This Hash Brown Potato Breakfast Casserole is Awesome!

A good potato breakfast casserole is the perfect compliment to some cinnamon rolls or eggs and also makes the perfect breakfast for dinner option.

And, since breakfast for dinner is one of the most popular dinners around this house, I’m a big fan (does it get much easier than breakfast for dinner, moms??)

Delicious & Hearty Breakfast Potato Casserole

Nothing is worse than getting behind on dinner ideas for the week.

Not only is your sanity at risk, but your budget is also at risk of being busted as well since you’ll likely be paying more for last minute convenience.

That’s why I insist on a great breakfast casserole or two to not only have up my sleeve for breakfast (duh, right?) but also when I get a hankerin’ for breakfast for dinner. Truth be told though, the real hankerin’ that I get when I’m craving breakfast fo dinner is a lack of time and desire for low-effort.

Because there’s nothing high effort when it comes to breakfast for dinner around here. It’s more of a desire for something quick and filling that my entire family will love to eat. There you go, I admitted once again that I’m a lazy cook. If you didn’t know that by now than hit a couple more recipes on my blog and I can promise you that my desire for amazing, but easy recipes will shine through prominently.

Three Items that are necessities when doing breakfast for dinner:

1. Potato Dish

A good breakfast potato casserole recipe brings the whole breakfast together and serves as a hearty base to literally “set the table” and build your meal around.

Using a breakfast casseroles with potatoes like this one is the perfect way to make the table look beautiful as well, since there are so many colors in the hash browns.

2. Something Sweet

Bring on the sweetness with an easy indulgent addition to your breakfast potatoes casserole. For me this usually means cinnamon rolls, but other great options are chocolate muffins, blueberry muffins or a delicious banana bread.

3. Finger Food

I always serve a protein finger food as a part of breakfast for dinner. This can be bacon, sausage patties, sausage links or even sausage and cheese biscuits. This hash brown potato breakfast casserole has bacon on top, but no one ever said “there’s too much bacon here” did they?? Nope!

This rounds out the meal perfectly and gives something to lay over the potato casserole and cinnamon rolls.

What’s funny is that our kids literally go crazy when I make this kind of a dinner setup – and the neighbor kids think I’m the cat’s meow, which is awesome too because I need to save up my grace for when I’m at wits end and ask them all to have a cleaning party in my basement. I can’t be the only one that does this, right??

How to make this cheesy potato breakfast casserole:

Gather your breakfast potato bake ingredients first and foremost. You’ll want to make sure you have everything as no one ever said it was fun to run to the grocery store mid recipe, right?

1/2 poblano pepper, seeds removed and diced

One package Hashbrowns – O’Brien Southern Diced Potatoes are what I like to use. Unless your family has a serious aversion to veggies I’d use these because you add the onion, bell pepper and red pepper without having to dice anything, including the onions which are the worst to dice (winning!)

2 cups mild cheddar cheese, shredded

8 slices bacon cut into smaller 1/2 inch pieces to put on top of casserole

salt & pepper to taste

That’s it!

To prepare casserole:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Melt the butter in a large skillet and saute the diced poblano pepper until browned, almost blackened. Add the frozen hash browns, some salt and pepper and toss together.
Tip into a buttered baking dish and top with the cheese and lastly bacon.
Bake until hot and bubbly, about 30 minutes.

Can this be a make ahead breakfast casserole?

This casserole can be made ahead! Assemble everything per the directions and stick it in the fridge. You may want to add about 15-20 minutes into the cooking time, so just be sure to keep an eye on it.

What are some great side dishes for a breakfast casserole?

Like I said above, I love to serve cinnamon rolls or a moist monkey bread with an easy breakfast casserole. And then, a finger food, like bacon or fruit of course.

More breakfast ideas I love:

I hope you love this casserole as much as we do!