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Anything can be turned into a casserole, but whether it tastes good or not is always the question. When they do turn out well, they represent an easy way to get a more complicated meal on the table in no time. If you have some family-favorite dinners or breakfasts that you want to save time and effort on, check out these cozy, comfort-food casserole recipes modeled on other dishes, from French toast to chicken parm.
Pierogies are Polish dumplings, often filled with mashed potatoes and fresh cheese and sauteed with onions. Using lasagna noodles as a stand-in for the dumpling dough in this casserole is a genius idea. They're layered with cheesy mashed potatoes, onions, and cottage cheese, a good substitute for the crumbly farmer's cheese that sometimes fills pierogies.
Recipe: Taste of Home
Corn dogs transform into a casserole pretty readily thanks to the cornbread batter coating. Sliced hot dogs are browned along with onions and celery before being mixed into cornbread batter and baked with cheese on top. Kids love dipping this in ketchup or mustard (bake it in a muffin tin for individual dippers!).
Recipe: All Recipes
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Just like corn dogs, chili dogs are also easy to casserole-ize. A simple chili made with ground beef, canned chili beans, chili powder, and tomato sauce can be spiced up to your family's tastes. Mixing in mini-weenies turns this into a chili dog bake, along with a substantial cornbread and cheese topping.
Recipe: Taste of Home
All the best parts of a cheeseburger go into this recipe. Ground beef, fried onions, tomatoes, mustard, and plenty of cheddar cheese coat rotini pasta instead of being stacked on buns. When it's out of the oven, a sprinkle of chopped dill pickles adds a tangy freshness. And, as usual, it couldn't hurt to add some bacon.
Recipe:Gimme Delicious
There's no shame in using premade ingredients, especially when they turn out as well as they do in this creative meatball sub casserole. Canned biscuits, jarred marinara sauce, and frozen meatballs make this dish fast enough for a weeknight. Add some extra ingredients like garlic, fresh basil, or chopped red bell pepper to make it your own.
Recipe:The Chunky Chef
This low-carb casserole is based on chicken cordon bleu, a dish of ham and cheese stuffed into chicken breasts and fried. Shredded chicken — use rotisserie chicken to save time — and sliced deli ham are covered in a rich, creamy sauce flavored with mustard. Swiss cheese on top bubbles and browns on top.
Recipe: Joy Filled Eats
Pizza is already a go-to comfort food, so it's impossible not to love when it's doubly comforting in casserole form. Egg noodles are baked with ground beef, pizza sauce, green peppers, onions, and pepperoni, all covered in a thick blanket of gooey mozzarella. Feel free to add whatever pizza toppings your family enjoys, like Italian sausage or mushrooms.
Recipe: Allrecipes
Casseroles aren't just for dinner. Biscuits and gravy casserole makes easy work of the classic Southern dish with canned biscuits as the base. Crumbled cooked breakfast sausage and cheese are scattered on top, then beaten eggs are poured over, which will hold everything together when baked. A simple, white gravy stays nice and creamy as the top layer.
Recipe: Tasty
How come it's not socially acceptable to make a meal out of fried appetizers? This casserole addresses that problem, allowing all popper lovers to satisfy that craving. A neat layer of tater tots forms the base of the dish, with a spicy spread of sour cream, cheese, jalapeños, and bacon melted over top.
Recipe: Premeditated Leftovers
Instead of making individual reuben sandwiches for a crowd, try this casserole for much faster assembly. All the reuben components — rye bread, pastrami, sauerkraut, and Swiss — are layered with a thousand island- and mustard-seasoned egg mixture that holds it all together. Pickles, caraway seeds, and a rye breadcrumb topping make it unique.
Recipe: The Country Cook
Another deli favorite, bagels and lox, gets the casserole treatment and it turns out surprisingly well. Everything bagels are chopped and soaked in egg custard, like a savory bread pudding. Cubes of cream cheese and sliced lox stud the dish, but if you prefer, you can drape the cold lox over the casserole after you bake it.
Recipe:Today
Tamales, with their steamed corn dough surrounding a saucy filling, are amazing but time consuming to make. This easy, weeknight casserole is reminiscent of tamales, with a seasoned, custardy cornbread base. Bake that first, then top it with chicken, enchilada sauce, and cheese. Serve it with your favorite hot sauce and other taco toppings.
Recipe: I Wash You Dry
A hefty amount of fresh, diced bell peppers in a variety of colors gives this casserole a lovely appearance and sweet pepper flavor. Ground beef, tomatoes, and rice make up the rest of the dish, and who could resist the layer of melted mozzarella on top?
Recipe: Spend With Pennies
With just four ingredients, this is one of those emergency recipes to have on hand when nothing is going right that day. Chicken breasts are cooked in the canned enchilada sauce — or you can use shredded rotisserie chicken — and then layered with corn tortillas and cheese. It's good just the way it is, but feel free to doctor it up with corn, peppers, or toppings.
Recipe: Jo Cooks
If you can never get enough buffalo chicken dip, this casserole is for you. It's essentially the same cream cheese- and hot sauce-based dip mixed with pasta and topped with more cheese. It's a fun way to get your Buffalo sauce fix.
Recipe: Inside BruCrew Life
This chile rellenos casserole makes a great brunch or light dinner. Instead of roasting and stuffing poblano peppers individually, layer canned, whole green chiles in a baking dish with lots of cheese. A savory custard is poured over the top and stands in for the egg-based chile relleno batter. Though you could serve it plain, this recipe also gets a pool of enchilada sauce and more cheese on top.
Recipe: Allrecipes
If you forgot to get buns for sloppy joes, have no fear, because this casserole can save you. It uses a homemade beef mixture with tomato sauce, Worcestershire, and mustard, but you can also just mix the beef with Manwich to save time. A prepared package of cornbread mix is baked on top with a layer of gooey cheese underneath.
Recipe:Betty Crocker
Don't be turned off by the less-than-attractive moniker of dump-and-bake; it just means it's no more work to cook than dumping the ingredients into a pan and throwing it into the oven. This variation includes everything in chicken parm, including diced raw chicken breast, dry pasta, and jarred pasta sauce. After that bakes for a while, it's topped with cheese and breadcrumbs for a gooey, crunchy finish.
Recipe: The Seasoned Mom
Related:Ridiculously Easy Dump-and-Bake Desserts to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth
There are a million ways to make a taco casserole, but this version is unique and has great reviews. The tortilla layer is actually crushed tortilla chips, adding more texture and flavor than soft tortillas. A layer of refried beans and a layer of taco-seasoned beef mixed with onions and tomatoes finishes it off. Don't forget to make a toppings bar so everyone can load up their portion.
Recipe:Dinner at the Zoo
Cabbage rolls are a traditional East European dish that takes a lot of effort to make, but this casserole version can be made in no time. Ground beef, onions, and seasonings like dill and sage are combined with tomato sauce and cooked rice. That mixture is layered with shredded cabbage and baked until everything is hot and bubbling.
Recipe:Taste of Home
It's one thing to turn a dish into a casserole, but how about a full meal, complete with side? You get a BLT sandwich and potato chips in this recipe. The BLT ingredients, along with cheese, basil, and kettle chips are combined with beaten eggs and baked together. Cherry tomatoes hold up better than their traditional BLT counterparts.
Recipe: Family Cookbook Project
Overnight French toast is a real time saver if you're entertaining in the morning or want an effortless holiday brunch. Butter and brown sugar spread into the bottom of the pan to make a gooey caramel layer, while pecans on top give the bread texture. You can make it the night before and just pop it in the oven the next day.
Recipe: The Girl Who Ate Everything
You have to be a practiced short order cook to make eggs Benedict for lots of people at once, but it's easy in casserole form. English muffins and ham or Canadian bacon are baked in a custard. To serve it, spoon the decadent Hollandaise that you made while it was baking over the top. The sauce, which is a tricky emulsion of egg yolks and butter, comes together without fail in a blender.
Recipe: The Cookie Rookie
This Tex-Mex dish is great for brunch but hearty enough for dinner, since it's filled with tater tots, the go-to casserole carb. Cumin, chili powder, and oregano season the eggs that are poured over the tots. Serve it with your favorite salsa, sour cream, and fresh cilantro.
Recipe:Better Homes & Gardens