So I’ve been a mother for 6 years and 4 months now and I’ve never had breakfast in bed. As time goes on, I’m pretty okay with that–I love, love, love my husband, but most of you know about my egg aversion issues (by the way, after Sara posted her egg-blowing tutorial, my brain recovered a horrible repressed memory from a 4-H activity when I was 10 and I blew out an egg for the first time and then promptly lost my lunch) and breakfast in bed usually involves eggs and eggs really aren’t his forte.
But for all you ladies who would love breakfast in bed, I think you should email this post to your significant others. Or create an anonymous email address to send the link to plant the idea in their brains. And maybe the anonymous email should include that this recipe needs to be assembled the night before, so you would also need a People magazine, a pedicure, and dinner alone on Saturday night while he whips this together. Just sayin’.
This recipe is beyond easy. Minimal chopping. Pre-cut potatoes. Incredibly delicious (seriously, when our family ate this for the first time, my pickiest eater, who is also a potato-hater, yelled, “THIS IS AWESOME!”) and, like I said, can be made the night before and then popped into the oven in the morning.
You’ll need Southern/country-style hash brown potatoes (the cubes, not the shreds), eggs, milk, bacon, green onions, pepper jack cheese (I promise, this doesn’t come out too spicy), cheddar cheese, and a little salt and pepper to taste.
Cook the bacon. All of it. The whole package. This is how you know things can’t go wrong. You can either cook it in the oven or on the stove top; the oven is my favorite way to cook bacon, but you’re going to be using the bacon drippings a little later, so if you’d rather just do it all in one pan, that’s up to you.
While the bacon is cooking, place the potatoes in a 9×13″ or a deep-dish 9″ pie plate. 
Mix together the cheeses and sprinkle those on top of the potatoes. 
When the bacon is done, place it on a paper towel to drain and reserve about 2 tablespoons of the drippings. Cook the chopped green onions in the drippings over medium heat for 2-3 minutes or until they’re tender and fragrant. Spread them on top of the cheese mixture.
Crumble the bacon and sprinkle that on top of the green onions. 
Um, in case you guys ever doubted, I love bacon so much. 
Look at it?! How could you not love it? Carly, you know I’m talking to you.
Whisk together the eggs, milk, and a little salt and pepper. 
If things are going to get tricky, this is where because you don’t really know how salty the bacon and cheese are and you can’t taste the mixture. But I think about 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt is probably good (you can always add more later) and about 10 turns of freshly ground black pepper.
Whisking constantly, pour the egg/milk mixture all over the potatoes and bacon.
Cover it up and refrigerate it overnight (or, if you’re making breakfast for dinner, do this first thing in the morning and then it will be ready by dinner time).
When you’re ready to bake it, preheat the oven to 350. Bake it up, uncovered, for 40-45 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly but not burned. Remove from the oven and let it stand for about 15 minutes (if you cut into it sooner, it will be a little runny and icky looking). Serve with fresh fruit, orange juice, a jelly jar full of flowers from the yard, and lots of hugs and kisses. Serves 6-8.
Easy Potato and Bacon Breakfast Casserole
Recipe by Our Best Bites
4 c. Southern/country-style hash browns (cubes), completely thawed (if they’re not thawed, they won’t cook correctly)
1 12-oz. package bacon
1 1/2 c. pepper jack cheese
1 1/2 c. cheddar cheese
1 bunch green onions, chopped
3 eggs
1 c. milk*
about 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
about 10 turns freshly ground black pepper
*For high altitudes, reduce milk to 2/3 cup and sauté the potatoes in rendered bacon grease until partially cooked before baking.
Begin cooking bacon. While the bacon is cooking, place the potatoes in a 9×13″ baking dish. Mix the cheeses together and sprinkle it over the potatoes. When the bacon is done cooking, drain it on a paper towel and reserve 2 tablespoons of the drippings. Cook the onions in the drippings for 2-3 minutes or until they’re tender and fragrant. Spread the onions over the cheese mixture and then sprinkle everything with the crumbled bacon. Whisk together the eggs, milk, salt, and pepper and, whisking constantly, pour the egg mixture evenly over the potato mixture. Cover and refrigerate overnight or for 7-8 hours.
When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350. Bake, uncovered, for 40-45 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly but not brown. Allow to stand for 15 minutes before cutting. Serve with fresh fruit.
Boise Fans! Sara will be doing book signings in your area this week!
Deseret Book on Eagle Road (see map here). This Friday, 5-7 pm
This Saturday (5/7), Nampa Costco, 12Â noon – 1:30pm
Can I add and extra egg to stretch the casserole to maybe 9 servings?
You could try- I’ve never done that but I suspect it should work!
Quick, help!! I love this recipe but I am cooking for a bunch of Paleo eaters tomorrow morning. I want to try it with subsituting the potatoes for cauliflower rice. Do you think that will work? I need your expertise!!!
The problem you might run into is the cauliflower may not absorb liquid the same way, but you can always try it! 🙂
I was wondering if you could use fresh cut potatoes? I don’t have the frozen ones. Thanks
I’ve never tried it, but if you do, let us know how it goes!
This isn’t one of our family favorites! I reciently started using Potatoes-o’Brien since our local store was out of the country style and that was all they had. It is really good to change it up sometimes.
I made the mistake of not looking further into the instructions until the morning of and realized it said refrigerate 7 to 8 hours. I didn’t let it sit. It’s in oven now and we’ll see how it turned out.
I looked for over an hourfor a receipe that used all this stuff & YOU nailed it!! Only thing I did different was to exchange a carton of sour cream for the milk. I always do this when I make quiche & it really adds that extra ‘somethimg’. I don’t eat ham, so I always use turkey bacon instaed. This receipe is just perfect for what I wanted. Thank you for making the directions so clear and easy to use. It was a pleasure to see your photos, too.
ok…my husband is out of town, so I made a smaller recipe for my son and I to have for dinner. Like many teenaged boys, he is a bacon fanatic! This was beyond good…..definitely a keeper!
Could this be made in a slow cooker?
I wouldn’t…I don’t think enough liquid would evaporate.
Can’t wait to try this delicious recipe! However, by some fluke of the universe, none of my children like potatoes. Not in any form. Not even french fries. gasp!
Do you think I could substitute raw cauliflower for the potatoes? Or should I steam it first? I’m thinking I could get a similar end product with cauliflower, but I’m not sure about how to get it all cooked evenly. Thoughts?
This is tricky because the potatoes absorb some of the moisture, so I’m worried you might run into a runny finished product. How do you think they’d feel about cooked rice instead?
Should I add any spices or herbs to the hashbrowns if I wasn’t able to find “Southern” or “Country Style”?
Nope! 🙂