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Crockpot Breakfast Casserole is perfect for holiday and busy mornings. Tender potatoes, fluffy eggs, and savory sausage cook up overnight in the slow cooker, so you can wake up to a delicious, healthy breakfast!
Overnight Crockpot Breakfast Casserole
This crockpot breakfast casserole is my go-to when I have company staying at my home. I don’t want my guests to miss out on the most important meal of the day! The eggs cook up light and fluffy all around the ingredients, so it’s basically a giant omelette once it’s all baked. This breakfast casserole is so easy to whip up the night before and then let the Crockpot do the work while we all sleep. Then guests are greeted to fragrant breakfast smells first thing in the morning and you get all the credit for serving a delicious breakfast. It’s so great for Christmas Eve, busy Sunday mornings or anytime you want a big family breakfast but don’t want all the fuss.
How Long to Cook this Breakfast Casserole
If your Crockpot cooks hot or if you have an oval one (like the one pictured above) it may only take six hours on low. A smaller, round crockpot may take the full 8 hours to cook through the center. So, you may have to stay up a little late the night before to start the cooking process. But if you’re like me, it’s way easier to stay up late and visit with company than it is to wake up early and make a big breakfast. To make clean up even easier try using a crockpot/slow cooker liner!
Variations on the Recipe – More Ingredients to Try
Our recipe for Crockpot Breakfast Casserole is a very flavorful with the simple ingredients we use. We love it this way, but we have also tried some variations depending on what we are in the mood for and what we have on hand.
- Potatoes: I love using the Potatoes O’Brien because they are already chopped and they come with red and green bell peppers. This just speeds up the process for me and makes this recipe even easier. However, you can really use any frozen hash brown variation. You can even use fresh grated potatoes, but the casserole will cook up a lot quicker with fresh as opposed to frozen.
- Meat: I like using sausage links because it is what my family prefers, but you can use any breakfast meat you have on hand! It just needs to be cooked first. Feel free to use sausage, bacon, turkey bacon, or ham. If meat isn’t your thing, you can use meat substitutes, or no meat at all!
- Veggies: If you’ve got it in the fridge, it can go in this recipe (almost, haha). We’ve used peppers, onions, green onions, mushrooms, spinach, kale, green chiles, zucchini, tomatoes, and asparagus, just to name a few. If you can find it on a omelette bar, chances are it will taste delicious in this recipe!
- Cheese: Cheddar is an obvious breakfast choice, but you can change it up! Any cheese that melts well will work. We’ve used Swiss, mozzarella, pepper jack, Monterey jack, and Colby jack before. They’ve all been great!
- Toppings: Everyone in my family likes topping this casserole with something different. We’ve tried ketchup, sour cream and salsa, sriracha, avocado, chives, cheese, and Tobasco, just to name a few. Whatever you top this with, we know you will love it!
Popular Combinations
Still looking for ideas to make this casserole your own? Try some of our most popular combinations.
- Denver Style: Cubed ham, green peppers, onion, and cheddar cheese
- California Style: Bacon, tomatoes, peppers, onion, topped with lots and lots of avocado
- Meat Lovers: Bacon, sausage, and ham
- Mushroom and Swiss: Spinach, mushrooms, Swiss cheese
- Garden Delight: Peppers, onions, tomatoes, asparagus, mushrooms, spinach
- Italian: Pancetta, red bell peppers, mozzarella
- Southwest: Green chiles, jalapenos, pepper jack cheese, top with avocado, salsa, and sour cream
What to Serve with Crockpot Breakfast Casserole
This casserole is a terrific all-in-one dish, so you could serve it alone with some toppings and a side of fruit. For a big breakfast or brunch, you can also pair it with our Make Ahead Breakfast Parfaits, our rich Blueberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake or a batch of the BEST Blueberry Muffins.
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How to Make Crockpot Breakfast Casserole
CrockPot Breakfast Casserole
Video
Equipment
- Crockpot Slow Cooker
Ingredients
- 12-15 breakfast sausage links
- 12 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 pounds potatoes o’brien (hash browns with diced onions and peppers)
- 1 tomato diced
- 2 cups cheddar cheese shredded
Instructions
- Brown sausage links in a large skillet until cooked through and cut into pieces. Â Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and milk together. Add salt and pepper.
- Spray crockpot with cooking spray and layer the cut up sausage, potatoes o'brien, tomato, and cheese. Pour the egg mixture over the top. Stir everything together.
- Cook on low heat for 6 to 8 hours. The oval crock pots like the one shown may cook faster than the typical round crock pots. Try to aim for the 6 hour mark if using one like this.
Can this be cooked on high for three hours, or will that change the finished product? Looks tasty, but I don’t love the cook time unless I make breakfast for dinner…
We haven’t tried cooking it on high but I am sure it will turn out fine. I would actually check it after 2 hours if cooking on high and then extend the time as needed. Hope this helps!
How many does this recipe serve? Planning to make it soon and I’m just curious.
This recipe serves up to 12 people. If I’m serving 12, I serve it with a side of fruit or muffins. It will provide a large serving, or give options for seconds, to 6 to 8 people. I hope this is helpful!
Do I have to add potatoes?
This recipe is based around having potatoes in it. I haven’t tested it without, so I can’t say for sure.
If making for just 2 people, could I halve the recipe, and if so, how long would you cook?
If you halve this recipe, it will take much less time to cook since there won’t be as much of it in the crock pot. My guess is that this would only need to cook between 3 1/2 to 4 hours, but you will want to keep a close eye on it. Cooking times can vary depending on the size, style, and brand of your crock pot. Since this kind of defeats the purpose of cooking something overnight for breakfast the next morning, you may want to try it for dinner one night before making it for breakfast. 🙂
I would like to know thoughts about making MORE than this recipe. I have the oval cooker – and lots of eaters 🙂 Do you think you could double this (or 1.5) and cook a little longer ? Thanks in advance for your thoughts!
Yes! I have a large slow cooker and I have doubled this recipe before. Just plan on a longer cook time.
If I was to make this and leave on overnight for 6 hours on low for Christmas morning. We usually don’t eat til 9:30 , I would have to turn it on around 3am for it to be done around 9 then it would kick to warm? How long can you leave on warm before It would dry out? Any suggestions on how to cook this? Thanks
It can stay on warm for a couple of hours. If you aren’t eating until 9:30, you could also make our oven-baked breakfast casserole. You can make up the casserole the night before, store it in the fridge, and then it cooks for about an hour in the morning. See the recipe here: https://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/elises-breakfast-casserole_21/ hope this helps!
Do you need to thaw the potatoes or just add them frozen?
Add them frozen. Thanks for asking!
Will this work in an instapot slow cooker?
It should, as long as the bowl is big enough!
Can I use cooked ground breakfast sausage instead ?
Sure!
This Crockpot Breakfast Casserole is a perfect make-ahead breakfast recipe! We had this for breakfast/brunch today and it was such a hit! I’m so glad I found your site when I was looking for a good recipe, I’m looking forward to more new great recipes.
Two of my favorite concepts my slow cooker and a breakfast casserole! I am so excited to give this a try!!!