By: The Real Food Dietitians Updated: 9/27/22
This Ham and Cheese Breakfast Casserole is a breakfast you’ll look forward to! It’s an easy recipe that’s make-ahead friendly, great for breakfast meal preps, easy enough for busy weekday mornings, and also impressive for serving guests. It’s kind of like a mix between pancakes and egg casserole, where you get the best of both worlds. In fact, we like it so much that it’s not just for breakfast. We have been known to enjoy it for meal prep lunches, brinner, and brunch, too!
Recipe Highlights: Ham and Cheese Breakfast Casserole
The easy breakfast casserole is one of our favorites any time of the year.
- A delightful taste and texture that is somewhere in the middle between pancakes, an omelet, and an egg casserole
- You get the heartiness of an egg casserole without the fussiness of making quiche
- A nutritious mix of many food groups
- A make-ahead breakfast you can use for meal preps and ease the next morning
- Great for entertaining and special breakfasts, like Christmas and Easter
- A high-protein breakfast option that’s low in sugar and includes veggies
- Just 15 minutes of prep time, about 30 minutes of cook time, and it’s ready to eat in a total time of less than an hour
Ingredients To Make Ham and Cheese Breakfast Casserole
As registered dietitians who love to start our day with delicious nutritious options, we have many easy and healthy breakfast recipes to share. We especially love make-ahead baked options like this ham & cheese breakfast casserole recipe. Here’s what you need to make it:
- Flour – may use all-purpose flour or gluten-free flour blend, if needed. For gluten-free flours, we always reach for Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour
- Baking powder
- Butter – may sub olive oil and cooking spray, if desired
- Eggs – you’ll need 6 large eggs
- Cheddar cheese – Cheddar is delish, but other shredded cheeses like Swiss or Colby Jack work, too. Pepper Jack is great, if you want to add a little kick
- Ham – look for a package of diced ham or cut your own from a thick ham steak (ask the grocery store deli counter to cut a 6-ounce thick slice of ham for you). You could also use chopped deli ham or use leftover ham from a roast
- Onion – We used yellow onion but feel free to use sweet, white, or red onion if that’s what you have on hand. Sliced green onions will also work
- Sweet bell pepper – adds a boost of potassium, vitamin A, and vitamin C
- Salt and black pepper – you’ll need ½ teaspoon salt plus more to taste
Find the ingredient list with exact measurements in the recipe card below.
Tip!
Make It Yours
This breakfast casserole recipe is flexible and prime for making your own. Add mix-ins like a cup of shredded hash brown potatoes, cooked breakfast sausage or crumbled bacon. Try other veggies, such as diced sweet potatoes or sun-dried tomatoes, or a favorite seasoning, like a dash of garlic powder or Italian seasoning.
How to Make This Ham, Cheese, and Egg Casserole
1: Preheat oven and prep the dish: Generously grease the bottom and sides of a 2 1/2-quart casserole dish (or 9-inch casserole dish) with butter and set aside. This will make it easy to remove every bit of delicious breakfast casserole from the dish (and easier cleanup, too!)
2: Stir the base mixture: Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, milk, melted butter, and an egg in a large bowl. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish, then sprinkle the batter with cheese.
3: Make the egg mixture: Saute the onions and pepper in a little butter until they start to get tender. To the bowl that you used for the batter, add the remaining eggs, milk, and melted butter. Stir in the sautéed veggies and diced ham, then pour this mixture over the batter in the baking dish.
5: Bake the egg casserole: Sprinkle the remaining cheese over top and bake until the edges are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool 5 minutes before serving with toppings.
For serving size and the complete directions and ingredient amounts, scroll down to the recipe card below. All of our recipes include the nutrition analysis, listing calories (kcals), protein, carbohydrates/carb, fiber, sugar, sodium, cholesterol, and more per serving.
Our Favorite Baking Dish Set
These are our whole team’s go-to dishes for all things casseroles, baked oatmeals, cakes, desserts, and more! The two-piece Staub set gives you plenty of options to create a filling meal that comes together and cleans up with ease.
From Weekday Breakfasts to Holiday Mornings
Breakfast casseroles are both yummy and incredibly simple to make. The idea is that you add sautéed veggies to whisked eggs and pour the mixture into a crust (for a quiche) or a buttered baking dish (for an egg bake or casserole). Cubed, stale bread is also commonly added to give the casserole more substance. Of course, in this Denver omelet-inspired dish, we’re using a homemade pancake mix as an easy alternative to bread. The result is a fluffy breakfast casserole recipe the whole family will love for everything from quick weekday breakfasts to Christmas morning.
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon butter, divided (plus more for greasing the dish)
- 1/2 small yellow onion, diced small
- 1/2 medium bell pepper, any color, diced small
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (use gluten-free flour blend, if needed)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
- 1 cup milk, divided
- 6 large eggs, divided
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided
- 8–10 ounces diced ham
- Fine salt and black pepper taste
- Preheat oven to 375℉. Generously grease the bottom and sides of a 2 1/2 quart casserole dish (or 9×9-inch baking dish) with butter and set aside.
- Place a small skillet over medium heat. When the skillet is hot, add 1 teaspoon of the butter. When the butter is melted, add the diced onion and bell pepper and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Saute, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes; set aside.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 cup milk, 1 of the eggs, and 2 tablespoons of the melted butter; whisk until smooth with only a few lumps remaining.
- Pour batter into the prepared baking dish using a spatula, if needed, to spread the batter evenly over the bottom of the dish.
- Sprinkle ¾ cup cheese over the batter.
- To the bowl you used to make the batter, add the remaining 5 eggs, remaining ½ cup milk, and remaining 1 tablespoon melted butter. Whisk until well combined.
- Add the sauteed peppers and onions to the bowl along with the diced ham. Pour this mixture over the batter and shredded cheese in the baking dish.
- Sprinkle the remaining ¼ cup shredded cheese over top of the egg mixture. Place the baking dish in the oven and bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool for 5 minutes before serving.
Last Step! Please leave a review and rating letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business thrive so we can continue providing free recipes and high-quality content for you.
Nutrition Information
- Serving Size: 1/6th recipe
- Calories: 330
- Fat: 16 g
- (Sat Fat: 8 g)
- Sodium: 664 mg
- Carbohydrate: 21 g
- (Fiber: 2 g
- Sugar: 4 g)
- Protein: 25 g
- Cholesterol: 186 mg
Dietary
© The Real Food Dietitians
Frequently Asked Questions
How should I store leftovers?
Allow the baked egg casserole to cool for about 30 minutes before transferring it to a storage container with a lid. This breakfast casserole can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or frozen for up to 3 months. Tip: If you’d like to freeze the casserole and don’t have a freezer-safe lid on your container, add a layer of plastic wrap and top that with a layer of aluminum foil.
How should I reheat leftovers?
Reheat leftovers in the microwave, in a pan on the stovetop, or in a dish in the toaster oven. Cover the dish or pan with foil after adding a splash of water to the dish or pan, or in a covered pan on the stovetop with a little water added to the pan to create some steam.
What is the title of this recipe?
We call this a Ham and Cheese Breakfast Casserole. You could also call it a Denver Omelet Breakfast Casserole or a Western-Style Breakfast Casserole, since the ham and cheese are classic ingredients in western-style and Denver omelets.
How many calories are in ham and cheese breakfast casserole?
One serving of this casserole contains 330 calories.
The photos in this blog post were taken by Rachel Cook of Half Acre House.
For ultimate success, we highly recommend reading the tips in the full blog post above. All photos and content are copyright protected. Please do not use our photos without prior written permission. If you wish to republish a recipe, please rewrite the recipe in your own unique words. Link back to the source recipe here on The Real Food Dietitians. Thank you!
