Sauerkraut Casserole Recipe – Venison and Sauerkraut Hotdish

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Sauerkraut casserole is an easy-to-make casserole or hotdish — basically German lasagna: Sauerkraut, venison or beef, a little tomato, noodles and cheese. What’s not to love?

This is one of those recipes with lots of variation from cook to cook, family to family. Basically what makes it a sauerkraut casserole is that sauerkraut is one of the three or four main ingredients. Beyond that, I’ve seen recipes:

With and without meat. And those with meat are usually ground meat, as in this recipe, or slices of smoked sausage.
Some versions use cans of condensed soups, like cream of mushroom or cream of celery. I do not like these, so mine skips them.
Tomato is a common presence, from ketchup to canned tomato sauce. I prefer to hand crush canned, peeled tomatoes for a lighter tomato touch.
Sugar. Brown sugar is almost a given in saurkraut casserole, to offset the salty tang of the kraut. I’ve seen recipes that use up to 3/4 of a cup (!), which I think is wildly excessive. I use just a healthy pinch, about a tablespoon.
Starch. Usually German (Pennsylvania Dutch) wide egg noodles, but potatoes are also common. Sometimes you’ll even see tater tots, like my venison tater tot casserole.
Cheese. Most have it, mine does, but sometimes you’ll see a sauerkraut casserole without it.

You can make a sauerkraut casserole in stages, or all at once.

Easiest is to just plow on through — the total time to make this recipe is about 1 hour — but if you are pressed for time, you can have the ingredients precooked and then assemble them in the casserole dish for dinner.

Basically it goes like this: Cook the noodles about halfway, brown the meat and onion well (more on this in a bit), add the sauerkraut to the pan to soak up the browned bits, grate the cheese if you’re not already using pre-grated cheese, which by the way is perfectly fine, then assemble and bake.

A full dish of sauerkraut casserole with venison.

What Makes My Sauerkraut Casserole Great

I decided on my recipe after eating several other people’s casseroles, as well as reading a whole bunch of other recipes. Here’s why I do what I do.

First, I half-cook the noodles because that way they don’t get all limp and gross in the casserole.
While those cook, I seriously brown ground venison (you can use any meat) with onion. I want a little crisp browning, and I want the pan to be coated in what the French call fond, the browned bits stuck to the pan.
Why? Because I then add the undrained sauerkraut to that pan after removing the meat. Using the liquid and a wooden spoon to scrape up all the browned bits really adds a ton of flavor. If you skip this, your sauerkraut casserole won’t be as good.
I mentioned the tomato before, and I hand crush some canned, peeled tomatoes to give the casserole a bit of sweet acidity without making it taste like a copy of my Italian venison casserole recipe.
Finally, I chose a mix of grated Swiss and gouda cheese because, well, it just matches better with sauerkraut than, say mozzarella. But you do you.

Serving and Storing

Serve your sauerkraut casserole like any other casserole: Cut out a portion from the pan and slap it on a plate. I like a little extra black pepper at the end.

It’s a complete meal, so maybe all you need extra is a side salad to round things out nicely.

This casserole stores well in the fridge, covered, about a week, and you can freeze it. I reheat it in the casserole dish at 350°F or so for about 25 minutes.

If you liked this recipe, please leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating and a comment below; I’d love to hear how everything went. If you’re on Instagram, share a picture and tag me at huntgathercook.

Boil the egg noodles in salty water until half cooked. This generally means about 4 to 6 minutes, but check the package. Drain and set aside.
While the water is heating up for the noodles, preheat the oven to 350°F. Set a large frying pan on a strong burner over medium-high to high heat.
Add the chopped onion and ground meat. Sprinkle salt over them. Cook, stirring occasionally and breaking up big lumps, until the meat is well browned, about 10 minutes. Take care to not let any of the bits stuck to the pan blacken — brown is what you want. Remove the meat and onion to a large bowl and add half the noodles to that bowl.
Turn the heat off the pan and add the sauerkraut to it, along with its juice. Use a wooden spoon to scrape up all the browned bits, then move all this to the bowl with the meat and half the noodles. Add the dry mustard, caraway, black pepper and sugar. With your hands, extract the whole tomatoes from the can and crush and shred into the bowl. Save the juice in the tomato can for another recipe. Mix all this well.
Pour the mixture into a 9×13 casserole dish or something similar, and pack it in well. Cover with the remaining noodles; you might not need all of them. Sprinkle the cheese on top evenly and pop it in the oven. It’s done when you get some browned edges to the cheese, as in the picture. This usually takes about 30 minutes. Remove it from the oven and let it stand for 5 minutes before serving.