Breakfast Casserole  Recipe (2024)

It might be a good idea to bake the hash browns for 10-13 minutes in the bottom of the casserole and then add the egg mixture and finish baking. This crisps up the potatoes a little, giving a more layered effect to the casserole.

If there's water in the bottom of your pan after cooking this for 45 minutes at 350, there is a good chance that you have overcooked the casserole. When eggs are cooked perfectly, there is no water. Once they start overcooking the proteins constrict in the eggs and start releasing water. The best thing to do is take it out of the oven immediately and let it sit for a minute to reabsorb the water. Similar to cooking a steak.

I have done this without the meat. Additions have been onions, colored peppers, diced broccoli, and a dash of hot sauce. It repeats well, but freezing and reheating did not.

Great recipe. Add onions and peppers for color and texture. Also can be prepared at night and baked the next morning.

I find baking bacon on sheet pan with parchment paper a more consistent cooking method. Less cleanup, also.

As suggested, I pre-crisped the potatoes by layering them in the bottom of the pan and putting them in the oven as it heated up. This thawed the potatoes and got them started with the cooking. I also added onion and spinach. But I could also see it being good with nearly any veg. For those who had the watery issue, I suspect that it may be from adding too much milk. I like my eggs more firm and all of the milk in this recipe put it right on the edge for me. Next time, I’ll do maybe 1/3 less.

I am confused as to why the cooking newsletter describes hash browns as the topping, rather than the base...and then the photo shows cheese on top, though the recipe has it in the base under the eggs -- or is that what happens when it's cooked?

I had to cook this a solid ten additional minutes to cook the egg. After 45 minutes, it was still runny at the bottom.

When cooking bacon that will be used crumbled, I use a kitchen shears to cut the uncooked bacon into small pieces, fry them up, and use a slotted spoon to put them on paper towels. Sliced pieces cook more evenly and quickly than strips that curl. There is also less splatter and easier cleanup.

100 percent agree. The parchment paper is key

We’ve served a similar recipe in our family that uses tater tots as the base. You can also add fresh diced tomatoes, chilis, bacon, mushrooms, etc to change it up. This is a nice recipe to prepare the night before and bake in the morning, especially on weekends or holidays like Christmas morning.

Being a vegetarian who shouldn’t eat eggs (medical reasons), this is easily doable with materials that have become available recently, like faux-eggs and vegan faux-sausage. And it’s also not that bad for type-2 diabetic, with less than 30 grams of carbs! I look forward to making it, but I probably will season it differently with sautéed onions, crushed garlic and various herbs.

Swift’s Premium Sausage printed basically the same recipe in magazine ads about 35 years ago, and I and my now-grown sons have been serving it often ever since. Only real difference is that Swift called for only five eggs, and for 1 tsp dried mustard instead of the Italian seasoning.

Defrosting frozen hash browns helps the liquid-in-bottom issue; partially defrosted mine in oven 10 mins then continued recipe. Swapped garlic and herb mix for Italian blend. Baked nearly an hour; came out light and tasty, nice browning along the edges. This morning, I reheated for two minutes on med-low microwave setting. Consistency was as nice as the first serve. All we need is a crowd!

MLOREEN You ask what is Italian Seasoning. It is a preblended herb mix. Different brands sell it. I never use it, I just create my own from dried herbs, but my mom did in the day. Search for it by Cento, Spice House, McCormick and so on. Typically contains oregano, thyme, marjoram, sometimes basil or rosemary. Blends vary by seller. I just put together my own.

Never before have I used frozen hashed brown potatoes, but needing a casserole type dish for breakfast meal serving omnivore who are also celiac guests, I chose Ore-Ida hash browns (one of several brands that are gluten free), a top quality sausage that I knew to be gluten free (and from pigs raised in pasture by a local farmer) and this recipe, made just as written worked really well.

Italian Sweet Sausage is my go to in any breakfast casserole.

Why do you need to use frozen potatoes?

I made this vegetarian by replacing the sausage with onion/mushroom/yellow bell pepper/garlic/sage. Sauté diced onions for ~10 min with a little salt, and then add diced pepper (cook for 1 min), add sliced mushrooms (cook until everything soft/toothy). Add minced garlic and a lot of powdered sage, cook until fragrant, salt and black pepper to taste. Pro tip: you can prep the veggies a day or two in advance and refrigerate until ready to assemble casserole!

Needs more salt as it was kinda bland, that and the hash browns need a bit more structure to them. Otherwise, it's fine! I used fully thawed shredded hash browns and baked at 350 for 40 minutes, no watery issue that others were having.I'd definitely crisp the hash browns up before putting in all the other stuff, without the added texture it's kinda just slop without any slop foundation. Maybe toss the hash with salt and butter and toss it in a 450 oven while prepping the sausage and eggs.

I used Simply Potatoes refrigerated hash browns. No need for thawing or worrying about watery potatoes. Great to use for latkes, as well.

Loved this recipe! After baking, I sliced into squares and wrapped each in parchment paper, then froze. Made an easy grab-and-go breakfast that is quick to reheat in the mornings before work.

I am curious if I could use grated sweet potatoes to improve the nutritional value. Your thoughts?

Made to serve 15 kids with various food preferences. Cooked with cheese on top rather than mixed in and turned out great. Less picky eaters added hot sauce or salsa since seasoning was limited.

I had no problems with the texture, it baked perfectly. Even though I used hot Italian sausage, the dish was a bit bland.

I made this ahead of time for Christmas morning and froze it before cooking it. Every single person who ate it raved about how good it was. Delicious!

I made hash browns (entire bag, almost 2 lbs) in a non stick skillet in oil, tried to get them crispy. Used all of it…had to increase the eggs to 15.

This was really good and easy for Christmas morning. I pre made everything and combined all but the eggs. I agree the hash browns could have been browned before, probably in the same glass pan before adding the eggs as they were pretty soft.

Crisp hash browns first with broiler. Next time might use potato square hasbrowns for more crispness. We kept the meat on the side and did it with sautéed green and red bell peppers for Christmas morning. Onions too. Layered it like lasagna hash browns, veggies, cheese (felt like a lot putting it on but ratio tasted perfect), then egg mixture. Our oven works fast so we took it out way early (like 35 mins total)

This recipe is great, forgiving and very customizable! I found that the outsides were cooking faster than the insides and I didn’t want it to get too dark. I started with 30 minutes at 350 degrees, then turned down the oven to 325 degrees for another 15 minutes (checking after 10 minutes). It came out great and was a huge hit with my family!