Canadian Bacon Breakfast Casserole

This Canadian Bacon Breakfast Casserole is a hearty, stick-to-your-ribs way to start the day. Leftovers reheat beautifully - if you have any!

Canadian Bacon is otherwise known as back bacon or  peameal bacon. It is cut from the eye of the pork loin from the back of the pig -therefore 'back bacon'.  The meat is relatively lean and is salted and cured.  The peameal part comes from the fact it used to be coated in ground up yellow peas.  Nowadays it is coated with corn meal.  If you want to make this gluten free scrape and rinse the cornmeal coating off the bacon.

Canadian?  We don't call it Canadian... must be American's differentiating between the streaky, belly bacon and the back bacon.

If you can't find  peameal bacon substitute cooked ham chunks.

This casserole is easy to assemble and cook.  Left to my own devices I would have jazzed it up with jalapeno peppers, or chili flakes or something to give it some punch.  But, my husband doesn't like heat.  He was thrilled with the way this turned out so I said nothing and scattered my hot peppers on the side!

I used fresh potatoes but you could substitute frozen hash browns if you want to speed up the preparation. ( See the recipe Note 1).

The leek toppings turned very dark during the cooking process.  I didn't mind because they added a bit of a flavour hit.  If you are concerned don't saute them first.  I didn't want to cover the casserole because I didn't want the potato layer to steam.

Check the center of the casserole with a knife to make sure the eggs in the center have set.  Serve and enjoy!

Canadian Bacon Breakfast Casserole

Author: Carolyn Hetke

If you tried this, or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know it went in the 📝 comments below!

5 from 2 votes

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Course: Main Dish

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 20 minutes mins

Cook Time: 1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Total Time: 1 hour hr 35 minutes mins

Servings: 8 servings

Ingredients

• ▢ 6 large potatoes (or 6 cups frozen hash browns- see Note 1)
• ▢ 1 lb peameal bacon
• ▢ 2 leeks (can substitute onions)
• ▢ 3 tablespoon vegetable oil divided 1 + 2 Tbsps
• ▢ 8 eggs
• ▢ ¼ cup cream
• ▢ 8 oz cheddar cheese grated

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a 10" X 13" casserole with cooking spray.
• Peel potatoes and cut into 1" dice. Parboil the potatoes in a pot of salted water for about 15 minutes. Do not overcook because you will be baking them later.
• Cut the peameal bacon into 1" cubes and spread evenly over the bottom of the casserole.
• Roughly chop the white part of the leeks. Sprinkle half evenly over the peameal bacon layer. Saute the other half of the leeks in 1 tablespoon oil until they are translucent, about 5 minutes.
• Blend the eggs with ¼ cup of cream. Pour over the bacon and leeks in the casserole.
• Grate or shred cheddar cheese and layer over the egg layer.
• Drain the potatoes when they are done. Toss the cubes in the remaining 2 Tbsps of oil. Layer the potatoes over the cheese layer.
• Spread sautéed leeks evenly over the potatoes as garnish.
• Bake for 60 minutes. Insert a knife to check that the eggs in the center have set and are not runny.
• Serve with hot peppers or hot sauce on the side.

Notes

Note 1:  If using frozen hash browns just spread a thick layer on top of the casserole just before baking.

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