Overnight Hash Brown Casserole
Try this Overnight Hash Brown Casserole recipe or contribute your own.
Try this Overnight Hash Brown Casserole recipe or contribute your own.
- Carbohydrate 0.77 g
- Cholesterol 423 mg
- Fat 9.94 g
- Fiber 0 g
- Protein 12.58 g
- Saturated Fat 3.099 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (209g)
- Sodium 140 mg
- Sugar 0.77 g
- Trans Fat 1.667 g
- Calories 143 calories
Step-by-step
- Preheat oven to 400 Line a large rimmed sheet pan with parchment paper.
- Lay bacon on lined pan so that it's close but isn't touching.
- Bake for about 10 minutes or until tender-crisp. You don't want it to be crisp because it's going to bake longer when the casserole cooks.
- Let bacon cool on baking sheet.
- Remove to a paper towel-lined plate to absorb any extra grease.
- To make the casserole, heat butter in a large skillet.
- Add diced onion and peppers.
- Cook until onion is translucent and peppers have softened.
- Grease a deep 9x13-inch baking dish.
- Layer hashbrowns and cooked veggies.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Crumble cooked bacon over the top of the veggies.
- Top with 1 cup cheese.
- In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, and hot sauce.
- Pour over hash brown mixture.
- Top with remaining cup of cheddar cheese.
- Cover pan with aluminum foil, and place in the fridge overnight.
- In the morning, get casserole out of the fridge about 30 minutes before you want to bake it.
- Preheat oven to 400 F.
- Bake casserole, covered, for about 45 minutes.
- Uncover, and continue cooking for about 15 minutes longer, or until casserole is set and has baked through.
- I like to serve this with additional chipotle hot sauce or salsa.
Golden cheddar edges give way to a tender, custard-soaked interior studded with smoky bacon and sweet peppers. Achieving this structural integrity relies entirely on a deliberate rest period inside the refrigerator. Raw or under-thawed starches will bleed moisture into the dairy base, turning the custard watery during the bake. Thawing the potatoes completely and pressing out excess liquid guarantees that the starches absorb the protein-rich egg mixture rather than diluting it.
Baking the bacon only to a tender-crisp state at four hundred degrees Fahrenheit ensures the meat retains enough rendered fat to flavor the vegetables while preventing it from burning during the final casserole phase. Pulling the pork products from the oven before they snap crisp allows them to soften slightly as they steam inside the covered dish. Dicing the onions and bell peppers uniformly promotes even softening in the skillet, preventing raw pockets of crunchiness from disrupting the strata.
Allowing the assembled pan to rest overnight fuses the dairy fats with the potato starches through continuous, cold hydration. Denatured proteins in the eggs slowly bond with the milk solids, creating a cohesive gel matrix that holds its shape when sliced. Pulling the baking dish from the refrigerator thirty minutes prior to oven loading prevents thermal shock to the glass and promotes even heat penetration from edge to center.
Covering the casserole with aluminum foil for the initial forty-five minutes traps steam, cooking the interior eggs gently before the top cheese layer browns. Removing the barrier for the final fifteen minutes permits Maillard reactions to develop deeply across the cheddar surface. Resting the finished bake for ten minutes off the heat allows the internal proteins to set fully, yielding clean, distinct portions.
