Mexican Breakfast Casserole Recipe

Here's a quick thought experiment for you. Imagine that you have just five minutes to prepare and eat your breakfast before you rush out the door for what promises to be one crazy, busy day. Do you wolf down a bowl of cereal then hit the road, sure to be hungry again within the hour? Or do you enjoy a slice of hearty, filling Mexican breakfast casserole that's packed with enough protein to give you fuel for hours? Oh, and it tastes as good as any dish you'd get at a Tex-Mex restaurant.  If you went with option number two, then you surely chose correctly. It might seem like there's a catch as, yes, you need an hour to make this meal. But as long as the said hour was spent some evening before, you're all set.

"This is another great prepared dish to make at the start of your busy work week and quickly grab a slice on your way out the door," says chef, food writer, and registered nutritionist Kristen Carli of Camelback Nutrition & Wellness. Got an hour of free time? Perhaps somewhere in your busy schedule or on the weekend, you can make this delicious, filling dish that will keep you and yours fed for days. 

So, let's not waste any more time and start cooking now. That way, you'll have a perfect workday breakfast at the ready all week long. This is the Mexican breakfast casserole you'll want every morning.

This recipe makes a casserole large enough to keep you set for breakfast for an entire week. Conversely, if you've got a pretty packed household, it's big enough to take care of even a big family's morning meal. You can also easily scale it down if that makes more sense, but do keep that individual portions re-heat very well here, so you may want to go ahead with the full recipe even if you don't currently have a full house. 

For the full ten serving approach, you'll need 10 ounces of pork chorizo, 12 eggs, a 15 ounce can of black beans, drained and rinsed, 2 cups of shredded Mexican cheese, 3 green onions, sliced, a 1/2 teaspoon of tomato bouillon powder, 1 diced jalapeño, 1 cup of chunky mild red salsa, and 4 corn tortillas. Take a moment to cut your corn tortillas into one-inch squares.

Like things spicier? Then simply use a medium or hot salsa. If you've got other dietary needs to manage, that's pretty easy to accommodate here, too. A veggie-based version, for instance, is a snap to put together. "To make this vegetarian," Carli says, "simply omit the chorizo or sub in Soyrizo."

First off, pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and coat a 9-inch by 13-inch baking dish with nonstick spray. Set the dish to the side.

Now it's time to cook the chorizo. To make a broad generalization, there are two kinds of chorizo you might encounter on your next grocery shopping trip. First, there's the harder, pre-cooked, ready-to-eat type, as contrasted to the softer, uncooked variety. The first is the type of this classic Spanish-style pork sausage you want here.

Spray a medium-sized pan or heat a small amount of oil in the pan and cook the chorizo over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Stir it around and be sure to break the sausage up into little bits while you're at it. You want the meat lightly browned and warmed through, but you don't need to cook it fully. Once it's incorporated into the casserole, the rest of the cooking will happen in the oven, so there's no need to overdo it here. After about five minutes of cooking, take the chorizo off the heat and set it aside.

In a large bowl, whisk all 12 of the eggs, making sure all yolks break up and combine with the whites. While there's no need to beat until peaks form or anything — which you can't do anyway, as the fats in the egg yolk will prevent the whites from whipping up — you do want to mix the eggs well. Now add in the rinsed and dried black beans, the shredded cheese, the chopped green onions, and the diced jalapeño, along with the tomato bouillon powder, salsa, and the diced corn tortillas. Once the chorizo has cooled, stir it into the bowl as well.

Now, pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish. Rejoice, for your hands-on work, which likely took all of 10 minutes, is now done.

Pop the fully prepped Mexican breakfast casserole into the oven and bake it at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 50 minutes. 

Now pull that delicious dish out and let it sit a few minutes, then serve and enjoy. Or, if you're meal prepping or generally aiming for leftovers, let the dish rest for at least half an hour and then transfer it to an airtight container. You can also cover the pan snugly with plastic wrap and pop it in the fridge for easy, hearty eats later. "It stores in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 7 days and reheats well in the microwave," says Carli.

If you're looking for pairing ideas, Carli also has some recommendations for you. "I love this dish paired with a fruit salad for freshness. It also goes great with a couple dashes of hot sauce."  Consider something like Cholula, a Mexican-inspired sauce, or your own favorite. And if you need some more calories on those calories, it's hard to beat a breakfast of this casserole with a side of Mexican rice.