made this without meat? How did it turn out? Looking for breakfast receipes to make during Lent.
Erica says
You can definitely make it without meat. It will still taste great 🙂
Kathleen says
Looks so good! Looking for a casserole for Easter brunch. If using bacon, would you crumble it or lay in strips or small pieces on the bottom?
Erica says
Definitely crumble– it might get too soggy if it is in big strips, plus the crumbled would make it easier to eat. Hope this helps!
Sandy says
Soooooo much liquid. I’ve had it in for over an hour trying to get the liquid to cook out. Fingers crossed. I wish I read the comments first. I would have left the milk out 🙁
hltb says
Want to know I dun consume dairy products so what can I replace that for your recipe?
Favorite Family Recipes says
We have never made this without dairy products so I am not sure how to advise you. Substitutes often don’t set up as well. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help!
Lauren says
I love this recipe and make it for mornings where time is of the essence (like Christmas or Easter). One question – is there something you can substitute for the hash browns? We are trying to eat low carb. Or if the hash browns were omitted completely, would that cause a consistency issue? Thanks!
Favorite Family Recipes says
You shouldn’t have any problems omitting the hash browns. They will still set up fine, they just won’t be as hearty. Hope this helps!
Jenny says
The flavor is outstanding! I served this at a family brunch get-together and everyone loved it.
However, like other reviewers, I also had some trouble with runny eggs not setting up. My hash browns were completely defrosted (they sat in the fridge for over 24 hours before I used them) so I don’t think that was the issue. After it baked for 45 minutes at 350, the top was still completely liquid. I turned the temp up to 400 degrees and baked for about 35 more minutes, it was mostly set up. I turned the oven up to 425 degrees and baked for about 10 more minutes. (At that point we were very hungry!) The eggs were still slightly soft but edible.
I will definitely make this again, but next time I will leave out the milk and see if that helps the eggs cook without being so runny.
Deborah Youmans says
This was an easy make ahead casserole and delicious!
I used frozen hash brown patties and substituted Morning Star sausage crumbles for the sausage patties.
CJWorley says
This is quite good! Just a couple tweaks though. I didn’t use milk at all; but added some cottage cheese to the egg mixture. I always put some cottage cheese in my scrambled eggs. Also, I fried up the hash browns until almost done, then put them in the bottom of a glass pan. The eggs did seep through to keep everything together nice for plating.