Breakfast Casserole Recipe

What's to be done when you and your family or guests are in need of one serious breakfast, but you also don't want to do any work in the kitchen? If you planned ahead, simply pop your prepared egg, sausage, cheese, onion, and bread casserole in the oven, and let it cook.

Chef, creator of Mostly Green, and registered dietician Kristen Carli of Camelback Nutrition & Wellness says: "This is the breakfast casserole recipe that my in-laws make on Christmas morning. It is a tradition to eat this with cinnamon rolls, Bloody Marys, and plenty of coffee." It may not be an everyday dish in her family, but once you try it yourself, this casserole may well become an every-weekend treat for yours. Just make sure you do indeed plan ahead because the dish needs to rest in the fridge overnight to ensure breakfast or brunch feast perfection.

For the record, you don't have to serve this breakfast casserole with cinnamon rolls and cocktails. "It is very rich and decadent," says Carli, "so I personally love it alongside a light fruit salad." That said, there's also a time to stop counting calories and just dig in and enjoy. For those occasions, this is the perfect breakfast dish.

If you want to make a delicious breakfast meal with this breakfast casserole recipe, here's the secret: use lots of cheese. And lots of sausage. And chives. And ... actually, let's just list out all of the ingredients, because there's really no mystery as to why this meal is a winner. 

You'll need 12 ounces of ground breakfast sausage, six eggs, two cups of whole milk, a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of black pepper, eight slices of white bread, roughly chopped, a cup of shredded cheddar cheese, and a quarter-cup of chives, chopped finely.

In a large skillet (ideally cast iron, but any is fine), brown the sausage for this breakfast casserole recipe. You can add in a bit of oil or use cooking spray, but for a fattier sausage, you may not need to add any fat at all. Just use your best judgment here.

What you can do here is swap in a veggie sausage. If you want this dish to be vegetarian-friendly, just cook the veggie sausage even less, as it will be baking for almost an hour later, and you don't want it to dry out too much.

Either way, while the sausage is cooking, go ahead and chop the chives if you haven't yet.

In a large bowl, beat the half dozen eggs together (just to mix them evenly, not enough to change the consistency of the whipped eggs), and then add in the salt, pepper, and the milk.

Now, stir in the chopped bread cubes, the shredded cheese, chopped chives, and the sausage (making sure that it has first cooled to room temperature) to the egg, milk, and salt and pepper mixture.

Give everything a few good stirs and folds to ensure all of the ingredients are evenly distributed throughout the breakfast casserole recipe mixture.

Spray an 11x7-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray, and then pour the mixture from the bowl into said prepared baking dish. Use a fork, spoon, or spatula to spread out and level the casserole ingredients in the pan, and then snugly cover the pan with aluminum foil. Now, pop the pan into the refrigerator and let it chill overnight.

If need be, you can let the dish rest in the fridge for only an hour or two, but we suggest that you leave it in there longer. That's because this extra time will allow all the flavors to meld together to create the most delicious breakfast casserole possible.

Remove the baking pan from the refrigerator 30 minutes before you plan on baking your breakfast casserole recipe, and remove the foil a few minutes before you actually start cooking. About 20 minutes into this warming period is a good time to preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Now, it's time to cook at last. Bake the casserole, uncovered, for 55 minutes in that 350-degree oven, or until a toothpick comes out clean, which may happen a bit sooner than the 55 minute mark, depending on the strength of your oven.

Now serve with cinnamon rolls and cocktails, fresh fruit and tea, or whatever sounds great to you.