Ground Beef Casserole loaded with beef, cheese, and egg noodles is sure to be a family favorite.
Homestyle Ground Beef Casserole Recipe
I can never get enough of cooking or eating casseroles. They’re easy to make, filling, and just have a way of comforting the soul.
Sour cream, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, Parmesan cheese, and mozzarella cheese (yes there’s really that much cheese) make this casserole sinfully rich and gooey.
If you like cooking in a slow cooker, try this Crockpot Homestyle Ground Beef Casserole.
Reader Comment
Annie says “We love this recipe, even the Grandbabes! It has lasagna vibes, but is so much easier to make and I actually like it better. It’s not as heavy as lasagna. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Ingredient Notes
- Noodles– I don’t know what it is about egg noodles, but I absolutely love them. Their flavor and shape is a nice change up from pasta. If you prefer, you can use penne, elbow macaroni, or rotini.
- Cream Cheese– years and years ago cream cheese was sold in a 3-oz size. Because of that, many old recipes contain 3 ounces of cream cheese. Since that size is no longer available, you will need to cut 3 ounces from an 8-ounce block which is easy to do since the measurements are marked on the side of the wrapper just like butter.
- Tomatoes– I use a can of Rotel tomatoes and a can of diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano. Use “Hot” Rotel tomatoes to make the casserole spicy. If you use regular diced tomatoes, add 2 cloves of minced garlic when you cook the ground beef along with a little dried oregano and basil.
- Ground Beef– I use ground round because it is a little bit leaner, but you can use any ground beef or even ground turkey or Italian sausage.
How To Make
(More detailed instructions in recipe card below.)
- Make the Sauce. Brown and crumble the ground beef. Add the rotel tomatoes, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, salt, sugar, Italian seasoning, and pepper. Let simmer gently while you cook the pasta.
- Cook the pasta.
- Make the noodle layer. Mix sour cream, cream cheese, and green onions with the noodles.
- Assemble. Place noodle mixture in the bottom of a baking dish and top with sauce, and then the cheeses.
- Bake. Bake covered for 35 minutes and then uncovered for 5 minutes.
Variations and Substitutions
This recipe is easily customizable to suit you tastes and use what you have on hand. Here are some suggestions.
- You can use penne, rotini, elbow macaroni, or another pasta shape instead of the egg noodles.
- Add some crushed red pepper flakes to make it spicy.
- Use ground turkey or Italian sausage in place of ground round.
- Try replacing the sour cream with cottage cheese.
- Add mushrooms, bell pepper, and/or diced onion when cooking the ground round.
Love that cheese 🙂 🙂
How To Serve
Serve with a side salad with Creamy Italian Dressing and some crusty bread or cheesy garlic bread and this will easily last 2 meals for a family of four.
Storage and Freezing
Leftovers will keep for 4 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Reheat in microwave or oven.
It can also be assembled, frozen and defrosted overnight in the refrigerator. Then bake according to recipe directions.
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Ground Beef Casserole
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground round
- 1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano, undrained
- 1 (10-ounce) can Rotel tomatoes
- 1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 3 cups uncooked medium egg noodles
- 5 green onions,, chopped
- 1 (8-ounce) container sour cream
- 1 (3-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
- 1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Place a large skillet over medium heat and add ground round. Cook, breaking up with a wooden spoon, until no longer pink.
- Add both cans of tomatoes, tomato paste, salt, sugar, Italian seasoning, and pepper. Stir to mix and let simmer over low heat while you get the rest of the ingredients ready.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook egg noodles according to package directions and drain well.
- In a medium bowl, stir together noodles, green onions, sour cream, and cream cheese.
- Spoon noodle mixture into a greased 13X9-inch baking dish. Top with beef mixture. Sprinkle with cheeses.
- Spray a piece of aluminum foil with cooking spray and place cooking spray side down on top of baking dish to cover.
- Bake for 35 minutes. Uncover and bake 5 more minutes.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Source: adapted from Southern Living
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
One of my favorite casseroles! Love all the cheese!
This was very good, something I shouldn’t have made due to high cholesterol, but I’m a beef & cheese addict. Only complaints are I had to guess on a few things, such as the green onions, some recipes state to use both the white & greens parts, I used both. No mention of draining the grease from the ground beef, I did drain it. First time I used Rotel tomatoes, several different kinds out there and I was surprised to find a lot of liquid in the can (like canned corn), I dumped the liquid out but wasn’t sure if I was suppose to. Lastly no mention of what kind of cheddar cheese to use, I choose sharp. I did a lot of guessing, most of it was common sense & I got lucky. Thank you for the wonderful recipe.
This was a big hit for my family! I used just one can of tomato sauce and one tomato paste, I added some v8, I used onion powder instead of the green onions. I omitted the rotel and diced tomatoes, also no green onions. (Picky eaters at my house do not like chunks). It was super delicious!!
Thank you for posting. I was wondering how it would taste with the tomato sauce instead of diced, and onion powder instead of pieces. I have picky eaters as well!
Tried this recipe for the first time tonight. Absolutely delicious! My husband just filled TWO containers for his lunch tomorrow and he doesn’t care for tomatoes. I love that I had all ingredients on hand. Fast and easy to throw together. Will definitely make again!
Yay! Thanks so much for letting me know you and your husband enjoyed it Merry Ellen!
Where do I find the rotel tomato’s
Do you use the Rotel tomatoes with green chilies? That is the only way I find them.
I haven’t tried the recipe yet, but am definitely going to. I love Italian food. Question about the egg noodles, you first cook them according to package directions, then you bake them 35 mins. in the casserole. Won’t the noodles be over cooked?
I don’t find that they get undercooked. You can cook them for a minute or two less than package directions to make sure.
Can you freeze this?
I thought this was very tasty. The only thing I changed was I used elbows instead of egg noodles because that was all I had. BUT my cream cheese/sour cream curdled. Has anyone else had this happen? Other than that, it was very good. I am eating leftovers while I type. 🙂
Made this last night and let me just say OMG!
Delicious! Pretty much what Donna said in the comments. My boyfriend doesn’t like cream cheese or sc…but he ate it and LOVED IT! Thanks, and didn’t change anything.
I made this tonight and followed instructions exactly. It was wonderful! I will be making this again!
Glad you enjoyed it Ann!
Hi, I just want to inquire about the measurement of cheese in the recipe, you say one cup in bracket 4 ounces, well don’t get me wrong but 4 Oz is half a cup, what is right?
Sorry for the confusion. If you buy a package of shredded cheese, on the package it says an 8 ounce bag has 2 cups of cheese. Therefore, when I buy an 8-ounce block of cheese, I assume that it makes 2 cups of shredded cheese. So half the block would be 1 cup.
This article helps you make conversions between different forms of cheddar cheese – http://www.cooksinfo.com/cheddar-cheese
4 ounces is half a cup when it comes to liquids.
Cheese isn’t a liquid. It takes less to actually fill 1 cup. Don’t take our word for it. Grate 8 ounces and try to fit it in 1 cup. 😉
Two girls one cup :p