Sausage and Egg Overnight Breakfast Casserole
Sausage and egg overnight breakfast casserole is a baked egg casserole with pork sausage, onions, cheddar cheese, and spices, baked together with cubes of whole-grain bread. This delicious breakfast casserole recipe is sometimes known as a breakfast strata.
Sausage and egg breakfast casserole is super easy to throw together and really delicious for an easy breakfast or brunch. This make-ahead recipe is assembled the night before you want to serve it, then baked in the morning.
It’s a big time-saver when you are feeding a crowd, especially during the holidays when you need and quick and hearty breakfast while entertaining friends and family. Things can get chaotic enough without adding complicated meal prep.
This sausage and egg overnight breakfast casserole is a tasty protein-packed meal for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. I originally posted this recipe in January 2014 and recently updated it with some pretty new pictures. Don’t worry, the recipe remained the same. Food should definitely look as good as it tastes!
How To Make Overnight Breakfast Casserole
Ingredients You’ll Need:
- Sprouted grain, whole-grain, or gluten-free bread cubes (depending on your dietary preference)
- Sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (use a block of cheese and shred for best flavor)
- Chopped onion
- Dry mustard
- Medium pork sausage
- Eggs, slightly beaten
- Whole milk
- Salt and pepper to taste
Cooking Steps
Cook sausage and onion, drain, crumble and set aside. In a large bowl, beat eggs and add milk, cheese, salt and pepper, dry mustard, and sausage/onion mixture.
Spray a 9×13 (can also use a 9×11 baking dish for a fluffier casserole) baking dish with olive oil spray and place bread cubes in the bottom of the pan (make sure that cubes are in small pieces.)
Pour egg mixture on top. Cover and refrigerate overnight. The next morning, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake casserole, uncovered, for 1 hour. So simple and so delicious!
Want a slice?!
Helpful Tips For Making Overnight Casserole
- You can easily substitute lean ground beef, ground chicken, or turkey sausage for the pork sausage in this recipe
- This can also be made into a vegetarian casserole by using a mixture of sauteed vegetables in place of the sausage. I love a blend of red, yellow, and green bell peppers with mushrooms and onion. Just make sure that you drain them well before adding them to the dish. Baby spinach is also a great addition to this dish to add some fresh greens.
- You can cube the bread and shred the block of cheese and place it into separate sealed containers, and cook the sausage and onion several days in advance of assembling the casserole. Then, all you need to do is whisk the eggs with the seasonings and milk and assemble the casserole the night before baking.
- In a pinch, you can also assemble and bake this casserole all in one day, but it will turn out fluffier since the bread doesn’t have time to soak up more of the liquid. I have done this and it still turns out great in a time crunch!
More Favorite Breakfast Recipes
Loaded Potato Breakfast Casserole
Greek Yogurt Blueberry Baked Oatmeal
Sausage and Egg Overnight Breakfast Casserole
Ingredients
- 2 lbs medium pork sausage
- 1 cup onion finely chopped
- 12 eggs slightly beaten
- 4 cups whole milk
- 8 oz sharp cheddar cheese shredded (use a block of cheese and shred for best flavor)
- 2 tsp dry mustard
- salt and pepper to taste (I use about ½ tsp salt and ¼ tsp pepper)
- 4 cups sprouted grain, whole-grain, brioche, or gluten-free bread cubes depending on your dietary preference, remove crust and tear bread into small pieces
Instructions
- Cook sausage and onion, drain, crumble, and set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat the eggs, then add the milk, cheese, dry mustard, salt and pepper. Then add the sausage/onion mixture and stir to combine.
- Spray a 9×13 baking dish with olive oil spray then place the bread cubes in the bottom of the pan.
- Pour egg mixture on top. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
- The next morning, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake casserole, uncovered, for 1 hour.
Nutrition
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Hi there! Could you make this fully cooked the night before and heat it up in the morning? If you can, what temp and how long do you suggest to heat it for?
Hi Jenn! This would definitely work because I’ve made this recipe for meal prep. I would cover it with foil and warm at 300 degrees F until heated through, probably around 20 minutes.
I made this, this morning and made a small pack of pepper gravy to go with it, and OMG !! It was so good,. Thanks for posting this beautiful recipe.. It made enough for 16 servings and got my meal prep for breakfast done for a while,. I froze a bunch of them.. Thanks again.. 🙂
I’m so glad that you enjoyed it Sandra! 🙂
Do I have to use fresh bread cubes or does dried stuffing bread cubes work?
Hi Gina! You’ll need to use fresh bread or the casserole will be too dry. The dried stuffing will soak up a lot of the liquid.
The only thing I wasn’t clear about was whether to leave it covered or not when baking. I opted to leave it covered and checked it in 30 minutes. I then uncovered it so the cheese would be fully melted.
Hi Deborah! I bake it uncovered, but that would work well to do half and half. I’m going to make that note in the recipe card. Thank you! I hope that you enjoyed it!
Have you ever done this in muffin tins? I’ve been unsuccessful finding a recipe for an overnight “casserole” that’s baked in muffin tins. I’m trying 350 for 20-ish minutes and will see if they are done.
I haven’t tried this Ashlie, but I’d love to know how they turned out!
I’ve made it in muffin tins many times! I r also don’t add bread so I reduced the milk slightly and they turn out great!
Great idea in the muffin tins Melissa! I’ll have to try that!
Could you do this without potatoes?!?
Hi Kiersten! There aren’t any potatoes in the recipe.
My Mom made this as our Christmas Day brunch since I can remember. It was a huge favorite. Only thing she did differently is mix 1 can of cream & mushroom soup with 1/2 cup milk and pour over the casserole before baking the next morning. So good both ways. I’ve learned to spice it up with Jimmy Dean’s hot sausage! Love that you posted this recipe!
Hi Tracy! That version sounds amazing too! It’s such a great nostalgic recipe. We’ve had it for years, too. 🙂 Happy holidays!
Can I make the afternoon before instead of night before?
Yes, Tiffany, that would be fine. 🙂
How many slices of bread yields 4 cups? Do you have an ounce amount?
Hi Abby! You get about a cup of bread cubes from 2 slices of bread, so once you trim the crusts off and cube the bread, it’s about 8 slices. Of course, this is going to depend on the size of your bread loaf. I slice and cube the bread and fill a 4 cup Pyrex container. The next time I make it, I’ll weigh it, but the beauty of this recipe is it will still turn out great if it’s not exact.
I have a similar recipe of this breakfast casserole and it’s always been a favorite of my family. It’s so easy to prepare and a no fuss recipe.
Thanks Grace! I love easy breakfast recipes and this one is a staple for us. I appreciate you taking the time to leave a review!
Do think this would turn out ok using Aldi’s Keto-friendly bread? I have a small loaf I bought for my husband taking up room in the freezer, and since the rest of the recipe is ok on his Keto plan this would kill two birds with one stone.
Molly, I haven’t tested it out with that kind of bread so I’m not sure how it would taste. If you try it, please let me know how it turns out!
I have a very large family, and would like to make a double batch in an extra large 13 x 17 lasagne pan. How should I adjust the recipe?
Hi Nancy, I’m sorry I missed this! I would just double and use two pans.
This egg casserole is outstanding. I served it today at a Mother’s Day Brunch and it fed 15 adults with some left over. Everyone raved about it. Just reading the ingredients I knew it wouldn’t fit in the standard 9 x 13 pan so I put it in a 13 1/2 x 10 3/4 x 2 1/2 and it fit perfectly. I also had some sliced mushrooms and red bell pepper on hand so I cooked those with the sausage. This is delicious and I will definitely be making again. Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks for the review, Jennifer! I’m so glad that everyone enjoyed it! 🙂
Can this be frozen after cooking?
Hi Sally! I wouldn’t recommend freezing. It will affect the texture when reheated.
I have made this casserole for decades and have frozen it ahead of time . The secret is to freeze it before you bake it. To make ahead/freeze this casserole: you can freeze unbaked casserole up to 2 months. Cover very tightly with plastic wrap and foil. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bake the next morning. It comes out perfect, as though it were freshly made. This is a Christmas morning favorite in our household. 😊
Love this tip, Cynthia! I’m definitely going to try this!
yummy
I’m glad that you enjoyed it Pat!
could I use heavy cream instead of milk? if so how much do you recommend?
thanks
Hi Jennifer! You’ll want to keep the amount of liquid the same. It calls for 4 cups of whole milk. You could try doing one part heavy cream to 1 part water (2 cups of heavy cream and 2 cups of water), but I haven’t tested this so I can’t guarantee the same results. Also, this would significantly change the nutrition info for the recipe. I would recommend going with whole milk instead.
Have you ever made this with ham? If so, how much did you use?
Hi Adicia! I have not made it with ham but an equal swap should work well. Let me know how it turns out!
Can this be baked in 3 or 4 casseroles instead of just one?
Hi Rachel! I’m sure that would be just fine, you would just need to adjust the cooking time. I haven’t tested this, so I’m not sure how long it would need to bake in smaller portions.
Hi,
I want to half this recipe for my small family. How do you recommend adjusting the time and temp?
Thanks,
Mikaela
Hi Mikaela! You can half the ingredients and bake it in an 8×8 baking dish. However, I haven’t tested the recipe this way so I’m not sure about baking time. I would start checking it a 40 minutes and pull it once the casserole if fully set.
I made this last night and baked it this morning and was so excited, but sadly ended up being super disappointed. It was nowhere near done at the hour mark and even after another half hour there was an inch of water in the bottom of the pan. I had to drain the water out and bake for another half hour, so 2 hours total. The top tasted okay, but the bottom was super soggy because of the moisture down there. I’m not sure what went wrong 🙁
Kaylee, I’m not really sure because I’ve made this so many times with great results and it gets rave reviews. Did you use skim or low-fat milk? What kind of bread did you use? Was the sausage drained well?
can you use bacon instead of sausage?
I haven’t tried it with bacon, but it should be fine. It will change the texture a bit, but would still be tasty!
When I told my family what was baking, they were like “meh, ugh “. Then they saw me cutting into it and it’s now gone! They loved it. I did add green pepper with the sausage/onion and I added mushrooms and white pepper to the egg mixture. My sausage was still hot and I didn’t want to add it to the egg mixture for fear it would scramble. I poured the sausage mix over the bread, sprinkled the cheese over it then poured egg mix over. It is a keeper, for sure. Used Pepperidge Farm whole grain honey wheat. Delicious. Thank you.
I love all of your additions DeeDee! Thank you for the review. I’m so glad that you all enjoyed it! 🙂
Is there any way this can be frozen either before or after baking and if so, how long can you freeze it? Also wondering if you tried doing this cupcake sized so you can make individual servings. I’ve made this for years and we love it. I’m just wondering about the cupcake size and freezing?
Hi Kimberly! Yes, you can freeze it uncooked, just assemble, cover with plastic wrap and seal it up with foil and pop it in the freezer for up to 3 months. Let it thaw overnight in the fridge before cooking. You can also freeze it cooked, after it has cooled completely, wrap individual servings in plastic wrap, then place it in a sealed freezer-safe container and freeze up to 3 months.