French Onion Beef Casserole: This beef casserole recipe is comfort food at its finest! Made with ingredients such as egg noodles, onion soup mix, swiss cheese, and more, it’s a crowd and family favorite!
Quick Overview: With the prep only taking 10 minutes, you’ll have this easy casserole dish ready for the oven and dinner table in no time! Rotate this casserole with this similar hamburger hashbrown casserole recipe.
Why you’ll love this recipe
- Feeding a crowd or a family: Casserole recipes are one of those easy recipes that’s great for feeding a crowd or for meal planning for a busy weeknight!
- Make ahead: Assemble this casserole ahead of time, and bake it when you’re ready.
- Simple ingredients: This is one of those recipes that you can keep most of the ingredients on hand for, when you need something for dinner at the last minute.
What makes something “french onion”
Carmelized onions are typically found in “french onion” recipes (think: french onion dip and french onion soup) and are usually combined with a meat stock, such as beef broth. For this recipe, the caramelized onions are cooked in beef fat, giving it an incredible base!
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Ingredients
This great dish uses simple ingredients, that you’ll mostly be able to keep on hand for those times you dinner an easy dinner idea! (Then this tater tot casserole of course, as well!)
What you’ll need:
- 1.5 lbs Ground beef – not super lean ground beef, as you’ll want the drippings to saute the onions (But if you have lean ground beef, you may want to make one of these other ground beef dinner recipes.)
- 1 – 1oz Bag Lipton onion soup/dip mix – you can also use the generic version
- 1 Medium sized onion, sliced – we prefer yellow onion but white will be ok too.
- 2 Cloves garlic, minced – or you can use garlic that has already been minced
- 2 10.5oz Cans condensed cream of mushroom soup – don’t make the soup with this, you’ll just add it to the recipe from the can
- 10oz egg noodles, cooked according to instructions on bag – Cooked al dente
- 8 oz. Swiss cheese, shredded – You can shred your own or can use pre-shredded, although we prefer shredding our own so it’s creamier.
- 1.5 Cups French’s crispy fried onions – you can use the generic instead! But the crunch of the fried onions on top is amazing! So much so, that we put it on our tuna casserole recipe too!
- Green onions for garnish, sliced (optional) – this adds wonderful color to the dish, and flavor
See the recipe card toward the bottom of this post for the ingredients and instructions all in one place!
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Prepare a baking dish by spraying with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a nonstick skillet, brown the ground beef on medium-high heat until no longer pink. Add the Lipton soup mix halfway through cooking, about 5 minutes. (Make sure your noodles have been cooked, according to package directions too. If not, this is a great time to go ahead and do that as well.)
- Using a slotted spoon, remove the ground beef to a paper towel-lined plate, leaving the fat in the pan to cook the onions.
- In the same skillet add the sliced onions and cook until caramelized and golden brown, about 5-8 minutes.
- When the onions are caramelized add the garlic and cooked ground beef. Add the 2 cans of mushroom soup and bring to a simmer.
- Remove from the heat and fold in the cooked egg noodles, in to the ground beef mixture.
- Add the beef mixture to the prepared baking dish and spread evenly.
- Top with the shredded Swiss cheese and the crispy fried onions.
- Cover completely with foil and bake for 20 minutes.
- Remove the foil and bake for another 5 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let stand for 2 minutes.
- Garnish with sliced scallions, if desired, and serve.
Substitutions
- Soup: We think cream of mushroom is best for this casserole recipe but if you only have something else that’s similar, on hand, you can try cream of celery, cream of chicken, etc.
- Noodles: Egg noodles give this casserole dish incredible texture but feel free to use a different noodle such as rotini, elbow macaroni, penne or even bowtie. If you have extra egg noodles in the pantry, you may also want to consider making chicken and noodles later in the week!
- Meat: This recipe is for ground beef but if you would like to try ground sausage, turkey, or even ground chicken, this should be just fine too!
- Cheese: We love the flavors of swiss cheese on this, however if you want to use a different kind of shredded cheese, such as mozzarella cheese, gruyere cheese, or even cheddar cheese, I’m sure that would be delicious as well.
Storage
To store the casserole put any leftovers in an airtight container, or cover with plastic wrap once it has fully cooled, and refrigerate for up to 3 days.
Can you freeze french onion beef casserole?
You can. For best results, assemble the casserole until it’s time to add the fried onions on the top. Wrap tightly and prepare for the freezer, and then it can be stored for up to 2 months.
When ready to bake, remove from freezer, place in refrigerator and allow to thaw, top with fried onions and then bake as instructed in the recipe card.
To Reheat the Casserole:
If reheating an entire casserole, cover the dish loosely with foil and bake in a 350° F oven until warmed through (about 20 minutes). If only reheating smaller portions, this can be reheated on a microwaves safe plate, in the microwave, for 1-2 minutes.
What to serve with french onion ground beef casserole
Casseroles are one of the easiest dinner recipes, so we definitely want to keep the side dish recipes easy too, right? Our favorite recipes to serve with this casserole are an easy caesar salad or even a can of green beans! (Make sure you see how to make canned green beans taste better!)
Related Recipes
If you thought this was a good casserole, and you love casserole recipes, then you’ll also want to make sure to check out this cheeseburger casserole, Doritos chicken casserole, taco casserole and this ham casserole which are reader favorites!
Did you make this? I’d be so grateful if you left a “star” rating below to let me know what you thought! Then, the next time you need a quick and easy recipe, come back to Fantabulosity to browse all of my easy recipes!
📖 Recipe
French Onion Beef Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds ground beef
- 1 ounce bag onion soup mix
- 1 medium onion sliced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 10.5 ounce cans of condensed cream of mushroom soup
- 10 ounces egg noodles cooked, according to instructions on bag
- 8 ounces swiss cheese shredded
- 1 ½ cups crispy french fried onions
- green onions for garnish, optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare a baking dish by spraying with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a nonstick skillet, brown the ground beef on medium high heat until no longer pink. Add the Lipton soup mix half way through cooking, about 5 minutes.
- Using a slotted spoon, remove the ground beef to a paper towel lined plate, leaving the fat in the pan to cook the onions. In the same skillet add the sliced onions and cook untilcaramelized, about 5-8 minutes.
- When the onions are caramelized add the garlic and cooked ground beef. Add the 2 cans of mushroom soup and bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat and fold in the cooked egg noodles.
- Add the beef mixture to the prepared baking dish and spread evenly. Top with the shredded Swiss cheese and the crispy fried onions.
- Cover completely with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and let stand for 2 minutes. Garnish with sliced scallions and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
Kristyn says
Amazing!! Love the beef! It’s a nice change from using chicken. It’s a hearty dish that everyone will love!
Julia says
My husbands favorite hearty recipe!! Super easy and simple to follow! Highly recommend this dish for next dinner!
Allyssa says
This is really easy to follow, loved this french onion beef casserole recipe! It’s really tasty and very flavorful! Will surely have this again! Highly recommended!