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.
Pin this now to find it later
Pin ItMore Ground Beef Recipes
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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.
Made it as directed and Loved it!! I’ve had to make it several times by request. I get excited when I find a new hamburger casserole recipe. Thanks so much!
I made the recipe exactly as directed and while it had a lot of flavor I thought it was a little dry. Next time I make this I’m not going to use Rotel. Instead I’m going to replace it with a can of whole stewed tomatoes. Also, add 1/4 cup of beef broth to the tomato/meat mixture while it simmers, and 1/2 cup of heavy cream to the noodle mixture. I think that when I brown the meat I’m going to julienne 1/4 cup onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tsp ground cumin, kosher salt, and pepper.
Great base for a very dynamic dish! You can really be creative with this one, thanks for the original post. And I definitely recommend making it AS IS the first time. You might love it!
I only had rigatoni pasta, and it was dry. So adding more broth works? I’m going to try it again with your recommendations.
I will have to add some diced onion and minced garlic.
Do you drain grease/ fat from hamburger meat or leave it for flavor etc?
if you use ground round or very lean hamburger there will not be enough grease to worry about.
I am not sure of the sour cream. Has anyone tried substituting ricotta cheese? It looks really good and will try this recipe. Thanks
Yes, I used Ricotta cheese and it was deliciou. My husband doesn’t do cream cheese.
I subbed out the sour cream for ricotta. It’s a winner. I also added cottage cheese too. I had cottage cheese, ricotta, and cream cheese and it turned out GREAT. I came up with my own ratios for each. Glad I did because it worked
That sounds fabulous!
Really liked this. I did 1/2 a can of rotel plus a 1/2 of reg diced tomatoes….then the italian style tomatoes. It was a tiny bit too tomato-ey to me, but otherwise very good. I will throw the tomatoes in the blender next time…don’t like the chunks 🙁 Don’t skimp on the sour cream/cream cheese…it really balances it out! I may do a little less of tomatoes next time. Great comfort food!
Don’t like Cream Cheese, can you omit.
We live in north central Indy and can recommend several restaurants:
1. Low cost but very good
Blaze Pizza on N. Michigan Road (Also other locations in the city.) Made to order; many toppings included for the same price: $8.45 for a medium size pizza cooked in about 5 minutes.
Jason’s Deli (multiple locations) has the best corned beef sandwich in the city; Forget Shapiros’ which has all the publicity and HIGH prices
Puccini’s (multiple locations) Their lasagna has minimal pasta and maximum goodies. Also check out their pizza and other entrees.
King Gyros on S. Madison Ave. Not fancy, but the best gyros around!
Bazbeaux Pizza (downtown and more) Good salads and pizza
2. Medium priced – very good
Hollyhock Hill (North) – known for their fried chicken family style dinners.
3. Splurge
Oakley’s Bistro (North) Known for inventive foods
St. Elmo’s is the famous one downtown.
Downtown, especially Mass. Ave, has lots of restaurants that have had good reviews.
Use TripAdvisor to look up other choices.
We have a wide variety of ethnic food restaurants. ENJOY!
Hope your son does well!
Looks good on short list to try
I am a vegetarian and this looks amazing! I am going to use Beyond Meat Fumbles (plant based) and try it tonight. Thank you for the recipe.