My mother-in-law is famous for her brunch. So much so, that if you ask one of our nieces for her preferred meal, she’ll say “Grandma’s brunch”. One of my favorite dishes on her brunch menu has always been a breakfast casserole with lots of juicy sausage, melted Cheddar on top, and eggs holding it all together.
To go straight to the recipe for Breakfast Sausage Casserole with Cheddar, click here.
A few months ago, when my husband and I had our friend over for brunch, I decided to give it a go and experiment. Brunch was a success, our guest – full, and my hubby and I – excited to now host a family brunch. Both times I completed the menu with a Strawberry and Mascarpone Bread Pudding recipe I found on the Le Creuset website. Their cookware and their recipes are both amazing.
Recipe Notes
- Substitutions
You can use hot breakfast sausage if you like.
I tried making this with mozzarella and Mexican cheese also, but it’s a lot better with Cheddar.
- Prep ahead
I like to make it a day ahead of time and reheat in the oven, covered with foil, right before serving.
- Servings
It’s hard to tell how many servings you will get from it, depending on how much other food you are serving, and how hungry folks are. For the above mentioned brunch, everyone was satisfied with 1 serving. For a very-hungry-after-running-errands-brunch, my husband and I ate more than a half at a time.
Rough formula is 1.5 eggs + 3-4 oz of sausage per person.
It’s really easy to double or triple. “Size up“ the amount you’re using and pick an appropriately sized dish. It will rise a little bit so make sure to have at least an inch left for the top to rise. It will then deflate a little bit as it cools.
Complete your brunch menu with these recipes:
Avocado Bacon Toast with Tomato
Authentic Draniki: Belarusian Potato Pancakes
Goat Cheese, Prosciutto, and Fig and Jam Toast Appetizer
Breakfast Sausage Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 Tb ghee or butter, or olive oil
- 1 lb breakfast sausage
- 1 C heavy cream
- 6 eggs, large
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 8 oz shredded Cheddar cheese Tillamook is our favorite; Use orange colored Cheddar for a great final look
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 F.
- Cook the sausage in ghee until fully cooked, about 10-15 minutes.
- Transfer to a paper towel lined plate.
- In a large bowl, mix together eggs, heavy cream, salt, and pepper.
- Using a hand mixer, mix until smooth. You can check it by turning off the mixer and lifting the beaters – if thoroughly mixed, there should be no or very little of egg white clinging.
- Grease a baking dish large enough to hold sausage and egg mixture comfortably.
- Layer the breakfast sausage and top with the egg mixture.
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, top with shredded Cheddar and put back in the oven for 5 minutes.
- After 5 minutes, turn off the oven but leave the casserole in for 5 more minutes.
- Servet hot and topped with greens, if desired.