You probably have a Holiday Breakfast dish you like to serve on Christmas morning. I have one too, and today I want to share my Sausage Strata Recipe. It is a breakfast sausage casserole that I have made every year on Christmas Eve for decades. It has become our traditional Christmas breakfast strata.
I started making this recipe in 1981. My husband and I were moving to the Kansas City area. He was headed to seminary, and I was headed to nursing school. We stopped at my mom’s brother’s house in Ohio and spent the night with them on our long journey to Kansas. In the morning, Aunt Edna served us a make-ahead breakfast casserole. She actually made two. On the table in the morning were cheese strata and sausage strata, and both were delicious. That morning eating the strata that Aunt Edna lovingly prepared for us, we did not know the Sausage Strata would become the Christmas Breakfast Casserole recipe that we would make for decades.
For this recipe, you will need things like a 9-by-13-inch baking dish, pork sausage, shredded Swiss cheese, whole milk, half-n-half, large eggs, and Worcestershire sauce, just to mention a few. I like that you can make this easy Christmas Breakfast Casserole the night before and then pop this Christmas morning strata in the oven in the morning just in time for breakfast. This way, you can focus on the Christmas festivities and not worry about cooking on the holiday morning.
When I am making this recipe, I brown the sausage, breaking it into small pieces. I take the cooked sausage and place it on paper towels to drain. While it is cooking, I make the egg mixture. This is a layered dish, so I now have the layers for my strata lined up and ready, which include the egg mixture, the cooked sausage, and my shredded Swiss Cheese. I now head to the white bread. With the bread, you must trim the crust and then place one layer at the bottom of the baking dish. Then you layer according to the recipe. I have made this dish the night before and the day of Christmas, and each time, it is delicious.
Sausage Strata
Ingredients
- 2 pounds pork sausage
- 2 teaspoons prepared yellow mustard
- 12+ slices White bread with crust removed
- 1 pound shredded swiss cheese
- 6 large eggs beaten
- 2 cups whole milk
- 2 cups half and half
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
- Grease a 9x13 pan...I used Pam
- Brown the sausage and break it into small pieces, drain and place on paper towels. Set aside.
- Mix together prepared yellow mustard, eggs, milk, half and half, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper, and whisk until combined. Set aside
- Layers: place a layer of bread on the bottom of the prepared pan, top with 1/2 of the sausage, top that with 1/2 of the cheese, and top with 1/2 of the egg mixture. And then repeat layers.
- To bake immediately-bake uncovered for 50 minutes to an hour or until set and serve immediately. It took about an hour and 10 minutes for me.
- If you are planning to bake it the next day. Cover tightly and refrigerate overnight; take it out an hour before baking, bake uncovered for 50 minutes to an hour or until set, and serve immediately.