Sausage and Egg Breakfast Casserole

This is the easiest breakfast casserole you’ll ever make. It’s also my favorite breakfast casserole because it always brings back fun memories of my family.

It goes by two names around here: Aunt Joy’s Casserole and Christmas Casserole.

Aunt Joy’s Casserole because my Aunt Joy from Tennessee gave our family the original recipe.

Christmas Casserole because my family has been making this every Christmas morning for as long as I can remember.

Ingredients: 1 pound of sausage, 6 eggs, 6 slices of bread, 1/2 cup of heavy cream, 4-6 ounces of cheese, and salt & pepper to taste.

I like to use spicy Italian sausage for this, but any sausage will work. Sometimes I use Jimmy Dean sausage because that’s what Aunt Joy uses.

Side note: when you say “Aunt Joy” you have to use your best Tennessee drawl. It doesn’t sound right any other way.

This sausage came from a local Italian man who makes his own sausage. It’s darn tasty!

Remove the sausage from the casing by cutting it with a knife or kitchen shears:

And then brown the sausage in a skillet.

Once it’s nice and brown, turn off the heat and let the sausage cool.

If your sausage released a lot of grease, you’ll want to drain it very well.

Crack 6 eggs:

Add 1/2 cup of heavy cream and salt & pepper — mix well.

You can use milk instead of cream if you really want to. The original recipe calls for 1 cup of whole milk but I prefer it with 1/2 cup of cream.

Also, use more eggs and cream/milk if you want the casserole to be eggier.

Toast 6 slices of your favorite bread:

Sourdough bread is delicious in this recipe.

Tear the bread into small pieces and add it to a greased casserole dish.

The pieces don’t have to be the exact same size.

Pour the egg and cream over the bread and gently move the bread around and make sure all of it is covered with the egg mixture.

Next add the sausage:

And about 4 ounces of shredded cheese.

I use extra sharp cheddar for this but a jalapeño jack cheese would be great, too.

You can cover and bake like this but I like to mix it up a little bit.

Not a lot, but just enough to move around the ingredients some.

Now cover and bake in a preheated 350F oven for 30 minutes.

If you make this the night before (that’s what I usually do), take the cold casserole dish out of the refrigerator and let it come up to somewhat room temperature while the oven is heating up.

After 30 minutes in a 350F oven this is what it looks like:

Now, it’s up to you but I like to add a little more cheese.

The casserole needs to rest before you cut it anyway, so why not?!

Mmm, that’s better.

Add some fresh basil and dig in!

I love basil with eggs and sausage.

Seriously, this is the easiest breakfast casserole recipe there is. Nothing fancy — just a handful of ingredients that you probably already have on-hand.

Make this today. You won’t regret it!