Classic Breakfast Strata
Published 3/26/2023
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This classic breakfast strata is custardy and fluffy, and perfect for serving a crowd. Filled with Italian bread, sautéed veggies, ground breakfast sausage and tossed with a delicious egg custard. Enjoy!
Fluffy Breakfast Strata
Breakfast strata is a delicious and easy breakfast casserole that is perfect for a weekend brunch or a quick weekday meal when made ahead of time.
It’s typically made with bread, eggs, milk, cheese, and any other ingredients you’d like to toss in. We’re making our strata savory with help from sautéed veggies and breakfast sausage. Yum!
Why you’ll love it!
Serves a crowd
Make ahead and freeze for later
So fluffy it’s almost like a souffle
Featured Ingredients
- Ground sausage: feel free to use a ground breakfast sausage, chorizo, or a plat-based ground.
- Veggies: a combination of minced white onion, chopped bella mushrooms, minced garlic cloves and fresh spinach come together to give this breakfast strata amazing savory flavor.
- Eggs: you’ll need an entire dozen large eggs for this strata. Fresh eggs are best!
- Milk & heavy cream: any kind of milk will work, but we don’t recommend substituting the heavy cream as it’s crucial to the strata’s custard filling.
- Italian bread: you’ll need an entire loaf of Italian bread, ripped into chunks for this breakfast strata.
- Shredded cheese: we’re using a combination of shredded cheddar and gruyere, and we’re tossing it within the strata as well as sprinkling on top of it!
Latest Breakfast Recipes
How to Make Breakfast Strata
Cook breakfast sausage
Cook the breakfast sausage over medium/high heat until it is partially cooked and remove it from the heat. Use a slotted spoon to remove the sausage from the pan, but leave the drippings.
Saute Veggies
Add the onion to the sausage drippings, and sauté for 8-10 minutes, stirring periodically so they don’t brown or burn. Add the mushrooms and sauté for 5 more minutes.
Lastly, add the garlic and spinach to the pan and toss. Cook until the garlic is fragrant and the spinach is wilted.
Prepare Egg Custard
Whisk the eggs, heavy cream, and milk in a large bowl until combined. Set aside.
Assemble Breakfast Strata
Spray a 9×13-inch casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray and add the ripped pieces of bread to the dish. Transfer the cooked vegetables, chorizo, 1 cup of cheddar cheese, remaining salt, pepper, and 1 cup of gruyere cheese to the bread and toss.
Pour the eggs over all of the ingredients and toss everything together and press the ingredients down with a spatula or your hands.
Let sit overnight
Cover the strata and refrigerate overnight.
Bake Breakfast Strata
Preheat the oven to 350ºF and remove the casserole dish from the refrigerator. Toss the strata with a spatula to loosen all of the ingredients. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 30 minutes.
Add the remaining cheese to the top of the strata and bake for 10 more minutes.
Slice & enjoy!
Remove the strata from the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes before slicing, and serving. Enjoy!
Top Tips
Don’t skip the overnight soak time: allowing the bread to soak in the egg custard mixture in the fridge overnight is crucial to the texture. It will ensure the bread has enough time to soak up the custard and will leave you with a souffle-like strata.
It is very important to ‘fluff’ the strata before baking it to be sure to let air in and to make the strata fluffy and custardy.
Substituting the ground meat: feel free to sub the ground pork for a ground chorizo if you’re looking to add a little spice to your strata. Hoping to keep it vegetarian? A plant-based ground would work great.
Check it out!
Make Ahead Breakfast Recipes
Learn how to freeze this recipe for later in our Make-Ahead Breakfast Recipes Freezer Meal Prep post! Plus, you’ll get 7 other freezer breakfast recipes, too!
What to Serve with Breakfast Strata
Round out a delicious brunch with any of the following sides to serve with your breakfast strata:
- The Best Frittata Recipe
- Sweet Potato Hash with Baked Eggs
- Spinach Smoothie
- Iced London Fog Latte
- Crispy Air Fryer Bacon
- The Best Breakfast Potatoes
FAQs
A strata contains an egg custard that’s baked in pieces of bread, while a quiche contains an egg custard baked on top of a crust.
Strata needs to sit overnight to allow the egg custard to soak into the pieces of bread before baking the next day.
Storage
Store your breakfast strata in an airtight container (or in the casserole dish covered in plastic wrap) in the fridge for up to 3 days.
To freeze your breakfast strata, prepare and bake according to the recipe card. After your breakfast strata has cooled completely, cover it with plastic wrap and aluminum foil. Place it in the freezer for up to 3 months.
To reheat: When you are ready to reheat your strata, remove it from the freezer and take off the plastic wrap and tin foil. Bake at 350ºF for 15-25 minutes.
Classic Breakfast Strata
Ingredients
- 1 lb. ground breakfast sausage, chorizo, or sofrito
- 1 medium white onion, minced
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, separated
- 8 oz. Bella mushrooms, roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 10 oz. fresh spinach
- 12 large eggs
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 2 cups milk, any kind
- ½ teaspoon ground pepper
- 1 loaf Italian bread, ripped (~9 cups)
- 1.5 cups shredded cheddar cheese, separated
- 1.5 cups shredded gruyere cheese, separated
Instructions
- Heat a large skillet over medium/high heat. Once the pan is hot, add the chorizo or breakfast sausage to the pan and gently break the sausage up into small, meatball-like pieces. If you like smaller ground sausages, feel free to break the pieces up more.
- Cook the sausage until it is partially cooked and remove it from the heat. Use a slotted spoon to remove the sausage from the pan, but leave the drippings.
- Place the pan over medium heat and add the onion to the sausage drippings. Season the onion with ¼ teaspoon of salt and sautee the onions for 8-10 minutes, stirring periodically so they don’t brown or burn. Add the mushrooms and 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and saute for 5 more minutes.
- Lastly, add the garlic and spinach to the pan and toss. Cook until the garlic is fragrant and the spinach is wilted (~3 minutes). Remove the vegetables from the heat.
- Whisk the eggs, heavy cream, and milk in a large bowl until combined. Set aside.
- Spray a 9×13-inch casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray and add the ripped pieces of bread to the dish. Transfer the cooked vegetables, chorizo, 1 cup of cheddar cheese, remaining salt, pepper, and 1 cup of gruyere cheese to the bread and toss. Pour the eggs over all of the ingredients and toss everything together and press the ingredients down with a spatula or your hands.
- Cover the strata and refrigerate the strata overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and remove the casserole dish from the refrigerator. Toss the strata with a spatula to loosen all of the ingredients. You don’t want the strata firmly pressed into the casserole dish to bake. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 30 minutes.
- Add the remaining cheese to the top of the strata and bake for 10 more minutes or until the cheese is golden brown.
- Remove the strata from the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes before slicing.
Tips & Notes
- Using ground chorizo will add spice to the strata.
- You can substitute the heavy cream with more milk. For a dairy milk-free option, use unsweetened almond or oat milk.
- If you can’t find a rustic Italian loaf, any artisan-style loaf of bread will work.
- It is very important to ‘fluff’ the strata before baking it to be sure to let air in and to make the strata fluffy and custardy.
Watch It
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Photography: photos taken in this post are by Ashley McGlaughlin from The Edible Perspective.
I’m assuming the remaining half cups of each cheese will be sprinkled on top? This is left out of the directions.
Trying this with oat milk and trader Joe’s soy chorizo.
Hi Emily, Adding the remaining cheese to the top of the strata is added with 10 minutes of cook time remaining so it can melt without burning (step 9). Hope this helps!