Sausage and Egg Breakfast Casserole

If you have ever hosted overnight guests or just woken up to a houseful of hungry people, this breakfast casserole is about to become your best friend. It is the thing I make when I want everyone fed at the same time without me standing at the stove flipping eggs while my coffee goes cold. You build it ahead, it bakes itself, and you get to actually sit down.

I started making this for holiday mornings and now it shows up year round. It is sausage, eggs, bread, and cheese, which is basically the holy trinity of a good breakfast plus one. The best part is that it genuinely tastes better when you assemble it the night before, so it rewards you for being lazy. My kind of recipe.

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Why the overnight rest matters

This is basically a savory bread pudding, and like any bread pudding it needs time for the bread to soak up all that custardy egg mixture. If you bake it right away it can be a little uneven, but if you let it sit in the fridge for at least an hour, ideally overnight, the bread drinks everything up and bakes into something soft, set, and absolutely perfect. So this is your permission to do all the work the night before and look like a hero in the morning.

I always make mine in a sturdy 9×13 glass baking dish because I love being able to see the golden edges, and it goes straight from fridge to oven without drama.

Make it yours

This recipe is endlessly flexible, which is why I love it for using up odds and ends. Swap the breakfast sausage for crumbled bacon, add a handful of sauteed peppers and onions, or throw in some spinach if you want to feel virtuous. You can use whatever cheese is melting in the back of your fridge. A few cranks of a good pepper grinder over the top right before baking really wakes it up.

If you want it even heartier, swap the bread for a bag of frozen hash browns. It turns into a totally different but equally cozy dish that my husband requests on repeat.

Sausage and Egg Breakfast Casserole

A cozy, make ahead breakfast bake loaded with sausage, eggs, and cheese. Feeds a crowd with almost no morning effort.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 45 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 5 minutes mins

Servings: 8 servings

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 1 lb breakfast sausage
• 6 cups cubed bread day old works best
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 8 large eggs
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder

Method

 

1. Cook the sausage in a skillet over medium heat, breaking it up, until browned and cooked through. Drain off the extra grease.
2. Grease a 9 by 13 inch baking dish. Spread the cubed bread evenly across the bottom, then scatter the cooked sausage and half the cheese over the top.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
4. Pour the egg mixture evenly over everything, pressing the bread down gently so it soaks. Top with the remaining cheese.
5. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour or overnight if you can.
6. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees F for 40 to 50 minutes until set in the middle and golden on top. Let it rest 5 minutes before slicing.

Notes

You can assemble this the night before, cover it, and refrigerate. In the morning just pop it in the oven, adding about 10 extra minutes since it will be cold. Swap the bread for frozen hash browns if you want it heartier.

The make ahead breakfast you will keep coming back to

Once you have this in your back pocket, lazy weekend mornings and busy holiday breakfasts both get so much easier. Leftovers reheat beautifully too, so I often make it on a Sunday and we eat slices all week. It is the kind of recipe that quietly makes your life better, and those are my favorite kind.

So glad you are here.
xo, Pam