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
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This looks so good! Just a quick question: Will the potatoes thaw while preparing the other ingredients and while waiting in the refrigerator before baking? Or should I thaw them before I start preparation?
Also, do you know how to make the cute little degrees symbol after your temperature settings (i.e., 350º)? Alt 167. That’s it. Just thought I’d share.
Missy–AWESOME!! Thanks so much for the info! :)
As far as the potatoes go, they probably won’t thaw in time–I’d stick them in the fridge a day or two before you plan on making this (or gasp, leave them on the counter for a few hours).
oh this looks wonderful! it’s on my list now of things to try! thanks for sharing this!
Ok this looks like a keeper~ Has anyone tried this with sausage? I’ve got a killer wheat sausage recipe and would love to try it with this. Bacon will be totally wonderful, just trying to find different ways to sneak wheat into my family’s diet.
I haven’t tried it with sausage, but I bet it would be good! Just different. :)
Yummity Yum Yum Yum Yum. That is all :)
I’m totally making this for myself…with sausage. Haha. Sorry, not a bacon lover here either. But everything else in it makes me want to drool!
I’m guess that’s the reason why my potato dishes always turn out with a funny consistancy, I never thaw the potatoes first…good to know!
Happy Mother’s Day Kate & Sara! Thanks for making the cooking lives of even us non-mom’s tastier!
I think I will be taking your advice and emailing this to the hubs! I LOVE breakfast casseroles and this looks right up my alley. I love eggs and pretty much any combination of eggs, cheese, breakfast meat and potatoes. :)
Yum! We love breakfast food for dinner so I will be adding this to my menu for this upcoming week. Thanks, you ladies are great!
I am so excited! I have been so hungry for a breakfast casserole but am trying to stay away from bread. This is perfect!! Thank you SO much!
This looks sublime! Perfect for a Mother’s Day Brunch!
YUMMY!!!! Can this be done with real potatoes cut into chunks and not the frozen kind? The frozen chunks are really hard to find in a one store town!!
Karalee–I’m sure you could, you might just need to partially cook them first (either parboil or underbake them). I think if you tried doing raw potatoes, they’d take too long.
Will this work with potatoes diced small? I have an extra bag of potatoes left over and I need to use them up. How many potatoes do you think it’d take?
Jen, you could, I think you’d just need to parboil them a little first. As far as how many you’d need, I have no idea on numbers, but you’d need 20 ounces.
Will this work with shredded hashbrowns too? I don’t like to bite into potato chunks.
Heather, I’m usually partial to the shredded ones myself, but I really like the bigger pieces here. HOWEVER, I’m sure you could use the shreds if you want.
Fresh potatoes work too right?
Yep–check out the two comments above you. :)
I make this at home and the family LOVES it, but instead of bacon….I used little bits of ham and instead of the scallions on top…I use Potatoes O’Brien (frozen potatoes with bits of peppers & onions. NUMMY NUMMY!!!!
I’ve made a very similar dish, but with the meat (sausage, ham or bacon) on the bottom layer of the pan, and I brown the hash browns in oil prior to putting them in the baking dish. This gives the potatoes a great flavor :)
i wonder if this would work if I did it in the crock pot?
Yum, I love bacon, too. And I love a good brinner (breakfast for dinner) recipe! What if I wanted to make it in a 9×13 casserole dish? Just a bit more of all of the ingredients or is the recipe as it is now enough to fill a casserole dish?
Anna, you could totally do it the way it is in a 9×13″ dish, no need to change any of the proportions. I just like it in a smaller dish because then every little bit of the top has bacon on it. :)
I think that if you bake it in a 9×13, though, you would need to cook it for a lot less time, and it wouldn’t be as thick. A 9 inch pie plate has almost half the area of a 9×13 pan. It would be kind of like baking a cake in a 9×13 when it’s really meant for an 8×8 (which has almost the same area as a 9 inch pie plate).
I have never had good luck with breakfast casseroles. But I have had good luck with everything I have tried from yall’s site so I am sure this one will turn out great when I make it!
I’m a HUGE fan of breakfast casseroles so this one is a must-make – thanks!
Oooo! I’m going to try this! I actually get to be with my mother on Mother’s day this year! Thanks!
How many portions does this make….how many will it feed?
Joan, it really depends on who’s eating. I have no doubt that 2 teenage boys could polish it off themselves. :) I would say roughly 6-8 normal person servings.
Your recipe says to refrigerate overnight. Does it HAVE to refrigerate all night? Can I whip it up and stick it in the oven right away or will it not turn out right?
Carrie–It definitely does better when it sits for a little while; the potatoes soak in some of the moisture. But worst case scenario, it would still be good if you stuck it straight in the oven (if you can, try to let it sit for a little while at least, just to let things settle and redistribute).
Thank you for the help! Can’t wait.
i <3 bacon!!! i can't wait to try this recipe!!
do you think that someone who only likes bacon A LITTLE would find the bacon overpowering? sometimes I dont like how salty bacon is so I didnt know if having all of that would be too much and take away from the dish (for me). but it looks like the casserole is pretty thick so maybe only a thin layer of bacon wouldn’t be too bad. also, is this a type of thing that would be freezer friendly? and this brings me to my other question — is bacon an okay thing to freeze (like just the bacon). I’m young and not married yet so a lot of food items I buy go bad before I’m able to use them
I think if you only like bacon a little, I would either bake it in a 9×13″ dish to spread it out a little more or cut back on it and use something like smoked paprika (you should be able to find it in the spice aisle) to help make up some of the flavor that you’re losing. But yeah, it is a thick casserole and when it comes down to it, you’re really not getting that much. You could also look for a low-sodium bacon if the salt bothers you.
You can definitely freeze this. And yes, you can freeze bacon, too–I do it all the time when I find it on sale! :)
After frozen, how would you reccommend reheating single servings? what about the whole dish?
Oh. My. Goodness.
I’m making this as soon as possible! Or hubby is… YUM!!!!
Kate… you remind me of some friends of mine who were vegetarians… EXCEPT for bacon! LOL! We always have bacon in the fridge; I do a whole package in the oven, then my teenager heats up a couple of slices (couple… ha ha ha) in the microwave in the morning (often with your most-awesome blueberry muffins that I keep in the freezer). Anyway, due to an egg-issue myself around the 4th grade, they aren’t my favorite either, but I’ll give this a try… bacon, taters & cheese… what’s to go wrong?!
so how many would you say this fabulous recipe would serve? just one very special mother? or a room full of fabulous women? :o)
Definitely a room full of fabulous women–probably 6-8 normal appetites.
If I want to bake two of these casseroles at the same time how long should I leave them in? I love your recipes! Best Bites is my all time favorite website!!! Thanks girls!!!
Awww, thanks, Traci!! :) You could bake two at the same time and not have to worry about adjusting the time at all.
This looks SOOO delicious!! I think I’ll make it this weekend for Saturday Breakfast!
You guys have the cutest dishes and accessories. I really love the red scalloped baking dish. Where did you get it?
Addison, Target is the most evil place in the universe when you’re pinching your pennies, especially if you love cute dishes. I got that dish at Target around Valentine’s Day for 9.99.
Do you think I could freeze this, if so, before or after baking it? p.s. I love your website and always use your recipes when company comes over. That way I know they will enjoy dinner :)
I’m sure you could, either way, I just don’t know how long you’d need to bake it if you froze it uncooked. If it was already cooked, it was just need to be thawed and then reheated.
Love this! My family loves a similar recipe but with sausage. I’ll have to try it with the bacon. The only difference is that I throw my frozen potatoes in the oven for about 15 minutes before adding the other ingredients to the pan. This eliminates having to pre-thaw the potatoes. So if you’re not good at planning ahead (like me) you can still make it. Thanks for all the great recipes!
Holy smokes, this looks DElicious! I’m making egg casserole for a staff breakfast next week, and I know my fellow teachers will die for this one. I can’t wait to try it! :)
I read your comment about using potatoes. What does “parboiling or underbaking” mean?
It just means cooking them about halfway–boil or bake them to a point where you can prick them with a fork, but they’re not to a point where you could eat them.
HA HA I thought we were the only family who used “brinner” my dh is out of town this week, I will have to pre make and then no work for me on Sunday.
This looks so good. I bet it would taste good with chopped up tomatoes too. Must make!
I made this tonight. YUM! I don’t like eggs either, but didn’t even know they were there in this dish. Thanks for the great recipe. Next time I’ll make half for our family of four (at least that is how many are home now!). My husband plans to take some to work for a day or two or…
Oh my, this looks so good! What perfect comfort food.
You know if you are ever up for a challenge, I’d love to find a breakfast casseroly type thing that doesn’t involve cheese or milk. My son is allergic (I’ve mentioned that before). He loves eggs and bacon and sausage and hashbrowns and on occasion I’ll be nice and make that for him. However, I’d love to create something I could make for a brunch. Everything has cheese in it on some form or another. THis looks so yummy!
Have you ever looked into the vegan cheeses they have out there? They are usually named something cute like “cheeze” to differentiate them from actual cheese and contain no dairy products. I haven’t tried many myself as I have no allergies and love the real stuff, but I do seem to recall seeing some that were touted on the packaging as “better melting than before” or something of that nature. If it satisfies the cravings of vegans, it might make do in a pinch for your son! I’ve seen the products at local supermarkets (Publix, Winn-Dixie) in the organic food part of the produce section, but you can also probably find them at Whole Foods or Trader Joes. Good luck! Cheese (or cheeze) is such a wonderful addition to breakfast foods that I sincerely hope you find a good substitute so your son doesn’t have to miss out! :)
[...] Easy Bacon and Potato Breakfast Casserole from Our Best Bites [...]
I made this tonight using ham instead of bacon. And it wasn’t because I don’t LOVE me some bacon, but I had ham I really needed to use, and let’s face it, it really is much better for you. And the verdict: Very, very good. I didn’t sauté the onions in fat (well, there was no fat) and so those got a little on the dry side. Next time I would layer them underneath the cheese so I prevent that drying out. The ham got a little crispy on the edges, which I love and the kids loved it too! Thanks!!
I saw my store was having a buy 1 get 1 free REFRIGERATED cubed potato sale (I only needed 1 so it was like it being 50% off) and there was almost exactly 4 cups in a bag..soo happy (so maybe others can find some in the refrigerated section). the only type they had left was cubed with onions, which I didnt think was bad since the recipe calls for green onions anyways so I just added a little less green onions. Question, do you HAVE to refrigerate it before putting in the oven? I was making this planning on putting it in the oven right after until I kept reading the directions..good thing I was making it a little earlier than I needed it so I will have it in the fridge for only a few hours.. but I wasn’t sure
another question (sorry I ask a lot), how come in your recipes that call for bacon you also add in salt? doesn’t bacon naturally have a lot of salt so you dont need to add more in?
I just StumbledUpon your site and I’m glad I did! I love breakfast food, especially if it contains bacon and potatoes.
I’ll be trying this soon for sure but I think I’ll add green bell pepper with the onions (or buy the refrigerated potatoes that have peppers and onions mixed in) and, after letting the mixture cool a bit, I’ll mix directly with the potatoes before topping with cheese. I may also try with turkey bacon since that is what I have in my refrigerator right now.
I am hooked on your website. (Thanks Jenn Southworth!!) And when I saw this I knew I had to make it. My house smells amazing and I can hardly wait to eat all this bacon-ny goodness. I think I have the next several months of dinner menues ready thanks to your website and cookbook. Thanks for all your hard work ladies. You are helping to make my life (and that of my hubby and kiddos) very tasty.
Oh. My. Dear. I just took this out of the oven and it smells absolutely divine. Waiting 15 min before serving is definitely going to be the hardest part of the recipe.
can you make this without the milk…maybe extra eggs instead?
I would try it with some soy milk or unsweetened unflavored almond milk. You don’t want to lose that creaminess that milk adds! Admittedly, I have not tried this recipe with substitutes, but I just wanted to suggest it in case it works well for you :)
Just made this for mothers day breakfast, and it is totally watery! The taste is good and I love the idea. Also the potatoes aren’t done all the way. I defrosted them and even par-steamed them. Still not all the way done. I will try this again with 1/4 c milk and completely cooked potatoes.
Ours was super watery with undercooked potatoes too. I had it in a round casserole dish because it was overflowing in the pie pan. Maybe I used too many potatoes?
I’m thinking e watery thing may be an elevation factor–where are you located?
utah, slc area
I NEVER eat stuff like this. . . I’m kind of a health freak, but my husband is Afghanistan, so I put this together yesterday then baked it this morning for my own Mother’s day breakfast. I needed a little comfort food. :) I used Alexia rosemary and olive oil oven reds, chopped them up once they were thawed and they were SO yummy in this! Very delicious recipe! My kids didn’t want to eat it, but oh well! Thanks for the idea for comfort food!
Delish breakfast casserole~approved by the “I-don’t-like-breakfast-casseroles-husband”! I think it could us another egg or two, and has anyone ever used fresh, slighly cooked fresh potatoes? I bet that would make it even tastier as I don’t care too much for frozen hashbrowns.
I made this for Mother’s day brunch and an extra one for my bf to take to his friend’s house… (It was a bribe to get him out of the house so we could have a girls day) It was so easy and turned out FANTASTIC! Thank you for this wonderful suggestion. I served it with a berry/pear fruit salad, mimosas and a dallop of sour cream.
Also for those with the watery/undercooked comments, this happened to mine too. It needed another 30 min in the oven, but after that was perfect… YUM!
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!
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.
FYI – I used the 9×13 pan.
Made this first thing this morning for tonight; can’t wait.
This would be a hearty and tasty breakfast bake!
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 :-)
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!!
AWESOME! I made this, this weekend, everyone loved it and asked for the recipe!
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. :)
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 :)
[...] Easy Potato and Bacon Breakfast Casserole | Our Best Bites May 2, 2011 … Easy Potato and Bacon Breakfast Casserole Recipe by Our Best Bites. 4 c. Southern/country-style hash … [...]
Can you use evaporated milk instead of regular milk?
You *could*, but it may actually make it too rich. Tough call. :)
I made this for my family last weekend and it was a HUGE hit!! I couldn’t find grated pepperjack cheese so I had to do the grating myself but besides that, it was SO easy and delicious! THanks so much!
I’ll have you know, Kate, that we are making this for father’s day tomorrow! haha. So there!
Amen for Bacon! This is exactly what I was looking for! Awesome, thanks!
I didn’t read where you told how many eggs to use.
Check at the bottom of the recipe where we have the printable option.
[...] recipe from My Best Bites [...]
[...] Bacon and Potato Bake adapted from our best bites [...]
Looks like I’ve found breakfast for Christmas morning!
I am sooo making this Christmas morning!! Talk about easy, doing it up the night before, just what I was looking for, but I need a better accompaniment than fruit. Christms Day is my cheat day:) Any suggestions??
Any of the cinnamon rolls would be fabulous! :)
I made it for Christmas Morn and it was yummy. Used tator tots for the potato as that is what I had in the freezer AND used sausage not bacon and it was wonderful. I wanted to fry an egg and server it over the casserole! yummy, thanks…
Dang, girl! This cass was so good. I prepared it last night and cooked it this morning for our Christmas brunch. Everyone loved it. I’ll definitely use this recipe next time I want to make another breakfast casserole.
Eggcellent! I tried it today and will use this recipe again in the future. I’ve seen this recipe before using a pound o’ sausage and bread cubed up. I liked the bacon (bacon fanatic!) and potatoes (easier!) much more. I did use less cheese (only 2 cups, maybe 2.5 cups) and it was still awesome. Thanks!! I liked comment about tater tots and may try that next time.
Made this today for Christmas breakfast. I used sausage instead of bacon, added green peppers and mushrooms and used regular onions instead off green. It was a big hit.