Amish Bacon Breakfast Casserole

Breakfast casseroles can be a real timesaver when you have to entertain for breakfast. Whether you’ve got guests in the house or you simply find yourself hosting a crowd in the morning, like a holiday, having a ready a casserole that comes together quickly (and that everyone loves!) can make breakfast entertaining a breeze. This Amish Bacon Breakfast Casserole recipe absolutely fits the bill for those kinds of occasions. Don’t feel like you need to wait for a special occasion to break out this great recipe, though, why not just make your weekend family breakfast a little more special?

While I don’t recommend assembling this casserole the night before, I do think you can make your recipe prep go much faster by completing a couple of tasks ahead of time. You can absolutely cook off the bacon and onions the night before so that all you need to do in the morning is assemble the eggs, cheese, hashbrowns, and pre-cooked bacon and onions. That should drop your prep time down, probably just the amount of time it will take your oven to preheat.

I love this casserole with bacon. It’s sort of central to the experience for me, but I know tastes may differ. I have used ham very successfully as a substitute. The onions fried up in bacon grease do take this recipe over the top, and I do miss that flavor, but ham is certainly delicious. When I make the recipe with ham, I just dice the ham and put it in cold, then use a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil to cook my onions. Be sure to still drain the onions briefly on paper towels just as the recipe recommends. This is a casserole that does not need any additional grease.

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Amish Bacon Breakfast Casserole

Recipe by Carmen

3.7 from 21 votes

Course: Breakfast

Servings

10

servings

Prep time

30

minutes

Cooking time

55

minutes

Ingredients

• 1 lb 1 Bacon

• 1/2 lb 1/2 Frozen shredded hash browns (approx 1/2 of 1lb package); thawed

• 8 8 Eggs, large

• 16 oz 16 Cottage cheese, small curd

• 1 cup 1 Sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded

• 1 cup 1 Swiss cheese, shredded

• 1 1 Onion

• 2 teaspoons 2 Garlic powder

• 1 teaspoon 1 Salt

• 1/2 teaspoon 1/2 Paprika

• Fresh ground black pepper & salt to taste

Directions

• Grease large baking dish (approximately 9×13). Preheat oven to 350° F (175° C).
• Roughly chop bacon into bite-sized pieces. Peel and dice onion fine.
• Place chopped bacon in cold large skillet or saute pan. Cook over medium-low to medium flame until bacon is cooked and crispy, and has rendered its fat. Remove bacon to paper towel lined plate to drain.
• In same skillet with remaining bacon fat, cook onions until soft and translucent. Adjust heat if necessary so onions do not char. Season with salt and pepper. Remove onions to same paper towel lined plate as bacon and allow them to drain for a minute.
• While bacon and onions cook, crack eggs into large mixing bowl and beat them until well combined. Add garlic powder, 1 teaspoon salt, paprika, and black pepper to taste. Mix thoroughly. Add cottage cheese, Sharp Cheddar, and Swiss cheese. Stir to combine.
• Add thawed shredded hash brown potatoes to egg and cheese mixture. Stir thoroughly.
• Add bacon and onions to egg and potato mixture. Stir.
• Pour mixture into prepared baking dish. Smooth mixture out to distribute evenly in dish. Cover with foil.
• Bake 40 minutes in preheated oven. Remove foil and cook an additional 15-20 minutes or until eggs are set and cooked and top is golden brown. Allow to sit 5 minutes before slicing and serving.

Notes

• Frozen hash browns must be thoroughly thawed or cooking time will be affected. Be sure to drain off any excess moisture on hash browns if they become soggy after thawing.
• Sharp Cheddar and Swiss cheeses may be substituted for your favorite cheese. Recommend using cheeses with very strong flavors rather than mild cheese like Medium Cheddar or Monterey Jack.
• Bacon may be substituted with pre-cooked ham or breakfast sausage. Recommend using 2 tablespoons of onion if substitutions mean more fat is needed to cook onions.
• Cubed frozen hash browns may be used in place of shredded. Dish may need more time in oven for cubed hash browns to cook thoroughly.
• Onion may be omitted without substitute.

Sausage is another possible substitute for the bacon. I have cooked up a pound of breakfast sausage and used it in this casserole. It is delicious! And it also offers the opportunity to fry up the onions in the sausage fat, which is very good. However, I find that no matter how well I drain the sausage my casserole still turns out a bit greasy. I do like sausage in other egg-based breakfast casseroles and the grease never bothers me in those, but in this recipe it’s not my favorite. Don’t let me scare you away from using sausage, though, because it certainly does turn out a tasty dish.