Breakfast Casserole with Sausage, Hash Browns and Eggs

This easy sausage, egg and hash brown breakfast casserole is simple to make, and always a crowd-pleaser!

Ingredients:
1 pound ground Italian sausage (hot, mild or sweet)
1 medium white onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, cored and diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 (20 ounce) bag frozen diced hash brown potatoes*, thawed
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided
6 eggs
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon fine sea salt*
a few generous twists of freshly-cracked black pepper
toppings: thinly sliced green onions, sliced avocado and/or hot sauce

Instructions:
Prepare oven. Heat oven to 375°F.
Brown the sausage. Cook over medium-high heat in a large sauté pan until browned, crumbling the sausage with a spoon as it cooks. Transfer sausage with a slotted spoon to a large mixing bowl. Reserve 1 tablespoon of the remaining sausage grease in the sauté, and discard the rest.
Sauté veggies. Add onion and bell pepper to the pan and sauté for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened. Add garlic and sauté for an additional 2 minutes, stirring frequently, until fragrant. Transfer the vegetable mixture into the mixing bowl with the sausage. Add the thawed diced potatoes and 1 1/2 cups cheese to the mixing bowl with the sausage and veggies. Toss gently until evenly combined.
Add the eggs. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, salt and black pepper until combined. Add the egg mixture to the potato mixture and toss gently to combine.
Bake. Pour the mixture into a 9×13-inch* baking dish and top with the remaining 1/2 cup of shredded cheese. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes. Remove the aluminum foil and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes until the potatoes in the center are cooked through. Transfer the baking dish to a wire rack.
Serve. Serve warm, garnished with your favorite toppings, and enjoy!

Notes:
– Potatoes: If you don’t have a bag of frozen diced hash brown potatoes, feel free to dice 20 ounces (nearly 2 pounds) of Yukon gold potatoes for this recipe.
– Type of salt: I always cook and write my recipes with fine sea salt. But please note that if you are using iodized table salt, you only need to add about half as much.
– Size of baking pan: This casserole will also fit in an 11 x 7-inch or 9 x 9-inch baking pan, if you prefer. It will likely just need an extra 5-10 minutes to cook.

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