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
Ingredients
- 4 cups Southern/country-style hash browns cubes, completely thawed (if they’re not thawed, they won’t cook correctly)
- 12 ounces bacon
- 1 ½ cups pepper jack cheese
- 1 ½ cups cheddar cheese
- 1 bunch green onions chopped
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- about 10 turns freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- 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.
Notes
- For high altitudes, reduce milk to 2/3 cup and sauté the potatoes in rendered bacon grease until partially cooked before baking.
Questions & Reviews
I am making this for dinner tonight but we aren’t green onion fans over here, and I was wondering if I should just omit the onions, or if I should do something to substitute the loss of that flavor! Thanks, you guys are the best!!
Josie, you could substitute some diced yellow, white, or red onion, or a little grated onion, or even some onion powder. All of those would add the flavor without the green 🙂
A HUGE hit – thumbs up all around. The kids usually aren’t big fans of breakfast casseroles BUT…this was heavy on potatoes – no soggy bread and BACON! LOVE it! Any suggestions for getting more of the flavor mixed in with the potatoes on the bottom? Possibly toss the potatoes together with the cheeses? One of my children suggested we replace the pepper with Old Bay.
Susan–Yeah, you could just toss everything together before popping it in the oven. Or…you could saute the potatoes for a few minutes in the rendered bacon grease. Shhhh. Don’t tell your doctor I told you that. 🙂
AWESOME! I made this, this weekend, everyone loved it and asked for the recipe!
WOW!!! I made this for my family and they loved. All four of my kids, my Mom who was visiting, and I ate it right up. I had to ask them to stop so I could save some for my Husband who was working late. Thanks so much!!! This is definitely going on our regular menu!!
My family gobbled this up! We added green chili mixed into the potatoes (since that’s what people in New Mexico do) and it was extra yummy 🙂
This would be a hearty and tasty breakfast bake!
Made this first thing this morning for tonight; can’t wait.
FYI – I used the 9×13 pan.
I made this for Mother’s Day and it turned out great with the exception of the potatoes. They were a bit undercooked. I used the Simply Potatoes from the refrigerated section. Since the bag was a bit less than 4 cups, I also bought a bag of frozen Ore-Ida Postates with onion and peppers. These potatoes were cut in cubes, but much smaller than the Simply Potatoes. They cooked much better. Next time, I will use those for the entire 4 cups of potatoes. If you use the Simply potatoes, you will need to cut them smaller in order for them to cook.
I made this for a Mother’s Day brunch that I had for some friends on Friday. Everyone raved. And for me for Mother’s Day? My husband did a great job of reheating it in the microwave and serving me. Just as delish as 3-day-old left-overs as it was fresh out of the oven. This will definately be a recipe that sticks around in our house!