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An easy breakfast casserole is the perfect morning meal, especially when feeding a crowd. You’ll love this dish full of eggs, hash browns, sausage, and cheese!
Featured with this recipe
- Easy Breakfast Casserole Ingredients
- How to Make Easy Breakfast Casserole
- Tips and Variations for the Best Breakfast Casserole
- Feeding a Crowd
- What to Serve with the Best Breakfast Casserole
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Storing and Making Ahead Easy Breakfast Casserole
- More Breakfast Recipes
- Easy Breakfast Casserole Recipe
Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day and this breakfast bake makes it even better! You start with simple ingredients like eggs, hash browns, and cheese. After that, you can dress this casserole in a million different ways. Add different meats and veggies to create a fun morning meal your whole family will enjoy!
If you are a fan of breakfast for dinner, this casserole tastes great for dinner! It is warm, filling, and nutritious. It has all the main food group ingredients and is super easy to make. Kids to adults love this recipe and love to have it early morning or in the evening for dinner. It is a hearty and healthy meal everyone loves!
Easy Breakfast Casserole Ingredients
The flavor and texture from these ingredients mixed and then baked makes this breakfast casserole one to remember! It is a savory and hearty breakfast that is filling and keeps you going throughout the day. All the flavors and healthy ingredients combined to have a good day, all day!
- Ground sausage – Saute the ground sausage until it is browned in the skillet. This is a meaty and delicious flavored sausage that we love to have in the egg mixture.
- Red pepper – Wash and chop the red bell peppers into small cube pieces. These give an extra soft crunch as you are enjoying your casserole for breakfast.
- Onion – Slice and chop the onion as little or big as you would like. This gives a delicious spice to the casserole.
- Hash brown potatoes – Either shredded or cubbed hash browns work great for this recipe. We use the frozen kind that is already freeze-dried. Freshly shredded or cubed potatoes will become soft and mushy in the oven with the egg mixture. We have even used tater tots with great results!
- Cheddar cheese – Shredded cheese is sprinkled in the easy breakfast casserole.
- Eggs – This is one of the main ingredients that hold the other ingredients together while baking. Large or medium eggs work best.
- Milk – The creaminess from the milk fluffs up the eggs while baking.
How to Make Easy Breakfast Casserole
Get ready to have the best breakfast casserole ever! It is so simple to make and baked in an hour. You will have protein, potatoes, vegetables, and an egg mixture covering it altogether. It is the breakfast everyone loves and dreams of every morning!
- Saute – Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Cook sausage, pepper, and onion until sausage is browned and vegetables are tender. Drain off any excess fat.
- Combine – In a large bowl, combine the sausage mixture with hash browns and cheddar cheese. Pour into a greased 9×13 baking dish.
- Whisk – In a separate bowl, combine eggs and milk. Whisk until fully blended. Pour over the hash brown mixture.
- Bake – Place in the oven and bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes, or until eggs are set in the center and don’t jiggle.
Tips and Variations for the Best Breakfast Casserole
This recipe is so versatile! Change the meats, potatoes, and veggies, or how you cook them! These helpful tips and variations can make your hearty breakfast casserole even better! Here are some more tips to customize it or make it even easier.
- Cooking spray – Make sure you spray your baking dish with cooking spray. The eggs will stick to the bottom if you don’t.
- Overnight Breakfast Casserole: Make the casserole ahead of time, cover, and keep in the fridge overnight. You can pop it in the oven the next morning and avoid messes! We love doing this for Christmas morning breakfast so we can open presents as the casserole is baking.
- Baking Tip: In my oven, this bakes up in about 50-60 minutes, but it may vary slightly in other kitchens. If you see that the edges are browning faster than the middle, you can add some tin foil around the edges to keep them from burning. Another way to avoid burning is to turn down the temperature of the oven and allow the casserole to cook a little longer.
- Potatoes – I like to use frozen hash browns, but you can use any type of potatoes. Sometimes if I don’t want to cook my vegetables, I will use the Potatoes O’Brien mix with peppers and onions. You can also use fresh potatoes, just make sure to slice or dice them thinly so they cook in the right amount of time.
- Veggies – My favorite veggie combo in this easy breakfast casserole recipe is red bell pepper and onion. However, I’ve used many other combos when I don’t have those on hand. I’ve used broccoli and tomatoes, zucchini and peppers, spinach and mushrooms, or just whatever I have in the fridge. If you use spinach and onion, try using mozzarella or Swiss cheese instead of cheddar – so yummy!
- Meat – Any breakfast meat tastes great in this breakfast casserole recipe. I like using maple-flavored sausage, but sometimes I use the spicy kind to kick things up a notch. You can also use bacon, pork sausage, ham, beef, chorizo, or no meat at all for a vegetarian option.
- Slow cooker – If you don’t have time to bake this in the morning, try our Slow Cooker Breakfast Casserole. You can throw in the ingredients the night before, and in the morning you’ll wake up to a delicious, fully-cooked meal! Plus, you don’t have to heat your house with an oven on.
Feeding a Crowd
When I have company, this is my go-to breakfast casserole recipe. It is easy to put together, and you can customize it to fit even the pickiest of eaters. This recipe makes 12 large servings or 15 regular servings. However, I can fit two 9×13 pans in my oven so I can double the recipe and feed up to 30 people! I just make sure to switch the baking pans halfway through, one on the top and one on the bottom. I like to pre-cut slices in the pan to make sure everyone gets a piece.
What to Serve with the Best Breakfast Casserole
If we are just eating this at home on a normal morning, I serve this casserole by itself or maybe with some fresh fruit. My kids like to top it with ketchup, and my husband and I usually top it with sour cream and salsa. However, if I am feeding a larger group or a very ravenous group, I will make a sweet breakfast item to round out the meal. Some of my favorites are Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, Lemon Poppyseed Muffins, and Caramel Monkey Bread. Here are some more breakfast side dish ideas:
“Yum! My husband loves this recipe! So delicious and tasty! Can’t wait to make this again!”
-Beth
Frequently Asked Questions
Breakfast casserole contains potaotes whereas a frittata does not have eggs and is usually baked in a pie pan rather than a 9×13 rectangular pan. Both have eggs, meat, and veggies baked together.
A casserole consists of a hot dish or baked food usually dinner in a 9×13 baking pan. A typical casserole has meat, cheese, and canned vegetables.
Because there are eggs in this breakfast casserole, you should never leave it out for more than an hour or if the temperature is above 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
Storing and Making Ahead Easy Breakfast Casserole
Turn this into a make-ahead breakfast casserole! You can make it the day before and refrigerate, or freeze it and make it anytime. Also, you can store any leftovers in an airtight container and refrigerate them. They heat up great in the microwave!
Prep the Day Before
Save some time in the morning by making up this casserole the day before you plan to serve it. Follow the first 3 steps in the instructions, then cover the baking dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Remove the casserole from the fridge 30 minutes before baking, then bake for an hour or until a toothpick or knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
Freezing Instructions
To freeze, follow all the directions in the recipe below, and then cover the cooled casserole tightly with a layer of plastic wrap, then a layer of aluminum foil to prevent freezer burn. You can also store the same way in individual portions so you can heat one serving at a time. Store in the freezer for up to 2 months.
To cook from frozen, thaw it in the refrigerator overnight, then bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until heated through. If heating individual portions, thaw and microwave or oven bake until heated through. There’s something so comforting about knowing there’s a delicious breakfast option in the freezer, just waiting to be heated and served.
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Easy Breakfast Casserole
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Ingredients
- ½ pound ground sausage
- 1 red pepper diced
- 1 medium onion diced
- 1 pound hash brown potatoes frozen, shredded
- 2 cups cheddar cheese shredded
- 12 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat a skillet over medium heat. Cook sausage, pepper, and onion until sausage is browned and vegetables are tender. Drain off any excess fat.
- In a large bowl, combine sausage mixture with hash browns and cheddar cheese. Pour into a greased 9×13 baking dish.
- In a separate bowl, combine eggs and milk. Whisk until fully blended. Pour over hash brown mixture.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes, or until eggs are set in the center and don't jiggle.
I made this with beyond meat and it turned out okay, a bit bland to be honest but I wonder if it was because they beyond meat wasn’t pre-seasoned like a sausage would be.
One note for me is perhaps we’re big eaters but I really didn’t get the sense it was a 12-15 serving dish, maybe 8-10 servings rather, particularly if this is the main dish of your breakfast or brunch with a salad on the side.
My other note was that the cheese didn’t seem to come through at all. I’m thinking of adding another few cups of cheese on top of the dish in the last 5 minutes of baking and getting it nice and melty before serving.
I’m making it again for a large group and will use regular sausage this time, and I’m thinking it will go well with some salsa as a topping, almost like a breakfast taco casserole.
There is Beyond hot Italian sausage that goes great in this if you’re looking for vegetarian options.
Do you know if I can use precooked crumbled Sausage for this recipe?
I think that would work just fine!
Do the frozen hash browns make it watery?
Not at all, they work great!
They didn’t make the dish watery at all for me
Yum! My husband loves this recipe! So delicious and tasty! Can’t wait to make this again!
Breakfast casseroles are the best! Can’t wait to try this one.
Can I assemble this at night and then bake it in the morning??
Absolutely! We do that all the time!
I love breakfast casseroles! They are so easy and such a great way to feed a crowd. This one was a big hit!
This Easy Breakfast Casserole was off the chain GOOD! Let me tell you it flew off my breakfast table in no time. I will be sharing this recipe with my sisters because I know they would love this recipe!!!
Have a great day!!