Recipe: Crockpot Hashbrown + Sausage Casserole

True story: I've attended my fair share of morning tailgates for football games.

Morning tailgates are hard. You've got to wake up extra early. You've got to leave your house before the sun is up. They can get pretty chilly late in the season. They're also entirely too short for my liking.

Luckily, my fiancé is a guy who loves to cook and experiment at tailgates, so we attempted a breakfast tailgate this season.

The first game was... somewhat successful. We learned a lot. Like... don't expect a plastic baster to pull grease up off of a griddle on a grill {that one was totally on me}. Don't attempt to cook everything out at the tailgate. Definitely start the crockpot at home when you wake up to give it a head start before you drive over to your tailgate. Don't leave me alone with a pancake batter pen.

The second morning tailgate absolutely goes down in the win column. We cooked the bacon & sausage the night before and reheated out at the tailgate. I perfected the crockpot hashbrown + sausage casserole. The griddle was just used to cook eggs. We scrapped the pancake idea altogether.

But my favorite part of the whole breakfast tailgate was the Crockpot Hashbrown + Sausage Casserole. This recipe even made an appearance at our Christmas morning brunch!

Crockpot Hashbrown + Sausage Casserole

Ingredients

1 bag of hashbrowns {thaw beforehand}

1 package smoked sausage

2 cans cream of chicken

2 cups of shredded sharp cheddar cheese

salt & pepper to taste

Directions

1. Cut up sausage into small, bite sized pieces and brown in a frying pan.

2. Mix sausage, hashbrowns {I usually leave mine in the fridge overnight to kind of thaw out}, cream of chicken, and shredded cheese together in the crockpot. Add in some salt & pepper to taste.

3. Cook on high for two hours or until hashbrowns are thoroughly cooked.

4. Enjoy!

This was such a winner at our tailgate before the Clemson/USC game. It was cold enough outside that having something warm and delcious to eat was perfect. Plus, anything eaten off of this little Clemson plate is guaranteed to be delicious ;)