Cheesy Sausage Breakfast Casserole

Why It Works

Sautéeing the sausage and greens sooner than together with them to the casserole ensures they’re completely cooked and removes additional moisture.
Together with shredded Gouda cheese, bitter cream, and half-in-half to the eggs creates a rich custard-like filling.

Savory, hearty, and full of style, a well-made breakfast casserole is good for feeding a crowd. The proper breakfast casserole should be creamy and full of flavorful add-ins, and easy to slice into neat components. Sadly, I’ve had some severely harmful egg casseroles in my earlier—ones that are so overcooked and rubbery, you may fling them all through the room like a frisbee. That’s the reason I respect an excellent recipe for breakfast casserole, like this one from our Birmingham-based examine kitchen colleague Elizabeth Mervosh.

Mervosh baked up quite a few casseroles to created this flavorful egg, vegetable, cheese, and sausage mannequin that’s sure to impress everyone at your subsequent family gathering or brunch. She gussies up her casserole with a thoughtful combination of elements like Italian sausage, earthy mushrooms, vibrant sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, onion, and heaps of latest spinach. It’s all folded with shredded melty cheese (Gouda or cheddar) sooner than being blended with the eggs and baked.

The casserole is easy to make and could also be prepared ahead of time, so that you just don’t should rise up on the break of dawn merely to get breakfast on the desk. Listed below are just some concepts for a savory breakfast casserole that’s terribly satisfying, not soggy, greasy, or underseasoned.

Important Eats / Fred Hardy

4 Obligatory Steps to Guarantee a Good Savory Breakfast Casserole

1. Pre-cook the sausage and greens. Eggs prepare dinner dinner shortly—far too fast for fillings to do lots previous warmth up a bit by the purpose the eggs are completely cooked. So the vital factor to an unimaginable sausage- and vegetable-loaded egg casserole is to prepare dinner dinner your fillings beforehand. We start by cooking the sausage, then set it aside sooner than sautéeing the mushrooms and onions inside the rendered sausage fat—this fat and and the fond left behind inside the skillet from the sausage imbue the mushrooms and onions with porky, salty style. The other aromatics and greens, along with sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, and up to date spinach, are added after the mushrooms and onions. Sautéing the sausage and greens not solely makes them tender and helps them develop a sturdy style, nonetheless cooking the fillings drives off additional moisture, ensuring a creamy— not watery—casserole.

2. Load up on the dairy. It could be tough to ensure baked eggs in an enormous casserole dish are evenly cooked from edge to edge. The eggs can merely overcook and swap rubbery. To verify the eggs keep tender as quickly as baked, we whisked a hearty amount of half-and-half (or full milk, in case you select) and bitter cream into the egg mixture until completely blended. The added fat from the dairy ends in a creamier custard-like filling.

3. Make it less complicated by developing it correct inside the casserole dish. We would have liked to make this casserole as simple as potential to rearrange with out sacrificing style. That’s why we don’t skip sautéing the add-ins as described above—the time monetary financial savings are merely not worth it. Nonetheless one shortcut we do encourage is skipping the mixing bowl and simply combining all the casserole elements straight inside the baking dish so there’s one a lot much less bowl to clean up.

4. Customise it. This egg casserole is effectively adaptable, so be at liberty to take a look at your favorite add-ins or swaps. Chances are you’ll omit the pork sausage totally or swap it for turkey or veggie sausage. Any cheese that shreds and melts merely, much like Gruyère or Monterey Jack, might even work successfully proper right here. Kale could also be swapped in for the spinach and tomatoes could also be added as successfully (merely you need to undoubtedly prepare dinner dinner these elements first to remove additional moisture, much like you will with the spinach). To make it heartier, fold in some roasted potatoes, sweet potatoes, or root greens. (Leftover cooked greens work successfully too.) Get creative and take into account that previous breakfast this savory egg dish moreover makes an beautiful lunch or dinner.

The recipe was developed by Elizabeth Mervosh; the headnote was written by Leah Colins.