Keto Cheeseburger Casserole
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This Cheeseburger Casserole recipe is ready in 30 minutes and comes with only 3 grams of net carbs per serving.
Get the taste of a real cheeseburger with an easy dinner that can meal prep your whole week while fixing all your hamburger cravings without the carbs!
Everyone on a low-carb diet craves cheeseburgers or hamburgers at some point.
While you can make amazing healthy cheeseburgers and hamburgers using my burger buns recipe, there is a quicker option.
This keto hamburger casserole is the trick to fixing all your cheeseburger and hamburger cravings and meal prep a week of easy healthy breakfasts, lunches, or dinners without cooking every morning!
What Is A Cheeseburger Casserole?
A Cheeseburger Casserole is a simple dish made with all the cheeseburger ingredients but without the burger bun.
When made in a large dish, it can meal prep a whole week of meals.
How To Make This Cheeseburger Casserole
Making this casserole is super simple! Let me show you how to pick the best ingredients and my best tips for making it.
Ingredients
All you need to make this easy low-carb cheeseburger casserole are a few simple ingredients.
Let’s see how to choose the best easy casserole ingredients.
- Ground Beef – choose good-quality beef, grass-fed if possible.
- Burger Spices – most store-bought ready-made burger spice mixes contain sugar. That’s why this keto recipe doesn’t use this option. Instead, you can mimic burger flavors using a combination of garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, and beef broth.
- Garlic – I always pick organic garlic.
- Onion
- Grated Cheddar – any kind of cheddar cheese works well. Use your favorite. In case you are wondering, cheddar has only 0.7 grams of net carbs per ounce, making it a very low-carb dairy product.
- Salt and Pepper – seasoning casserole is the key to making the best keto cheeseburger casserole.
- Mayonnaise – not all mayonnaises are keto-friendly. The best option is avocado oil mayonnaise. If you can’t find this in your store, replace it with the same amount of sour cream or cream cheese.
- Eggs – learn why eggs have very few carbs.
- Heavy Cream – heavy cream is a low-carb product.
- Sugar-free Ketchup – use my homemade ketchup recipe or look for unsweetened ketchup in the store.
- Mustard – yellow or Dijon mustard, as you like, both are keto-friendly.
- Pickles– normal cheeseburgers are hamburgers with cheese and pickles (gherkins in the UK). So to make a proper cheeseburger casserole, you need a few slices of pickles, or we should call this dish a keto hamburger casserole! Of course, if you are not a fan of pickles, swap for the same amount of fried bacon pieces. A keto bacon cheeseburger casserole is equally amazing!
Instruction Tips
We are all looking for keto breakfasts without eggs. I mean, not totally egg-free, but a breakfast that doesn’t look like an omelette, fried eggs, or scrambled eggs.
Well, this easy low-carb casserole recipe is the best keto breakfast to start the day with only 3 grams of net carbs.
I recommend preparing your casserole the day before and rewarming it every morning in the microwave, oven, or saucepan.
Step 1: Browning The meat
The key to making a tasty keto ground beef casserole is to brown the meat in olive oil.
Warm a large skillet over medium-high heat, and start browning the meat by breaking/crumbling the beef apart with a spoon to cook evenly.
The meat is cooked when it is not pink anymore.
Step 2: Draining The Meat
To avoid a runny casserole, it is important to remove the liquid from the skillet.
Then, return the meat into the skillet and cook again with mayonnaise, cream cheese, or sour cream.
For a spicy cheeseburger casserole, add 4 teaspoons of my taco seasoning to the meat.
Step 3: Picking The Casserole Dish Size
We all love our casseroles differently. If you love a thick beef layer to mimic a double cheeseburger, then use a 9-inch x 9-inch baking dish, as seen in this post.
For a thinner layer of ground beef, use a 9-inch x 13-inch. Spread the beef mixture evenly over the pan, add pickle slices, and set aside.
Note that this won’t impact the carb per serve because whatever the size of the dish you use, you divide the entire dish into 9 portions of the same size.
Since you spread the ingredients evenly into the baking dish, the net carbs per serve will remain the same.
Step 4: Making the Cheeseburger Sauce
Prepare the cheeseburger sauce in a separate mixing bowl. Beat the eggs with heavy cream, sugar-free ketchup, mustard, and shredded cheddar.
Pour this sauce evenly over the baking dish. The larger the dish is, the thinner the layer of sauce will be.
Step 5: Baking
Bake the keto hamburger casserole with the remaining shredded cheddar on top until melted and broiled for 15 minutes in an oven preheated to 400°F (200°C).
Customize The Casserole
There are so many options to tune this recipe and create a variety of new keto casseroles.
- Keto Cheeseburger Cauliflower Casserole – replace 1/2 lbs of ground beef with the same amount of cauliflower rice.
- Keto Cheeseburger Bacon Casserole – simply add bacon – fry 1/2 lbs of fried bacon pieces and arrange on top of the cooked ground beef in the casserole dish.
- Vegetables – you can add 1/2 cup of diced red bell peppers, along with the onions.
Substitutions
This recipe is so straightforward to make, and because it’s a casserole, you can easily swap and replace most of the ingredients if you have any allergies or don’t like one of them
- Beef: if you don’t like beef or don’t eat it, you can swap it for minced chicken. You can also make it vegetarian by swapping the beef for ground walnuts and low-carb vegan meat.
- Onions: you can swap the onions for shallots.
- Eggs: you can substitute the eggs in the sauce with cream cheese or heavy cream. For a dairy-free version, use canned coconut cream.
- Cheese: if you have a dairy allergy, you can replace the cheese with sugar-free dairy-free cheese (made with coconut oil), and cashew cream.
Serving Suggestion
Of course, you can serve this casserole plain. It is delicious.
But what about turning the cheeseburger experience further by serving your casserole on top of lettuce and thin slices of tomatoes.
This will bring out all the cheeseburger flavors, and if you add 50 grams (1.8 oz) of each ingredient, one serving will contain 5.2 grams of net carbs instead of 3 grams of net carbs if served without these keto vegetables.
Storage Instructions
This recipe is ideal for meal prepping a whole week of keto meals. The great thing about it is that you can eat it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It’s always delicious!
You can store it in the pan, lined with plastic wrap, and keep it in the fridge for a couple of days.
Alternatively, if you keep it in airtight containers, you can refrigerate it for an entire week.
But you can also freeze it in zip lock bags. It will last for up to 3 months in the freezer.
Each portion can then be reheated in a microwave (it might take a good 4 to 5 minutes).
More Casserole Recipes
I love keto breakfast casseroles. It is the quickest and easiest keto breakfast ever.
I have plenty of other casserole recipes for you to try below, using healthy vegetables to add some important nutrients to your plate.
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Keto Cheeseburger Casserole
Ingredients
Beef
- 2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- ¾ cup Onion diced
- 2 Garlic Cloves crushed
- 1.5 lbs Ground Beef
- 1 tablespoon Beef Broth
- ¼ teaspoon Garlic Powder
- ½ teaspoon Onion Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Paprika
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- ¼ cup Avocado Oil Mayonnaise or sour cream or cream cheese
Cheese Sauce
- 2 large Eggs
- ½ cup Heavy Cream
- 3 tablespoons Homemade Ketchup
- 1 tablespoon Mustard
- 1 cup Grated Cheddar or grated jack cheese
Toppings
- 3 Sugar-free Pickles sliced (also known as gherkins)
- 1 cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese
Serving suggestion
- 1.8 oz Lettuce Leaves
- 1.8 oz Tomato Slices
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).
- Slightly grease a 9-inch x 9-inch baking dish for a thicker casserole or a 9-inch x 13-inch baking dish for a thinner layer of ground beef. Set aside.
- In a large skillet, over medium heat, warm olive oil.
- Stir in chopped onion, garlic, beef broth, and ground beef.
- Brown the meat, breaking it up with a spoon to crumble the meat apart and cook evenly on all sides.
- Once the ground beef is cooked and browned on all sides, remove it from the skillet with a slotted spoon.
- Discard the juice from the skillet, then return the meat to the skillet over medium-high heat and stir in mayonnaise, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika and cook for 1-2 minutes until fragrant and bubbles form on the side of the skillet.
- Remove from heat and transfer the cooked ground beef into a 9-inch x 9-inch baking dish. Set aside.
- Top the beef with sliced pickles. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs with heavy cream, sugar-free ketchup, mustard, and 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese.
- Pour the sauce all over the baking dish and use a spoon to evenly spread the liquid to fully cover the dish.
- Sprinkle the remaining cup of shredded cheddar on top of the casserole.
- Bake for 15 minutes or until it forms bubbles on the sides of the dish and cheese is broiled.
- Divide the baking dish into 9 even portions. Serve each portion immediately on top of 2 large lettuce leaves and 2 thin slices of tomatoes.
Storage
- Store leftover in the baking dish in the fridge for up to 3 days, cover the dish with a wrap to avoid the casserole drying out.
- Freeze in an airtight container, one serving at a time, to make it easier to thaw one serving at a time. Thaw overnight in the fridge. Rewarm in the microwave or oven.
Notes
Tools
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Nutrition
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CasserolesDisclaimer
The recipes, instructions, and articles on this website should not be taken or used as medical advice. You must consult with your doctor before starting on a keto or low-carb diet. The nutritional data provided on Sweetashoney is to be used as indicative only.
The nutrition data is calculated using WP Recipe Maker. Net Carbs is calculated by removing the fiber and some sweeteners from the total Carbohydrates. As an example, a recipe with 10 grams of Carbs per 100 grams that contains 3 grams of erythritol and 5 grams of fiber will have a net carbs content of 2 grams. Some sweeteners are excluded because they are not metabolized.
You should always calculate the nutritional data yourself instead of relying on Sweetashoney's data. Sweetashoney and its recipes and articles are not intended to cure, prevent, diagnose, or treat any disease. Sweetashoney cannot be liable for adverse reactions or any other outcome resulting from the use of recipes or advice found on the Website.
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I made a vegetarian version last night, and used 10 oz veggie chorizo. We loved it! Thank you!
The recipe says it makes “2 servings” but then says to cut into 9 portions. So is it actually 9 servings rather than 2?
I am not sure where you saw 2 servings, the recipe says 9 servings on top of the recipe card. It will be huge if only 2 servings 🙂 Enjoy, XOXO Carine
Are the eggs in the sauce necessary? I have an egg allergy (so I really love all your egg-free recipes!) and I’m wondering if this dish wouldn’t stand up with some almond flour for texture, or even just extra cream cheese to enjoy in a bowl.
Sure! I will replace the 2 eggs by 1/2 cup cream cheese. Place the cream cheese, heavy cream, sugar-free ketchup, mustard and the cup of cheddar in a sauce pan and melt under medium heat until creamy. Pour over the dish, add remaining cheese on top and bake 15 minutes. Enjoy! XOXO Carine