This Buffet Breakfast Casserole is the best make ahead breakfast casserole recipe!

Make Ahead Breakfast Casserole

My family has been enjoying this for years! I copied this recipe from my older sister when I was in college, and now I make it every year during the holidays. I think she probably got the recipe from an old Junior League Cookbook. It’s definitely a keeper recipe that you’ll want to make again and again.

Buffet Breakfast Casserole is a great dish to make for company or family get-togethers. It’s very convenient to be able to prepare it ahead of time. It’s a make ahead breakfast casserole recipe that you can prepare the night before and just pop into the oven the next morning.

serving Buffet Breakfast Casserole

How to make Buffet Breakfast Casserole?

The base of this breakfast casserole is torn French bread, cooked sausage, Swiss and cheddar cheeses. Eggs with milk, wine, Dijon mustard and green onions are poured on top. Then the casserole is wrapped with plastic wrap and refrigerated overnight. I like to put a heavy book on top of the plastic wrap to weigh it down. This will help the bread chunks stay emerged in the egg mixture and all them to soak it all up.

slice of Make Ahead Breakfast Casserole

The benefits of making a Make Ahead Breakfast Casserole:

Making breakfast the night before is a huge time saver- especially when you have a bunch of relatives visiting. All the work is done the night before. In the morning, you’ll just take the casserole out of the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for a bit. Then you’ll just pop it into the oven for an hour.

At the end of baking, you’ll add some sour cream and Parmesan cheese on top and bake a little bit more. The “make ahead” aspect of the recipe takes all the stress out of your morning! You can use the time while it’s baking to chop up some fruit, make bacon or bake a coffee cake.

Eating Make Ahead Breakfast Casserole

Substitutions:

I love the tangy flavor that the wine imparts into this breakfast casserole. If you don’t wish to use wine (but you still want that tangy flavor), you can try substituting white grape juice for the wine (don’t use purple grape juice!) Or you can just increase the amount of milk to 2 cups and not use the wine at all.

You can also substitute chopped ham or cooked & crumbled bacon for the sausage, if you’d like.

Buffet Breakfast Casserole

I hope you’ll try this make ahead breakfast casserole recipe for one of your special mornings with family or friends. It’s truly an easy breakfast to make, and you’ll be so happy in the morning when you don’t have to do much at all to get breakfast on the table. Enjoy!

Here are a few more breakfast casserole recipes you might be interested in trying:

5 from 2 votes

Buffet Breakfast Casserole

A favorite holiday morning breakfast casserole!
Prep: 30 minutes
Cook: 1 hour 10 minutes
Overnight Time:: 8 hours
Servings: 10 servings
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Ingredients

Instructions 

  • Spray 9x13-inch dish with nonstick cooking spray.
  • Spread the pieces of French bread in the prepared dish and drizzle with butter. Sprinkle with sausage, Swiss, and cheddar cheeses. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, wine, green onions, mustard and pepper. Beat until foamy. Pour over the casserole, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. If you want-- you can place a book on top of the plastic wrap to weight down the ingredients.
  • Remove the casserole from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Remove the plastic wrap, then cover with foil and bake for one hour.
  • Remove the casserole from the oven. Spread with the sour cream and sprinkle with Parmesan. Bake, uncovered, for an additional 10 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving, Calories: 349kcal, Carbohydrates: 18g, Protein: 20g, Fat: 21g, Saturated Fat: 11g, Cholesterol: 218mg, Sodium: 440mg, Potassium: 239mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 3g, Vitamin A: 649IU, Vitamin C: 1mg, Calcium: 340mg, Iron: 2mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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serving of Make Ahead Breakfast Casserole

5 from 2 votes

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5 Comments

  1. D. Smith says:

    I never can do the “make ahead” type of stuff because there’s never enough room in my refrigerator for overnight stuff. Recipe sounds good but probably not gonna happen at my house!

    1. Nancy Stevenson says:

      If you have a rack for cooling cookies or cakes, try putting it on top of a 9 by 13 inch glass baking dish. Then you can stack other things on top of the cooling rack!

  2. Capt Dave says:

    5 stars
    Wow! Rarely does a recipe turn out EXACTLY like you think. But this one does. Normally, I hate bread or potatoes in breakfast casseroles. But the butter makes the bread moist. Doubled sausage and 4x the cayenne. Green onions are subtle. Maybe next time I’ll go with vidalias. Was impressed with how the wine came through. Don’t wait for Christmas. Make this a regular.

  3. Amy says:

    5 stars
    This was a huge hit on Christmas morning, there was a lot of going back for seconds. I wasn’t sure what to expect using the french bread but it turned out that it gave it structure and you didn’t even notice the bread in the dish. I also liked that I prepped everything the night before and all I had to do in the morning was bake it. Will definitely remake.

  4. Heather says:

    DELICIOUS!!! Our family has a favorite overnight egg casserole that we’ve used for years, but this one is our new family favorite. I made it on Christmas morning with the cran-orange mimosas, and everything was a big hit.