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The best way to start any day is with a breakfast that cooks while you sleep! This Crockpot breakfast casserole combines creamy scrambled eggs, shredded hashbrown potatoes, chopped onions, melty cheese, and crispy bacon (or savory sausage) for an all-in-one meal you’ll be excited to wake up to. Perfect for entertaining, weekly make-ahead meals, and holiday mornings! Vegetarian and dairy-free options included.
🍳 What Makes This Recipe So Good
- Whether you need to feed overnight guests or you just need a quick way to jumpstart your day, this Crockpot breakfast casserole is the perfect solution. It cooks low and slow over 8-9 hours, so you can throw everything in the slow cooker and let it work its magic while you get some well-deserved shut eye. When you wake up, you’ll have a fully-loaded hot breakfast ready to garnish and enjoy! How easy is that?!
- Our original 2018 version of this recipe had you assemble the casserole in the slow cooker in layers, adding the eggs last and letting them trickle down through the rest of the dish. We’ve updated the process so that everything is mixed together and then added to the Crockpot all at once. The result? The ingredients are much more evenly distributed, ensuring you get a little of everything in every bite. It also eliminates the risk of the eggs not reaching a layer completely, so you won’t get any dry or bland sections.
- One thing I really love about this recipe is how easy it is to customize depending on your mood, preferences, and dietary needs. Instead of bacon, use breakfast sausage, diced ham, chorizo, or omit the meat entirely. Add diced bell peppers, finely chopped jalapeños, and pepper jack cheese. Replace the half-and-half with your dairy-free milk of choice. Dress up your breakfast casserole even more by serving it with green onions, salsa or pico, ketchup, sour cream, or hot sauce.
👩🏼🍳 Chef’s Tips
- Make sure you spray the bottom and the sides of the Crockpot insert really well! If you don’t, the breakfast casserole WILL stick and may burn.
- If you notice any burning around the edges of the casserole, don’t panic. When you cut into the casserole to serve it, start by cutting just inside the burnt edge. That way you don’t serve any burnt spots to your guests or family.
- This Crockpot breakfast casserole is really best when it’s cooked on LOW overnight. If you’d rather cook it while you’re awake, though, I totally understand. To save some time, prepare the casserole the night before, cover the insert with the lid, and keep it in the fridge until morning. When you wake up, set the slow cooker to HIGH for 3 hours. Check on the casserole fairly regularly to make sure the eggs aren’t cooking too quickly. Once the eggs are fully cooked, add the shredded cheese topping. Let the cheese melt, then serve and enjoy your brunch casserole!
For More Tasty Breakfast Recipes
- Freezer Breakfast Burritos
- Tonga Toast French Toast Casserole
- Creamy Boursin Scrambled Eggs
- Gluten Free Breakfast Casserole
- Easy Peel Eggs
- Whole30 Hashbrown Sausage Breakfast Casserole
- Sweet Potato Breakfast Bowl
- Whole30 Breakfast Tacos
- The BEST Croissant French Toast Casserole
- Instant Pot Eggs
- Copycat Cracker Barrel Hashbrown Casserole
- Breakfast Egg Roll in a Bowl (Whole30, Paleo)
- The BEST Tater Tot Breakfast Casserole
- Vegan Biscuits and Gravy
Crockpot Breakfast Casserole
Layers of shredded potatoes, scrambled eggs, melty cheese, and crumbled bacon, fully cooked while you sleep! This is the very best breakfast to wake up to on Christmas morning (or really any morning at all).
servings
Equipment
- Large plate
- Paper towels
- Large skillet
- Slotted spoon
- 6-quart Crockpot or similar slow cooker
- neutral spray oil
- large mixing bowl
- whisk
- Silicone spatula
Ingredients
For the Crockpot Breakfast Casserole
- 1 pound diced bacon see Notes
- 12 large eggs
- 2 cups half and half
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt more or less to taste
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper more or less to taste
- 2 ½ cups shredded cheese of choice cheddar preferred
- 1 26-ounce bag frozen shredded hashbrowns
- 1 cup chopped onion white or yellow onion, divided
- ½ cup shredded cheese of choice cheddar preferred
Serving Suggestions (All Optional)
- diced, cooked bacon
- chopped green onions
- salsa
Instructions
- Line large plate with paper towels and set aside.
- Place large skillet on stovetop over medium heat. When skillet is warm, add 1 pound diced bacon. Cook bacon, stirring occasionally, until crisp.
- Transfer cooked bacon to plate lined with paper towels and set aside. Discard rendered bacon fat, or save bacon fat for other uses (like bacon gravy).
- Crack 12 large eggs directly into large mixing bowl. Add 2 cups half and half, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 ½ teaspoons salt, and ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper. Whisk ingredients together until mixture is fully combined and eggs are no longer streaky.
- Add 2 ½ cups shredded cheese of choice, 1 26-ounce bag frozen shredded hashbrowns, and 1 cup chopped onion to mixing bowl with scrambled egg mixture. Break cooked bacon into small pieces and add to scrambled egg mixture. Stir ingredients together until fully incorporated.
- Spray bottom and sides of Crockpot insert with neutral spray oil. Transfer scrambled egg mixture to prepared Crockpot insert and cover with lid.
- Cook casserole on LOW 8 hours.
- After 7 ½ hours, check doneness of casserole to ensure eggs are fully cooked. Continue cooking as needed, checking casserole often until eggs are fully cooked. Do not exceed 8 ½ hours total.
- Once eggs are fully cooked, sprinkle ½ cup shredded cheese of choice evenly across surface of casserole. Cover and cook on LOW 30 minutes or until cheese is completely melted.
- When cheese is melted, garnish casserole with diced, cooked bacon and chopped green onions if desired and serve warm with salsa or condiments of choice. Alternately, switch Crockpot to WARM setting until ready to serve. Garnish before serving if desired.
- Bacon: You can use 1 pound of breakfast sausage in place of the bacon. Brown and crumble the breakfast sausage, then drain and continue with the recipe as written.
- Hashbrowns: No need to defrost the hashbrowns first. I recommend breaking them up, though, so they distribute through the casserole more evenly.
- Make it Vegetarian: If you like, you can leave out the bacon altogether for a vegetarian version. Or use veggie sausage or bacon in place of the meat!
- Make it Dairy Free: Use dairy free cheese and non-dairy milk or half and half. I like Ripple’s Half and Half.
- Leftovers: Let the casserole cool completely, then transfer the leftovers to an airtight container. Refrigerate the leftover casserole up to 4 days. Reheat in the microwave or the oven until just warmed through.
Approximate Information for One Serving
Serving Size: 1servingCalories: 447calProtein: 21gFat: 34gSaturated Fat: 15gTrans Fat: 0.1gCholesterol: 253mgSodium: 833mgPotassium: 503mgTotal Carbs: 16gFiber: 1gSugar: 3gNet Carbs: 15gVitamin A: 711IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 277mgIron: 2mg
Nutrition Disclaimers
Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.
Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.
To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.
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What size crock pot?
8 quarts. 🙂
Can i use fresh grated potatoes instead of frozen hashbrowns? If so, would it cook for the same amount of time?
Freshly grated potatoes should work!
Can you cook this on High for a shorter period of time?
We haven’t tried that way, but make sure the eggs don’t burn!
Could you substitute the Obrien Frozen hashbrowns instead? I made this for thanksgiving morning and the family loved it!
The second time I made this I didn’t have an onion but still wanted that onion flavor. I ended up adding a small can of cream of onion soup (normally I don’t like using cream soups)… it was amazing! I mixed the soup and cream together first before adding the eggs in and left out the salt and garlic since the soup had that already. Really yummy! Easy recipe! Thank u!
So glad you enjoyed it!
I like using dehydrated onions for this purpose. It’s best though to soak dehydrated onions in a little water to RE-hydrate them when adding them into recipes for more real onion texture.
Do you think cream of mushroom or cream of chicken would be good?
If I wanted to double the recipe does it still cook for the same amount of time?
The recipe may require additional cooking time if doubling the recipe. We suggest cooking it for at least 9 hours, then just checking every 30 minutes or so from that point on. 🙂
This sounds wonderful! Have you ever tried doubling the recipe? I have a very large crowd to feed.
We haven’t, but just cook on low for 8 hours or until eggs are completely set! It may take longer.
I’m gonna make this for Easter adding in asparagus this time. How long do you think the asparagus needs to cook? If I added it for the whole time, do you think it’d get overcooked? TIA for sharing your tips.
BTW when we served this Christmas Day with our adult kids, it was a huge hit. It’s fun surprising them with new recipes (& I love how easy to please they are). They went back for multiple servings (& they really don’t ever over eat) which says allot, right?
UPDATE: Assembled this in my slow cooker on Christmas Eve using sharp cheddar, sausage crumbles and added a large chopped green pepper, also sprinkled some extra sharp cheddar cheese on top. Absolutely delicious! We had it for brunch with mimosas after opening presents. Looking forward to the leftovers tomorrow morning!
Has anyone tried this and not added the cheese?
Let us know if you try this, Summer, and how it turns out!
Hello Cheryl!
This looks absolutely delicious and is my kind of cooking. I love my slow cooker and this is definitely going to be Christmas morning breakfast this year with sausage crumbles and sharp cheddar. I can already imagine having a big piece with a cup of coffee while wrapped in my warm & snuggly robe! Thank you for this simple and delicious recipe, the kind that makes you want to hop out of bed early! Lol
Merry Christmas & best wishes in the new year,
Tamar