Sunny-Side Up Breakfast Casserole - A great Christmas morning casserole!

Update: My Sunny-Side Up Casserole recipe was featured in a recipe feature blog post over at the blog View Along the Way! It was very exciting and quite the honor. Please check it out and check out View Along the Way if you're looking for a great DIY/Home blog!

Good morning! I just wanted to take a second and say "hello!" to some of my newer readers - I am seeing on my stats (which is such a cool tool, by the way) that I am having readers come in from Australia, Russia, Germany, Canada, and a few others and that is very cool! So hello to my international readers!

It looks like most of my readers are from the US so good morning and hello to you as well! :)

On to the recipe!
I've got a good one for you this morning - it's a gem in my little dancing bear recipe book (you might remember the mothership from one of my very first posts). This one was passed on to me from Mama LOC before I was married and before I could really even cook anything more than quesadillas and beans from a can. I remember Mama LOC made me a copy of her recipe on the fax machine (technology!) and I have made it multiple times since then. The most I know about this recipe is that it originates from a newspaper insert or magazine from about 1997, so it's not super old, but let's just say that I wasn't super old when it was printed. haha! ;) It's a great recipe that I know I will pass on to future generations.

This is a great recipe to feed a crowd or a family, and this casserole would especially be yummy and easy to prepare on Christmas morning!

Wipe that drool off your keyboard and start assembling your ingredients! ;) You'll need:
• 1 pound sausage
• 1 cup cheese-flavored croutons (I used Caesar as that was all I had on hand - it was fine.)
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 6-8 eggs
• paprika (optional)

You'll also want a 9x13 glass dish, a saucepan and some Crisco or Pam type spray. 

Preheat your oven to 350. This is one of the changes I made to the original recipe - the original recipe calls for 325 but after the suggested time and original temp. the eggs were not even close enough to edible so preheat to 350, not 325.


In this time, brown your sausage on the stovetop in a sauce pan. If you're like me and forgot to take the sausage out the night before and it's frozen solid, defrost in microwave. ;)

While your sausage is browning, grease up a 13x9 glass dish. I used Crisco. Make sure you get the sides well - this dish has a tendency to stick quite badly otherwise.

Take your croutons and measure them out. You'll see I used closer to 2 cups than 1 cup as suggested - we like ours extra crouton-y. Smash the croutons up using a wooden spoon or something of the like. You don't want them completely turned into powder but instead more like smaller squares.
*A note on the croutons - the original recipe does call for cheese-flavored croutons. I usually make this with cheese flavored croutons, but I only had Caesar on hand when I made this. Both work fine. The best ones I have ever used for this are the cheese flavored croutons from Save-A-Lot. I do suggest using the "large cut" croutons over the teeny ones.

Put your semi-smashed croutons in the bottom of the pan and 1 cup of cheddar cheese on top of the croutons. Your sausage should be completely browned at this point, remove from heat.

Now, mix your 3/4 cup sour cream and 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard in a separate bowl. Dollop about half of the mixture on top of the casserole. Don't spread it around - you're making pockets of flavor.

If you haven't already, drain your grease from the sausage and once drained, sprinkle it on top of the cheese/sour cream/croutons.

This is another variation of mine from the original recipe - the original calls from 8 eggs but I made this one time for a crowd that had someone who didn't care for eggs very much, so I reduced it to 6 - and 6 seems to be the perfect amount of egg in this recipe. 8 seems like a bit much in my opinion but if you're making it for a lot of people, 8 eggs may make more sense. It's really up to you. Make 6 little indentations in sausage and break open an egg in each indentation.

Now, top that with the remainder of the sour cream, the remainder of the cheddar cheese, and sprinkle it with paprika if you like. It just adds a hint of zesty-ness that plays off the croutons but it's not necessary.

Your oven should be preheated at this point, so stick the casserole in there for 25-30 minutes (another alteration - the original calls for 20-25, but it's just not enough.) 25-30 minutes later...

*drool*
The eggs should be slightly runny. If you have someone in the crowd who doesn't care for runny eggs, you may want to cook it a little longer, or this recipe could be easily adapted into scrambled eggs on top, just whisk your six eggs in a dish and pour the eggs over the top of the casserole.

There you have it! One of my favorite recipes to "inherit" from Mama LOC (my other favorite Mama LOC recipes is a Shepard's pie that is to die for, you'll see that here eventually!) and it's something just slightly different from your normal, everyday breakfast casserole.

Just for kicks, here is my copy of the original recipe! :)

Thanks for following along! Let me know how this turns out for you. I know you're out there readers, let's hear some comments! ;)

Sunny-Side Up Breakfast Casserole
 • 1 pound sausage
• 1 cup cheese-flavored croutons (I used Caesar as that was all I had on hand - it was fine.)
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 6-8 eggs
• paprika (optional)

1) Preheat oven to 350. Over medium heat, brown sausage. Drain drippings; set aside.
2) Grease bottom of 13" x 9" glass baking dish. Cover bottom with coarsely crumbled croutons and sprinkle with 1 cup shredded cheese.
3) In small bowl, combine sour cream and mustard; place half of sour cream mixture over cheese and croutons in evenly spaced spoonfuls. Spread sausage over top.
4) Make 6 indentations into the sausage. Break each egg into each of the indentations.
5) Spoon on remaining sour cream mixture on top and sprinkle casserole with 1 cup Cheddar cheese and paprika.
6) Bake 25-30 minutes until egg yolks are slightly runny. Remove and enjoy!

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