Tortilla Breakfast Casserole
Sausage, eggs, and cheese baked into a delicious tortilla breakfast casserole. Easy to make the day of or the night before! Always a crowd-pleaser!
Tortilla Breakfast Casserole
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This Sausage Tortilla Breakfast Casserole is the breakfast casserole that you didn’t even know you wanted this winter. It has delicious breakfast ingredients: sausage, eggs, cheese and is about as easy to toss together as any breakfast casserole.
But the real key to this dish is the corn tortillas. Layered throughout the casserole are big chunks of corn tortilla. In the middle they soak up the casserole almost turning into an enchilada. But on top they turn into super crispy, crunchy shards.
Depending on your schedule and mood, you can make this casserole the day of or toss it all together the night before and then just bake it off in the morning!
Starting the Breakfast Casserole
I used a bulk breakfast sausage for my tortilla breakfast casserole which was already laced with lots of spices and flavor. I know it had some spice to it, some herbs like sage and maybe even a little maple syrup.
I think you could use any sausage really though. If you use just plain ground pork, be sure to add some herbs and spices to it while it cooks.
Brown the sausage off in a skillet over medium-high heat. It’s probably a good idea to add a small drizzle of oil although as the sausage cooks, some of the fat will render out also.
Once it’s looking nice and browned, add in the onions and peppers.
Then stir in the green chiles once the veggies soften a bit. The sausage should be completely cooked at this point.
Oh, and your house will smell good. Sorry for partying.
Tortillas in Breakfast Casserole
If you wanted to get fancy you could roll this filling in the tortilla and make actual breakfast enchiladas. That’s a lot of work though. This method is better.
Just chop those suckers up. You want big, uneven chunks though.
To make the casserole, layer in some corn strips and top with about half of the sausage mixture and cheese.
Then whisk your eggs together with the paprika, red pepper flakes, and milk. Pour about half of that over the tortilla breakfast casserole.
Repeat with more corn strips, sausage, cheese, and eggs and then sprinkle the extra corn strips right on top.
As this bakes, the eggs will puff up and cover most of the casserole but the strips on top will get super crispy.
Baking the Tortilla Breakfast Casserole
This delicious creation will need to bake at 350 degrees F. for 35 minutes or so. The eggs in the center should be just set and the strips on top should be browned and crispy.
It’s a thing of beauty!
Fresh chives finish the Tortilla Breakfast Casserole off. I couldn’t wait to dig in.
Sausage and Tortilla Breakfast Casserole
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound breakfast sausage
- ½ onion diced
- ½ red pepper diced
- 1 4 oz. can green chile
- 1 tablespoons olive oil
- 6 small corn tortillas
- 4 ounces monterey jack cheese
- 6 large eggs
- ½ cup milk
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- Salt and pepper
- Fresh chives garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 °F. In a large skillet, add a drizzle of oil and sausage. Break up sausage and brown it well, cooking for 4-5 minutes over medium-high heat.
- Add diced onion and pepper to the sausage and cook for another 1-2 minutes until veggies soften. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in green chiles and remove from heat.
- Whisk eggs together with milk, paprika, and red chile flakes. Roughly chop tortilla strips and grate cheese.
- In an 8×8 baking dish, spread out about a third of the tortilla strips. Then top with half of the sausage mixture and half the cheese. Pour in half of the egg mixture. Repeat: tortillas, sausage, cheese, eggs. Top the dish with the last 1/3 of the tortilla strips.
- Bake the casserole at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until the egg is set in the center of the dish. Remove and let cool slightly.
- Serve casserole while hot with fresh chives.
Nutrition
Did you make this?
Snap a photo and tag @macheesmo so I can see your work.
Here are a few other great casserole dishes!
- 20+ Warming Casserole Dishes
- Baked Mushroom Tetrazzini
- Everything Bagel Breakfast Casserole
- Teriyaki Chicken Casserole from Life in the Lofthouse
Nick, you continue to amaze me with your awesome recipes!
Ha! Thanks Rob!
I cannot believe I actually have all of these ingredients in the house. This will be dinner tonight. It does look beautiful.
Love the addition of corn tortilla! What a great idea. How can I make this vegetarian? Can I use potatoes instead of the sausage?
You could do potatoes but I think I would do a mushroom and pepper mix! You’ll prob need a bit more oil to saute in also. Should be delicious though!
Or use vegetarian crumbles sold in many grocery stores.
Why not use a plant based sausage?
I used a soy chorizo from Trader Joe’s and it turned out perfectly!
This looks amazing! I’m thinking using chorizo could be awesome as well.
This turned out great – another winner from your site!
BINGO,-
my wife was not too hot about the tortillas—-HOWEVER, put it all together–with lots of cheese
she loved it, as did our grandson—easy to prepare, did @ 350 for 40′
we did for dinner–will do again-
gordon
stowe
Awesome Gordon! So glad it worked out. Thanks for the comment!
Has anyone doubled this and used 9×13??
Hey Kelly! That should really work just fine. For most casserole recipes like this that is the formula for a 9×13 fit. You might have to add 10-15 minutes onto the baking time, but you’ll just have to check it occasionally. Should work great though! Good luck!
Great recipe! Love the torillas. I added 1 egg and 1 diced jalapeño minus the seeds.
SO GOOD!!!! I used gluten free tortillas and chorizo, threw in some chopped tomato on top- amazing!
This is SO GOOD.
Awesome love it if you want killer dinner enchilada layered pie recipe I’v got one. Thank you for yummy breakfast for fam-damily
Making for thanksgiving morning. Wish me luck!
Awesome!!!!! Very easy to make and put together…It did need 40 min in the oven.
I made this in a 10″ pie dish. I used four eggs, less tortillas, And double the cheese. I skipped the meat, as I’m not a sausage fan. I added about a cup of drained Ro-tel tomatoes, and 1/4 c of sauteed bell pepper strips. Yum! It has a great flavor!
Can you use flour tortillas instead of corn tortillas?
Sure, although I think the corn tortillas are a bit sturdier. Either should work okay though! good luck!
I just put this together for breakfast for family that are flying in late. I plan on serving with salsa, avocado, sour cream and cilantro. I can’t wait. Thanks for the recipe!
Awesome Joann! I hope your family loves it!
Do you think I can use tortilla chips out of the bag instead of corn tortillas?
Made the casserole this morning and used left over taco meat, instead of the sausage. It was delicious and A good use of left overs
Saved.
It’s amazing how flexible breakfast casserole can be. I’ve used any number of breads, including panettone (quite good), and I’ve seen recipes using stale donuts and bagels (not in the same dish).
I love your website and I love your recipes, but as a South Texan it seems like you have more or less discovered chilaquiles. I suggest you garnish with cilantro.
My thoughts exactly!
This looks so delicious and reminds me of chilaquiles!
Hey Nick – I used what I had… I used spam, dried onions and tomatoes because I didn’t have any fresh onion nor peppers nor sausage! The rest is what you said! I’ll let you know how it turns out!