Give Your Next Casserole Big Mac Flavors For A McDonald’s-Inspired Comfort Dish

The Big Mac is certainly McDonald’s most iconic menu item. The combination of three bread pieces, pickles, lettuce, onion, cheese, double patties, and, of course, the acclaimed Mac sauce, makes for a hearty sandwich that hits all of the savory, zesty, and salty notes that you’re craving. However, it’s also easy to bring those familiar flavors home and adapt them to a homestyle dish: cheeseburger casserole. 

A cheeseburger casserole is very versatile, and basically involves adding all of your burger components (sans buns — or swapping them with tater tots, cubed potatoes, noodles, or cubed bread pieces) to a casserole dish, baking it, and adding fresh toppings. You can use all of the components in the casserole that you would add to the Big Mac, too. Bake the meat (beef, turkey, chicken, or a plant-based substitute) with cheese, then sprinkle on chopped pickles, onion, and lettuce before drizzling Mac sauce (you can find a copycat version of it at Walmart) over it.

Although you might expect the ingredients in this casserole to be rigid, given the Big Mac’s standard recipe, there are plenty of ways to upgrade your cheeseburger casserole. The first is to switch out the base. McDonald’s uses sesame buns for its burger, but you can cube these up to make a Big Mac rendition on bread pudding instead. If you prefer something less carb-dense, omit the bread entirely and serve the cooked beef, cheese, and topping mixture with a side salad. 

You can also go full Midwestern and turn it into a hot dish with a tater tot base. This is one of the best uses for tater tots because they will make this dish extra hearty and easy to eat. While skinny McDonald’s-style fries would drive home the Big Mac vibe here, they are too frail to support the weight of the toppings. However, you could bake the casserole sans fries, then spoon the casserole on top, and serve it nachos style.