Named after yours truly, Matt DeGraffenreid, I believe this is the Ulti-Matt Breakfast Casserole. Savory, sweet, spicy, with meat. What’s not to like?! I really should call this a brunch meal because it is a little labor intensive and you end up eating later in the morning hours, but the results are SO well worth the work and wait time. To help with that, do as much prep work the night before to help speed up the production time when you get up. You can go as far as thawing out the frozen hash browns (put the bag in the fridge), making the sausage and veggies mixture and also the egg mixture, separately, of course. This will all make sense when you read the recipe, I promise. The point I’m trying to drive home is that with a little effort the night before you could set yourself up for a very relaxing morning with the ones you love. How does that sound? 🙂
A breakfast casserole is an awesome thing. Think of it as a catch-all for your favorite ingredients; nothing is off limits. The basic structure is always the same: potatoes on bottom, some sort of meat and veggie mixture (however you wanna swing it), and the egg mixture. Feel free to bump up the flavor and richness by substituting heavy cream for some of the milk. Umm, yep.
Enjoy this dish, make it yours. Oh, it makes great leftovers. I am a big breakfast fan, I have to eat something within a certain amount of time from my feet hitting the floor out of bed or I am a bear, pun intended. This warms up really well and I can portion off however much I feel like each morning. Go for it!
- 1 – 16 oz. bag of frozen hashbrowns, thawed
- 1 tbsp Seasoning Salt
- 3 tbsp butter, divided
- 1 – 16 oz. chub Jimmy Dean Maple breakfast sausage
- 1 large onion, small chop
- 10 mini-sweet peppers (red, yellow, and orange), halved, seeded, and cut into half coins
- 1 cup sliced mushrooms
- 1 tbsp chopped garlic
- 8 eggs
- 1 ½ cups milk
- 1-2 tbsp hot sauce
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- 2 tsp ground black pepper
- 2 cups grated cheese
- Optional: 1 cup chopped, cooked bacon
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
- In a bowl, combine the potatoes, 1 tbsp of melted butter and Seasoning Salt, toss to combine. Press the potato mixture evenly into a 9” x 13” inch baking dish to cover the bottom and sides. Bake until the potatoes are golden brown, about 25 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack.
- Reduce oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a large skillet with 1 tbsp of butter, cook sausage over medium-high heat, stirring with a spoon to break up the meat, until browned, about 10-12 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
- To the leftover fat, add the onions, a sprinkle of salt and pepper, and cook, stirring, until softened, about 10 to 12 minutes. Add the rest of the butter and peppers, cook for another 5-7 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook until soft, about 5-7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and let cool. Add in the sausage and mix well.
- In a bowl, whisk the eggs. Add the milk, hot sauce, salt, and pepper, and whisk until creamy.
- Spread the sausage mixture evenly across the potato crust. Pour the egg mixture over the filling. Sprinkle cheese evenly over the top. Sprinkle crumbled bacon on top of the cheese. Bake until the custard is set, puffed and golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let cool for 15 minutes before serving. Serve with hot sauce and a dollop of sour cream.