Ham, Egg & Cheese Casserole
Filled with ham, melted cheese, and hashbrowns, this ham, egg, and cheese casserole recipe is the perfect low-carb and protein-rich breakfast to make the morning after a big holiday feast.
Hey friends! Today I’m sharing a recipe from my second book, Come Home To Supper (page 155). This ham, cheese, and egg casserole is a favorite for a low-carb and protein-rich supper, weekend brunch, or breakfast for a group over the holidays or any celebration. Christmas and Thanksgiving morning will be here before you know it!
It’s overflowing with all the good stuff you need to make the perfect brunch. This includes ham (the perfect recipe to make with ham leftovers), cheddar cheese, golden hashbrowns, and eggs, of course. Fortunately, it’s also one of the easiest casseroles to make – just what you want after a big celebration. Simply combine the ingredients and cook in the kitchen appliance of your choice.
I’m using my Instant Pot to make my ham, cheese, and egg casserole. However, it is a slow cooker or oven recipe as well. Instructions for the different cooking methods are in the printable recipe at the bottom of this post. I’ve had tons of people ask me for Instant Pot recipes since I first mentioned having one, so here we go!
Recipe Ingredients
- Onion
- Shredded cheddar cheese
- Frozen cubed hash browns
- Diced ham or meat of your choice
- Milk
- Eggs
- Salt and pepper
How to Make Ham, Egg, and Cheese Casserole
Layer 1/3 of frozen hash browns, 1/3 of onions, 1/3 of ham, and 1/3 of shredded cheese in your insert. Repeat this two more times until it is all used up.
Beat eggs, milk, salt, and pepper together and pour over layers.
Instant Pot Instructions
The instant pot has several settings. Personally, I’m just tossing all this in and using the slow cooker setting.
I press “slow cooker” and then press “adjust” until it goes to the “less” light on the display screen.
I now have it slow cooking on low. From there I use the plus or minus sign to move the time up to 7 hours. If you want to cook this on high, just press “slow cooker” and it is automatically on high. Then adjust your time to anywhere between 3 to 4 hours.
You could probably adapt this recipe for a pressure cooker, but I usually reserve pressure cooking in my instant pot for roasts, chickens, stews, dried beans, boiled eggs, and potatoes.
Dig in!
Storage
- Store breakfast casserole leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
- To freeze this ham, egg, and cheese casserole, wrap it up tight and freeze it unbaked for up to 3 months (learn how to freeze a casserole the right way!). To bake, completely thaw in the refrigerator for 24 to 36 hours. Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking and then follow the baking instructions as shown above.
Recipe Notes
- You can chop the onions yourself and shred the cheese if you like but I just love buying these frozen chopped onions for a great shortcut on the days when I just want to make my life a tiny bit easier.
- This breakfast casserole recipe is wonderful with crumbled turkey breakfast sausage. I recommend the Jenn-O brand because that is our favorite. Another option is bacon, of course.
- See the Instant Pot I have by clicking here.
- Want to add more flavor? Opt for a teaspoon of Dijon mustard added to the egg mixture or a teaspoon of Italian seasoning. You could also add some fresh herbs, like chopped fresh parsley, chives, thyme, or rosemary.
- If you’d like to add vegetables, opt for thinly diced bell pepper, zucchini, or mushrooms. Another option is spinach, which pairs perfectly with the casserole.
- You can use any cheese in this recipe or a combination. Other options include Swiss, Colby, Monterey Jack, Pepper Jack, and Gouda.
- If you decide to oven bake your casserole, you can also add layers of cubed bread (I recommend between 4 to 6 slices of bread cut into pieces). They just won’t crisp up as well in the Instant Pot.
- Serve your ham, , and casserole with salsa, hot sauce, or sour cream and chives.
You might also enjoy these Instant Pot recipes:
Ingredients
- 1 bag frozen cubed hash browns 32 ounces
- 1 large onion, diced
- 1-2 cups cooked ham or crumbled turkey breakfast sausage
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- 10-12 large eggs
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Spray the insert of a slow cooker, instant pot, or 5-quart Dutch oven with nonstick cooking spray. Place 1/3 of hash browns in the bottom. Top with 1/3 onions, 1/3 ham, and 1/3 cheese. Repeat two more times.1 bag frozen cubed hash browns, 1 large onion, diced, 1-2 cups cooked ham or crumbled turkey breakfast sausage, 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, milk, salt, and pepper until well blended. Pour over the ham and potato layers.10-12 large eggs, 1 cup whole milk, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon pepper
To make in the oven
- Bake, uncovered, at 325 for 90 minutes, or until the eggs are set.
To make in the slow cooker
- Place the crock in the slow cooker, cover with the lid, and bake on low 7-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours.
To make in an Instant Pot
- Place the insert in the Instant Pot. Press "slow cooker", then "adjust" until the light comes on under "less". Adjust the time using the plus and minus sign to get it to 7 hours. If you'd like to cook it faster, press "slow cooker", don't adjust to less, then adjust the time to 3-4 hours.
Nutrition
This took a little longer in my instant pot, set it for 7 hours on low, checked it around 6 and the eggs were still completely wet. Turned it up to high at this point, at 7 hours the eggs were still pretty runny. So next time may try setting on the med setting for 8 hours. Also used frozen potatoe obrien (diced potatoes, green peppers, onions) instead of just hash browns because they happened to have these at Aldis this week. Was very yummy when it was finally done, some of us made breakfast burritos by just filling tortillas & topping with salsa, super yummy!
I was so looking forward to this recipe but I just woke up to an instant pot breakfast failure. 🙁 I followed the recipe exactly but ended up with a super wet (still not sure if it’s underdone eggs or water from the hash browns) casserole that burned to the bottom of my instant pot. If I try it again I might try it in an actual slow cooker instead.
Hey Kara! I’m sorry you had a problem. I’ve never had any issue with it on my end. When you say you “woke up” to an instant pot failure, did you cook it overnight? It sounds like it cooked too long but your sleep schedule is very likely very different from mine 🙂 (Mine is a little cray cray)
I had almost the exact same problem. After 7 hours on low in the Instant Pot, the bottom third was cooked and starting to brown, but the rest of it was like soup.
I had the same problem. I’m hoping it will turn out by manually cooking for 30 minutes after cooking on slow cooker for 4hrs on high.
Have you done any other Instant Pot recipes?
My bad…I didn’t read the whole blog. Sorry. However, I would like to know it I didn’t use potatoes and used green & red peppers as well as spinach if I should use less time?!? Tks in advance
Have you made this in your Instant Pot slow cooker yet? How did it turn out?
Would love to know how you can convert it to the quick pressure function
I would love to know if this can be converted to the quick pressure time too!
Me too!
So I played around with this recipe and finally came up with this: I used an oven safe bowl that fit inside my IP and sprayed it with cooking spray. I added a cup of water to the IP, halved the recipe and loaded up the bowl (you could also do mason jars and fill multiple ones) and set it on a trivet inside the IP insert. I pressure cooked on high for 12 minutes plus 5 minutes of natural release. It came out great. I added salsa and sour cream and it was a family hit.
Do you just use the lid that came with the instant pot when you use it as a slow cooker?
Yes the the lid that came with it
is used when slow cooking.