Egg and Chorizo Breakfast Casserole

As soon as I published the best healthy nachos on the internet, I knew I had to do something breakfast themed with the chorizo. Tacos, burritos, and skillets all came to mind, but there’s just something special about a casserole. They’re easy to make, portion, great leftover, and very customizable. This egg and chorizo breakfast casserole, for example, has a ton of potential modifications to make it work for your nutritional needs. Whether you prefer a low carb, high protein, calorie conscious, or high fat diet, this recipe can work.

Chorizo is typically very high fat. So, I’ve done my best to reduce the fat and increase the protein while keeping calories on the moderate side. The slice you see below is 1/6th the recipe and has 305 calories, 24 grams of protein, 19 grams of carbs, and 15 grams of fat. Not bad considering this chorizo breakfast casserole uses delicious crescent rolls as its bottom layer.

Chorizo Breakfast Casserole Ingredients

As the title suggests, chorizo is the star of this recipe. We’ll get there.

At the base of your chorizo breakfast casserole, you’ll need some reduced fat crescent rolls. We’ll also be using a little fat free Greek yogurt. This adds a bit of creaminess and lends that fantastic tart flavor. But don’t worry, we won’t be using much.

If you didn’t want to use crescent rolls, you could try the homemade dough from my bacon egg and cheese breakfast pizza.

Beyond those ingredients, the only other thing you’ll need is eggs. I opted to go with egg whites only to keep calories low, but you could certainly swap whole eggs or mix half egg whites with 1-2 whole eggs.

Homemade Chorizo Recipe

To make a lower fat chorizo, we’ll be combining a reduced fat pork sausage with a lean ground beef. When I first published the healthy nachos recipe with the chorizo, I was a little hesitant to call a mixture of meats chorizo. But nobody’s sent hate mail yet so we’re rolling wit hit!

That said, you can plug and play meats if you’d like to use ground turkey or chicken (like my Mexican chicken chorizo). You could even use reduced fat pork sausage exclusively, but I added the lean ground beef because the sausage is still relatively high in fat. (Roughly 1 gram of fat for every gram of protein.) Using a leaner meat gives your chorizo more volume with fewer calories.

Update: Apco (found at HEB) makes a great lean chorizo option. Check out my chorizo breakfast quesadillas to see it in action. 

For the seasoning, here’s the lineup:

• Paprika
• Chili Powder
• Ground Chipotle Pepper Powder
• Black Pepper
• Garlic Powder
• Cumin
• Cayenne Pepper (optional)

If you don’t have every single ingredient above and want to roll with this recipe right away, just do it. Honestly, I used to sweat details like these and be a little intimidated by long seasoning lists. The truth is, it’s hard to mess up recipes with seasoning alone. Aside from adding way too much or none at all, changing ratios or swapping one for another will have minimal effects. You may even find a blend that you like better than mine.

Have fun in the kitchen! Here’s a look at how much fun you should expect from this recipe in the form of a video walkthrough.

When you try this recipe and love it, I wanna hear about it. Take a picture of your creation (#picsoritdidnthappen) and tag me on Instagram and I’ll be sure to share it with the world! Or if you’re more active on Pinterest, I’d appreciate you pinning this recipe. Thanks in advance and thanks for reading. Enjoy your chorizo breakfast casserole.

Continue to Content

Egg and Chorizo Breakfast Casserole

Yield: 6 Slices

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

A homemade lower calorie chorizo loaded into a cheesy, savory breakfast casserole. 

Print

Ingredients

• 1 package Reduced Fat Crescent Rolls
• 8 oz Lean Ground Beef, macros with 96/4
• 5 oz Reduced Fat Sausage, 1/2 a Jimmy Dean 12 oz package
• 3/4 C (184g) Liquid Egg Whites, or 4-5 whole egg whites
• 1 C (112g) Reduced Fat Shredded Cheddar, or your choice of cheese
• 1/4 C (57g) Fat Free Greek Yogurt, plain

Chorizo Seasoning

• 2 tsp Paprika
• 1 tsp Ground Chipotle Pepper Powder
• 1 tsp Black Pepper
• 1/2 tsp Chili Powder
• 1/4 tsp Garlic Powder
• 1/4 tsp Cumin
• 1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat an oven to 400F and spray an 8x8 baking dish or pie pan with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.
2. In a large skillet, cook the ground beef and sausage over medium-high heat. 
3. Mix the chorizo seasoning in a small bowl before adding to the meat as it continues cooking. 
4. Once no pink remains in the meat mixture, reduce to a medium heat and add the egg whites. Cook until the egg whites are no longer runny. 
5. Remove the meat and egg whites from the heat before adding the Greek yogurt. Stir to fully incorporate. Set aside.
6. Add the crescent rolls to the baking dish. Make sure the dough goes at least an inch up the side of the dish, ideally more. And press the dough together to ensure no cracks remain in the bottom of the dish. 
7. Add 1/2 the cheese on top of the dough before adding the meat and eggs mixture. Top with remaining cheese.
8. Bake for 14-16 minutes or until the crescent roll edges are golden brown. Let the breakfast casserole slightly cool before serving. (Cooling for 30 minutes is ideal.) Refrigerate leftovers. 

Notes

• Each serving has 9 Smart Points.
• Since you're using half a package of sausage and ground beef, it would be easy to double the recipe and make two breakfast casseroles in one run. If you bake two at once, extend the cook time by 3-5+ minutes but keep an eye on the crescent rolls to make sure the edges don't burn.
• If you need lower calorie portions, use these numbers for 8 slices instead of 6: 228 calories, 18g of protein, 14g of carbs, 11g of fat
• Macros per slice with 1/2 the cheese: 275 calories, 22g of protein, 19g of carbs, and 13g of fat
• You can use other types of ground meat. In the recipe video, for example, I used ground chicken in place of beef.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 6 slices Serving Size: 1 Slice
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 305Total Fat: 15gCarbohydrates: 19gProtein: 24g

Want more kinda healthy recipes?

Follow me on Pinterest to see all of my recipes organized in one place with photos!

More Healthy Breakfast Recipes 

• 100-calorie breakfast chili
• 3-ingredient protein pancakes and waffles
• chicken breakfast sausage
• low fat yogurt biscuits