Green Chili Egg Casserole is an easy overnight breakfast casserole that is perfect for Christmas or Easter morning or any brunch occasion all year long!
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day! Some of our other favorites for holidays or weekends are Crepes Recipe (How to Make Crepes and Crepe Filling Ideas), Copycat Waffle Love Liège Waffles, or Biscuits and Gravy Casserole!
If you’re looking for the Christmas egg casserole recipe, THIS IS IT. It’s so easy that you can throw it together in just minutes or even make it the night before and leave it in the fridge so all you have to do is pop it in the oven on Christmas morning.
Not that a fantastic overnight breakfast casserole needs to be reserved for Christmas morning though.
A few years ago I went to a Back-to-School Brunch, which is where all the mom's get together on the first day of school after drop-off to celebrate and/or cry. Even though I love my kids and we have amazing vacations together, I'm solidly in the celebrate category. My girls are too and I'm glad for it because I never understood kids who didn't look forward to the start of a new school year and learning! Because yes, I was (and still proudly am) a huge nerd with a strong bent toward being a workaholic.
I don't know about you, but at brunches I gravitate towards the savory breakfast dishes. I just love to sample all the delicious breakfast casserole recipes that people bring! You know, the kind that are loaded with ham, sausage, or bacon, and often have hash browns or bread as a base.
I love them all, but when I tried this green chili breakfast casserole that my friend Cheryl had brought, it was my immediate favorite. Afterwards I asked Cheryl to send me the recipe, which comes from a Taste of Home recipe for green chili egg puff. I've since modified it a bit (decreasing the butter and cheese a bit, adding some eggs, doubling the green chilies, etc.).
One reason I love this easy breakfast casserole is that it doesn't have bread or potatoes in it.
Not that I have anything against that, but since this is really just a baked eggs recipe that is packed with extra protein (thanks cottage cheese!) and not bulked up with bread or potatoes, it means I can also enjoy my sister-in-law Deborah's knotted orange sweet rolls or a cinnamon roll or monkey bread with it without feeling like I'm eating carbs on carbs. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
This recipe is incredibly easy, which means more time relaxing with family and less time in the kitchen missing out on the fun!
Occasions to Make Overnight Breakfast Casseroles
Make ahead breakfast casseroles are a staple for any holiday or special occasion for lots of reasons:
- Breakfast casseroles are quick to throw together, can be made in advance, and easily feed a crowd.
- They are savory and delicious, which is a nice change of pace from all the sweets.
- Overnight egg casseroles are packed with protein so they are filling.
I think this green chili egg casserole is perfect for Christmas and Easter, as well as Mother's Day (seriously dads, you got this one - it's crazy easy), brunches, or even on nights when you don't know what to make and want to do breakfast for dinner (who's with me loving breakfast for dinner?!).
Is this an overnight breakfast casserole?
Yes! You can take one of two approaches if you want to make this green chili egg casserole in advance. You can mix up the ingredients and pour them into the pan the night before, then cover it and leave it in the fridge to pop in the oven in the morning.
Or you could actually go ahead and bake this make ahead breakfast casserole and then just reheat until warm. It actually heats up great!
How to Make Green Chili Egg Casserole
- Beat the eggs. I find it easiest to just do this in my stand mixer, but you could really do this whole thing by hand using a whisk.
- Mix in the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Add in the cottage cheese, shredded cheese, butter, and diced green chilies, stirring just until combined.
- Pour into a buttered 9x13-inch baking dish, then bake in the oven at 350 degrees F for 35-40 minutes until browned around the edges and set in the center.
- Wait just a few minutes for it to cool and set up a bit, then slice and serve warm!
Tips for this Easy Breakfast Casserole
- If you are hung up on the addition of cottage cheese in this green chili egg casserole, it really bakes into the casserole and the texture (which seems to be the issue for some people) is hardly noticeable (and a non-issue if you already like cottage cheese).
- The eggs get a little rise and structure from a combination of just ½ cup of flour and a little baking powder. The flour to egg ratio is really small and doesn't even come close to making this more like a German pancake.
- I love Tillamook's shredded farmstyle cut cheese. It is so good and melted better than any other pre-grated cheese that I have tried.
- You can totally change things up to make any flavor combo you feel like or use whatever cheese or other mix-ins you have on hand. Sub in mozzarella cheese, add some bacon or cooked and crumbled sausage or veggies.
- I set aside a little of the cheese and green onions to sprinkle over the top of my casserole, just to make it look a little bit nicer for these photos, but honestly, usually I just mix it all in.
- You can slice the cooked green chili egg casserole and freeze it individually for quick morning breakfasts. It's not as great as when it is freshly made, but it's still pretty good.
- This is really like a crustless quiche and the diced green chilies are really mild, so there is no need to worry about your family thinking this is too spicy. Unless you get the hot diced green chilies on accident!
More Egg Recipes for Breakfast
- Peppery Scrambled Macaroni & Eggs (sounds weird, tastes amazing, trust me - it's legitimately our favorite breakfast)
- Cheesy Overnight Hashbrown Breakfast Casserole from the Food Charlatan
- Easy, Ultimate Breakfast Frittata
- Tater Tot Breakfast Casserole from Simply Whisked
- Caprese Quiche from The Life Jolie
Did you make this recipe?
Let me know what you thought with a comment and rating below. You can also take a picture and tag me on Instagram @houseofnasheats or share it on the Pinterest pin so I can see.
Green Chili Egg Casserole
Ingredients
- 12 large eggs
- ½ cup all-purpose flour, scooped and leveled (70g)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 pint cottage cheese (about 2 cups)
- 3 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend (or any combination of cheddar, monterey jack, and pepper jack)
- 6 Tablespoons salted butter, melted
- 8 ounces mild diced green chilies
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9x13-inch baking dish.
- In a large bowl using an electric hand mixer or stand mixer, beat eggs until light.
- Add flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix well.
- Add cottage cheese, Mexican cheese blend, butter, and green chilies. Mix until combined. Pour into prepared baking dish. Bake immediately or cover and refrigerate overnight.
- Bake, uncovered, for 35-40 minutes or until edges on top are browned and center is set and appears firm. Cool 5 minutes before cutting and serving.
I'm making 2 breakfast casseroles for Christmas. This might need to be one of them. It looks amazing!
I can't wait to try this! We love green chili and I love making breakfast casseroles over the holidays too!
Just put this Green Chili Egg Casserole on our TO MAKE list!!!! Looks and sounds SO GOOD!!!
This is fantastic! My mom has been making a very similar recipe and we absolutely devour it! Super filling and the chili is the perfect amount of flavor.
I just found my breakfast for Christmas morning!! Thank you!!
This looks like such a tasty christmas breakfast! This would be such a hit at my house!
I love savory breakfasts too.. and this has all the great things id absolutely love to eat! I love how easy it is to make!
This is in the oven for a New Year's brunch! I added sausage, too. Yummers!
I added some sautéed broccoli and garlic, halved the butter and used a little less cheese in an attempt to be slightly healthier. Still came out awesome. Cool time for me was closer to 45-50 minutes: still runny at 40
I tried this for a breakfast potluck without substitutions and my coworkers and I really liked it. Of course now I get volunteered to bring this each time. Thanks for the recipe!
Could I substitute ricotta cheese for the cottage cheese? Just curious.
Thanks
I haven't tried that before but I think it would work. The texture might be slightly different but I don't think the substitution would be significant.
Would it work without flour? Or would it mess up the texture?
It would work okay, but the texture wouldn't be quite the same since the flour stabilizes the casserole.
Totally runny at 35 and 40 minutes- 50mins was more like it for me. Too much butter too as it pools on the top. Next time I’ll use 2 tablespoons butter and only 2 cups of cheese. Otherwise this is a favorite!Â
Excellent. Halved the recipe, used gluten free flour mix and baked in 8x8 for 35 mins. Made 4 nice size servings. Leftovers reheated well too - Thank you!
Made this today for work breakfast potluck and it was a hit! I changed it up by adding a bag of frozen chopped spinach (thawed/drained), no green chilies as I didn’t have any in the pantry, and cut the butter back to 2T and just 2 cups cheddar. I did end up baking for closer to 45-50 minutes! The first 30 minutes I kept it covered with foil so it didn’t get too browned. Delicious and will definitely be making again!Â
Would it work to throw in some hashbrowns in with the casserole? Maybe do half cottage cheese and replace the rest with hashbrowns? My mom has made this recipe for every big family event and we all LOVE it!
I'm sure it would! Glad you guys like this!
Real good recipe, I feel the cook time is off as I had to cook mine for approximately 50 minutes before it was fully cooked. Great recipe, very flavorful.
I made this for a bridal shower I attended, and it tasted great! I got good reviews plus some recipe requests. My suggestions: 1) probably only need 2 tbsp of butter, if even that, I had to pour off butter pooling around the edges when it came out of the oven. 2) more chilies gives better flavor, 11-14 oz is great. Thanks for the recipe!
This hadan excellent flavor. I left the flour out since I am gluten free and wasn’t sure how almond flour would do. Still had a good texture, though I might lessen the amount of butter due to the lack of flour to absorb it a little. This will definitely be my go to green chili egg bake! Thank you!Â
I used tapioca flour, and it turned out really well!! DH loved it for his 30th bday breakfast in bed 💜
I have made this exact recipe for my family for years. Anytime there's a brunch potluck -- this is requested and there's never any left. I don't even have to measure ingredients. I'm sure I've used more of this or that and it's always come out fine - just need to adust the baking time. Our cheese of preference is Monterrey Jack. Also, since I live in New Mexico -- I use hot chile and much more of it. That's just us, though. My niece has asked me for the recipe for quite awhile -- I'm just sending her your link. Thanks so much -- she'll appreciate the instructions.
Might want to edit the spelling on the Green Chili Egg "Cassserole" recipe.
Might want to edit the spelling of "cassserole". Sounds like something I will really enjoy but will add onions.
Lol - thank you for catching that! I'm so bad at proofreading my own work sometimes!
The first set of directions doesn't mention the 6 tbs of butter at all so I cooked it without it and scoffed about having to melt butter for no reason then found another set of directions down at the bottom of the page that says mix it in.... maybe an edit to the directions on top will help other folks down the line.
Thank you for pointing that out to me! I made that edit.
Made this for a mothers day brunch, and was perfect. I did use less butter (3 tbs) and a little bit less shredded cheese. Still amazing! I also split it into two 6x6 baking dishes, and the 30 minute bake time was right in our oven. Will be bookmarking this recipe.
This may be a dumb question but is the 350 degrees fahrenheit or celcius?Â
Im not American so wondering if I need to convert it?Â
That's 350 degrees fahrenheit.
I had a random pregnancy craving for a good green Chile breakfast casserole and this did not disappoint! The only change I made was adding 1 lb of sausage that I cooked up. It was SO good - even our toddler gobbled it up.Â
Hi. I’m a low carber! This sounds amazing. Anyone know if I sub almond flour or another carb friendly flour in, would it make too big of a difference?Â
See Tavya's response above (from Dec '19) for almond flour use and a reply to her post from someone who used tapioca flour.
I increased the green chilies to 16 oz and added 12 oz of sausage. Omitted the salt due to the addition of sausage. Also added freshly ground black pepper. Took the advice of other commenters and reduced the amount of butter to 2 tbsp. Baked for about 48 minutes, at which point the top was golden brown and lightly crispy while the inside was perfectly done and gooey with melted cheese. Received compliments when I brought the dish to a breakfast potluck.
Can this be baked in muffin pans?
I'm sure it could!
12/25/20. I put this together on Christmas Eve and baked it this morning.  It is delicious!  The two cans of mild Hatch green chiles did not make the dish too spicy.  I’d make this again for sure!
Made this for Christmas morning and they said it was the BEST egg casserole they’ve ever had. I put in hatch chili’s too.
Today making in muffin tins to have for a few days.
The cottage cheese and flour instead of bread cubes are key!Â
Can you freeze this breakfast casserole before or after it is cooked? Thank you, GHD
Yes, I have frozen slices of casserole and reheated them. They aren't as good as fresh, but still pretty decent for a quick and easy breakfast! I haven't tried freezing it before baking.
This is so delicious!! I made it twice this week. I halved the recipe as I made it for me, but hubby loved it so had to make it again. I did leave out the butter to make it healthier and used less cheese. I also used Pueblo roasted green chilies as I live in a place that had abundent wonderful chiles. Can't even tell that there is cottage cheese in it, used fat free. It's a win, win. Thanks for the recipe.
Made this for the first time when we were advised of a planned power outage from 8 am to 12, I made it the night before, preheated the oven and baked 40 minutes, it was excellent, we turned the oven off and left it in for later risers and it remained hot , tasty and not dry.
I used wondra flour
I would consider adding ham or pancetta to the recipe, Love that is high protein and could also become a breakfast for dinner, add a salad and it's perfect.
This my go to meal...I make it and cut it and freeze it...its great for my elderly relatives...I make sure their freezes are stocked whenever I make it...I make a few and add bacon or sausage to it...everyone loves it
Can add ground beef?
Yes, you could definitely brown some ground beef or breakfast sausage to add to this!
We've had this family favorite at every gathering for many years. It's relatively low carb as there is no bread filler, the bain of many breakfast casseroles, and so good with a touch of sour cream and salsa. I do use one can each of diced jalapenos and green chilis as we love spice. Try it and I'll bet you are hooked, too!
Classic that goes back to the Sunset Magazine decades ago!  Easy to make and such a crowd pleasure.  Can’t go wrong with this one!
Was absolutely amazing, I'm actually a huge fan of cottage cheese but the texture really changes in this casserole. I can't say I would ever change anything about this recipe. Thanks so much, definitely a keeper.
I made a 1/2 recipe and substituted crumbled Feta for the cottage cheese. I added 3 slices of crumbled bacon and omitted the salt and it was delicious!
Did you happen to get this recipe from the Hillside House Bed & Breakfast in the San Juan Islands? I had made this for years after having it there, but lost the recipe. Looks like this is it! Thank you. Can't wait to make again for the day after Thanksgiving.
I didn't, but maybe my friend Cheryl who gave it to me got it from there? I think it's been around in various versions for a while!
I made this for a brunch and everyone loved it. It’s fluffy, a wonderful texture.
I’ve made this for years and it’s delicious as written. So moist and flavorful. Definitely a potluck regular. But it’s also so versatile and have switched up the cheese and added in different meats (sausage, bacon) and veggies (spinach, artichoke, roasted peppers, etc.-just sauté and cool before adding to the egg mixture). It’s a regular for Christmas morning!
I was nervous of the cottage cheese with my picky family - sadly, they did not like this dish. the cottage cheese does give it a smushy texture and taste they didn't care for.