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Spanish Breakfast Casserole With Eggs and Bacon

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Alex Lau

This is ideal for a brunch party; the entire casserole can be assembled the night before so all that’s left to do is bake it the next day. And let’s be real: We’d happily eat it for dinner, too.

Ingredients

8 Servings

1

pound country-style white bread, torn into 1-inch pieces

½

cup plus 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

Kosher salt

4

2-ounce jars roasted red peppers, drained (about 12 peppers)

2

red chiles (such as Fresno)

1

teaspoon smoked paprika

1

cup heavy cream

6

ounces bacon, finely chopped

1

large onion, thinly sliced

4

garlic cloves, thinly sliced

6

large eggs

2

tablespoons finely chopped parsley

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Preheat oven to 425°. Toss bread and ¼ cup oil on a rimmed baking sheet; season with salt. Toast until croutons are deep brown and crisp, 15–20 minutes. Let cool.

    Step 2

    Meanwhile, pulse red peppers, chiles, paprika, and ¼ cup oil in a food processor. Transfer pepper purée to a large bowl; stir in cream and season with salt. Add croutons and toss until evenly coated.

    Step 3

    Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until brown and crisp, 4–6 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer bacon to crouton mixture, leaving rendered fat in skillet. Add onion to skillet and cook, stirring, until soft, 7–10 minutes. Add garlic, season with salt, and continue to cook, stirring, until garlic has softened, 1–2 minutes.

    Step 4

    Transfer crouton mixture to a 13x9" baking dish, pressing down on bread to submerge in sauce; scatter onion mixture over. Cover with foil and chill at least 2 hours or up to overnight.

    Step 5

    Preheat oven to 450°. Bake casserole, uncovered, until top is golden brown, 35–45 minutes. Make 6 wells on surface of casserole with a large spoon and crack eggs into each well; season with salt. Bake again until whites are set but yolks are still runny, 10–12 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes, then top with parsley.

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  • Insanely tasty. Read all the comments and modified accordingly: doubled the paprika, garlic, and bacon. I let it sit overnight. Baked at 350 for 35 minutes and at 425 with the eggs. An absolute hit — can’t wait to make it again.

    • Kokes

    • Los Angeles, CA

    • 10/8/2022

  • I’d like to try making this gluten-free and dairy-free. Any experience or advice?

    • Jennifer

    • DC

    • 1/7/2022

  • Very good recipe. My advice is the following: - Double the paprika, bacon, onion and garlic - Make sure you have enough red pepper sauce - at least 32 oz / 1000 ml of roasted red peppers and 1.5 cups cream - Bake at 350-425 - Add cheese once the eggs are a few minutes from ready

    • Brian Rowland

    • Vancouver, BC

    • 7/10/2021

  • The dish worked very well! People really liked it, and I’d recommend the following modifications: - Use ⅓ cup olive oil for the bread crumbs in a 350 oven - Make sure you have enough of the red pepper “sauce” - lots of roasted red pepper and cream. Use at least 2 16 oz / 500 ml jars of roasted red peppers (you could go to 750 ml no problem) and 1.5 cups cream - Double the paprika, which has a very subtle flavour to begin with - Feel free to double the bacon, onion and garlic too, and be generous with salt/pepper as the bread, eggs and red pepper sauce require these to bring out the full flavours of the dish - You can either toss the breadcrumbs in the sauce (as recipe states) or spread the crumbs in the baking dish and ladle the sauce over the crumbs. Either way produces a great result - Bake the casserole at 350-425 Fahrenheit for 30-40 mins and let the top get a bit crusty. This will help some of the liquid in the sauce evaporate - To cook the eggs, I recommend using a higher heat like 425. At 350 they seem to take a long time for the whites to set - A couple of minutes before the eggs were ready we added crumbled feta to the top

    • Brian Rowland

    • Vancouver, British Columbia

    • 7/10/2021

  • Forgot to add that I used a baguette and a half instead of bread. It created a heavier mixture which was wonderful and when I baked the croutons they didn’t burn and were perfect at 450

    • Rbjmsol

    • Ca

    • 1/20/2020

  • Great recipe- rave reviews- because I can’t have dairy added coconut cream instead. My friend doesn’t like bacon so used soy chorizo instead. Will definately make it again

    • Anonymous

    • Ca

    • 1/20/2020

  • I am definitely saving this to make again later-It was kind of like a breakfast dressing, light, fluffy and comforting. But I wanted to echo the comments before mine. I took them into consideration before I made this and I was really happy with the results–folks even asked for the recipe. I made a handful of tweaks based on personal preference/what was available to me, but here are the important ones: _Two 16oz. Jars of Roasted Red Peppers was a great and needed change in order to make sure there was liquid to submerge the bread in. This was the biggest change I made from the original recipe, but in just one of those jars was at most 4.5 peppers, and with their note of getting about 12 peppers in–I feel justified in recommending this change. _Have some extra cream on hand just in case you feel like you need help "submerging" the croutons in the baking dish. _Baked at 350. The final result was moist but not wet (and more importantly not dry) texture with a crispy top, and I can't wait to eat again.

    • Anonymous

    • Portland, OR

    • 12/2/2019

  • I am definitely saving this to make again later-It was kind of like a breakfast dressing, light, fluffy and comforting. But I wanted to echo the comments before mine. I took them into consideration before I made this and I was really happy with the results–folks even asked for the recipe. I made a handful of tweaks based on personal preference/what was available to me, but here are the important ones: _Two 16oz. Jars of Roasted Red Peppers was great and needed change in order to make sure there was liquid to submerge the bread in. This was the biggest change I made from the original recipe, and maybe with this entirely changed what was the intended texture, but again, we were into it. However, in just one of those jars was at most 4.5 peppers, and with their note of getting about 12 peppers–I feel justified in recommending this change. _Have some extra cream on hand just in case you feel like you need help in the "submerging" in the baking dish. _Baked at 350 The final result was moist but not wet (and more importantly not dry) texture and I can't wait to eat again.

    • Anonymous

    • Portland, OR

    • 12/2/2019

  • This is a great recipe. The typo is that 4 - 12 oz jars of roasted red peppers are required. Everything else is correct when you have that liquid. Also I used Parmesan on the eggs at the end as suggested but this could also benefit from the richness of some feta. Used basil instead of parsley because it was handy.

    • iraqispice4118

    • Salt Lake City

    • 12/25/2018

  • Thanks to those who commented earlier, this dish turned out well. I lowered the temp for the croutons and overall bake. That said, I’m also wondering if the liquid measurements are correct - there was no liquid into which I was to submerge the croutons. Also, the ingredient list states 1/2 c +3 tbsp olive oil, but there only seems to be a requirement for 1/4 c + 1/4 c - where is the remaining 3 tbsp to be used? I would make this again, but would add 1/2-1 c additional whipping cream.

    • Anonymous

    • Toronto

    • 4/25/2018

  • I had a similar experience to Chikde, the oven temps seemed way too high. The croutons were too dry, crunchy, and took on too much color. There was zero sauce leftover after adding the pepper mixture and cream, maybe because the bread was too dried out. The final bake also burned the outside of the bread, just way too hot. I'll try it again, but with lower temps. Also may switch to half and half and double the amount to try and create some sauce.

    • Anonymous

    • Colorado

    • 4/2/2018

  • Our experience was fairly good overall, with the following notations: 425 for toasting the bread was too high (our oven temp is correct), suggest 350 and maybe a bit more time and 1/3C olive oil. The 4 2 oz jars of peppers is just wrong. Use 8 oz. of roasted red peppers. We happened to use chipotle peppers in adobo rather than the Fresno chilis, minus the seeds, worked well. We added some sautéed mushrooms to the onions, nice. Could make with 8 eggs easily. MOST IMPORTANTLY: don’t bake it at 450, it’ll burn. Bake at 350, then increase to 425 - 450 after adding the eggs. Also, not sure where all the sauce for “submerging” the bread is supposed to come from, there isn’t that much, it’s all in the bread. We topped with some shredded Parmesan and cilantro, served with salsa and avocado slices on the side. Would definitely make again with the above changes.

    • chikde

    • Madison, WI

    • 3/31/2018

  • Could someone who made this please clarify the four 2 ounce jar of roasted red peppers? There is no way 8 ounces of jarred red peppers is actually 12 peppers?

    • Anonymous

    • Boston

    • 3/29/2018