The Best Cheeseburger Casserole Recipe

Name: The Best Cheeseburger Casserole Recipe
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Ingredients: 1 ½ cups elbow macaroni; 1 pound lean ground meat; 1 onion (chopped); 2 garlic cloves; 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce; 1 tablespoon mustard; 2 tablespoons ketchup; 2 tablespoons pickles (chopped); Salt and pepper; 2 cups Cheddar cheese; Fresh parsley (to serve); cooking oil (for greasing the baking dish)

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Cheeseburger Casserole is what I make when I want burger night on a weeknight without firing up the grill or setting out a build-your-own line. It’s built from the flavors of a classic cheeseburger, so it’s an easy dinner to put in front of a mixed table.

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One pound of beef and a cup and a half of macaroni feed six from a single dish, and the burger taste comes from the ketchup, mustard, Worcestershire, and pickles already sitting in the fridge door. It takes 45 minutes from start to table, with 15 minutes of prep and 30 minutes in the oven.

A close-up of a cheesy cheeseburger casserole pasta bake with ground beef, garnished with chopped parsley, being served with a spoon. — Cheeseburger Casserole. Photo Credit: Pocket Friendly Recipes

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Burger flavor without the grill or the buns. The ketchup, mustard, Worcestershire, and pickles that make a cheeseburger go straight into the beef, so it reads as burger night rather than pasta night.
Familiar flavors. It tastes like a cheeseburger, which makes it an easy call on a busy night.
Good for leftovers. It warms back through the next day, so one dish can cover two dinners. A splash of milk or water stirred in loosens it back up if it has dried out.
Everything’s a fridge or pantry regular. Ground beef, dried pasta, cheddar, and a few condiments, with nothing special to shop for.

Ingredients You’ll Need

Here’s what’s worth noting before you start. The printable card below has the full list with quantities.

Lean ground beef. It’s the base of the dish, and a leaner grind leaves less fat in the pan to begin with.
The burger condiments. One tablespoon of Worcestershire, one tablespoon of yellow mustard, two tablespoons of ketchup, and two tablespoons of chopped dill pickles stirred into the meat are what turn beef and pasta into burger night. Chop the pickles small so the tang runs through every bite instead of landing in clumps.
A different pasta shape. Penne, fusilli, or rotini work in place of the elbows. Cook whichever you pick according to its own package directions.
Cheddar. Half goes through the mixture and half over the top, so every scoop has cheese in it under a cheesy crust. Grate it from a block if you can, since pre-shredded cheese is dusted with starch that keeps it from melting as smoothly.

A variety of labeled ingredients for a cheeseburger casserole are arranged in bowls, including ground meat, macaroni, cheese, onion, pickles, ketchup, mustard, and seasonings. — Cheeseburger Casserole ingredients. Photo Credit: Pocket Friendly Recipes

How to Make Cheeseburger Casserole

A complete printable recipe and the measurements in both US customary and metric are available in the recipe card below.

Boil the macaroni

Heat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Cook the elbow macaroni according to package directions, drain and set aside.

From Mandy's kitchenCasseroles are my love language. My Casseroles for Family Gatherings book has 37 more, one dish each.

A pot filled with cooked pasta. — Cook the macaroni in salted water until just under al dente, then drain.

A frying pan filled with meat and seasonings. — Brown the beef, drain excess grease, then add onion, garlic, and burger-style seasonings and cook until softened.

Brown and season the beef

Cook the ground beef in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat, breaking it up as it goes, until it’s browned through. Ground beef is safe once it reaches an internal temperature of 160°F (71°C). Drain off the excess grease.

Season it like a burger

Stir in the chopped onion and minced garlic and cook about 5 minutes, until the onion softens.

Add the Worcestershire, mustard, ketchup, chopped pickles, and a little salt and pepper, and mix it through.

Assemble

Lightly oil a baking dish. Combine the drained macaroni and the meat mixture with half of the cheddar, spread it into the dish, and scatter the rest of the cheese over the top.

Cheesy cheeseburger casserole in a white dish. — Combine macaroni, meat mixture, and half the cheddar, then spread in a lightly oiled baking dish.

A cheeseburger casserole filled with meat and cheese. — Scatter the remaining cheese on top and bake for 30 minutes until melted and bubbling.

Bake and serve

Bake until the cheese is melted and bubbling and the top has taken on some color, about 30 minutes.

Let it settle for a few minutes, scatter fresh parsley over the top, and serve it warm.

Recipe Notes and Expert Tips

Drain the beef well. A lean grind plus a good drain keeps the casserole from going greasy under the cheese.
Don’t skip the condiments. They’re the whole point. Leave them out and you’ve got cheesy beef macaroni, not a cheeseburger.
Grate the cheddar from a block. The anti-caking starch on pre-shredded cheese keeps it from melting cleanly, so a block grated at home gives you a smoother top.

Recipe Variations

Ground turkey or chicken. I’ve tested this swap and it holds up well; cook ground poultry to 165°F (74°C), a touch higher than the 160°F (71°C) I use for beef.
For a bacon cheeseburger version, fold a handful of chopped crispy bacon through near the end. I do this often, and it works because the bacon keeps its crunch against the soft pasta.
A different pasta shape. Penne, fusilli, or rotini work in place of the elbows. Boil whichever you pick a minute shy of its own package time so it holds up in the bake.
Sautéed vegetables to stretch it. Cooking diced bell peppers, mushrooms, or zucchini with the onion is a tested way to pad the dish out and feed more people from the same pound of beef.

How to Store Leftovers

Refrigerate leftovers within two hours, keep them three to four days, and reheat to 165°F (74°C) in the center.

Drop that to within one hour if the kitchen is above 90°F (32°C), and don’t leave the dish out to cool all the way down first.

Keep it covered or in an airtight container. To hold it longer, freeze portions for up to 3 to 4 months and thaw them overnight in the fridge before reheating.

To make it ahead, assemble the casserole, cover it, and refrigerate it unbaked. Coming straight from the fridge it needs a little longer in the oven, so add time and check the center reaches 165°F (74°C) before serving.

What to Serve With Cheeseburger Casserole

A crisp green salad with a sharp vinaigrette balances the cheesy, beefy bake, and a cool broccoli salad does the same job if you want something you can make ahead.

To push the burger idea further, set out a red cabbage coleslaw and the things you’d pile on a burger, shredded lettuce, diced tomato, extra chopped pickles, and a little burger sauce, and let everyone spoon their own over the top after it comes out of the oven.

FAQs

Why doesn’t my cheeseburger casserole taste like a cheeseburger?

It’s almost always the seasoning. Taste the meat mixture before it goes into the dish and build it up with a little more mustard or a few more chopped pickles until it reads like a burger to you. A flat result usually means the condiments were held back, so season the beef assertively rather than cautiously.

Mine came out dry. What happened?

Baked pasta keeps drinking up moisture, and it does the most of that in the fridge and on the reheat. Warm leftovers with a splash of milk or water stirred through and they loosen back up. Some cooks stir a quarter cup of milk into the mix before baking for a softer set, which is worth trying if you like it creamier.

Can I use relish instead of dill pickles?

You can. Dill relish stands in cleanly for chopped dill pickles, since it’s the same tang in a finer form. Relish already comes finely cut, so it folds through the meat evenly without any knife work.

More Casserole Dinners I Keep in Rotation

If this one earns a spot on your weeknight list, here are other one-dish casseroles from the site worth a look.

Tater Tot Casserole is the one I make when I want the same hands-off beef-and-cheddar bake with a crispy top instead of pasta underneath.
Cowboy Casserole piles corn, tomatoes, and taco-seasoned beef under a tater-tot crust, for when I want a loaded, scoopable bake rather than a pasta one.
Taco Casserole swaps the burger seasonings for taco ones over a crisp baked-tortilla base, when the table wants Tex-Mex instead.
Chicken Pot Pie Casserole is my pick when I want something creamy and chicken-based rather than beefy, with puff pastry instead of a bottom crust.
Tuna Casserole is the pantry option for a meatless night, an egg-noodle bake with a golden panko top.