How to Freeze a Casserole

Casseroles make excellent dinners. Made with the right ingredients, they can be a balanced meal complete with the essential food groups. They are an all-in-one meal and typically only require one dish for mixing ingredients and one dish for baking. Perhaps the best aspect of casseroles is that they freeze well. You can't beat heating and serving a frozen casserole for a quick, easy, but wholesome meal. If you've never frozen these classic comfort dishes before, you might not know how. Follow these tips to stock your freezer with homemade meals that are ready in a flash.

Casseroles should always be baked before freezing. The first key to freezing baked casseroles is to line your baking dish with aluminum foil. Completely line the inside of the dish with foil and use a big enough piece so that it hangs over the edges of the dish. After your casserole has been cooked, let it cool for about 10 minutes on the counter, and then move it to the refrigerator to cool some more. Once cooled in the fridge so that the dish is no longer hot to the touch, move the casserole, dish and all, to the freezer. Now you only want to let your casserole freeze for a couple of hours. At this time, you will be able to easily lift your entire casserole out of the dish using the edges of the foil liner. Once you are able to lift it out completely, wrap the entire casserole completely in foil and label and date it. Next, place your foil wrapped casserole in the freezer for full freezing. Now you have your casserole in the freezer and you didn't even dirty up a baking dish.

When reheating your casserole, simply drop the foil wrapped casserole back into a baking dish. Reheat your casserole at the oven temperature specified when you first baked it. The reheating time may be a little longer than the original cooking time, to fully heat your casserole. Check the dish often to see if it is heated through. There is rarely a need to thaw a casserole before reheating it. If you do wish to thaw, however, do so safely in the refrigerator.