With just a few ingredients and 5 minutes of prep, you can easily make your own Breakfast Sausage! This recipe for Homemade Breakfast Sausage is not only easy to make, it is absolutely delicious! Use it to make sausage patties or ground breakfast sausage and up your breakfast game!
Pair Homemade Breakfast Sausage Patties with Whole Wheat Pancakes or Waffles for a fabulous spread for breakfast or use to make Breakfast Sliders or Breakfast Casserole.
I started making my own breakfast sausage years ago when I found it hard to find a store brand without MSG.
My family loves breakfast sausage, but our bodies do not adore MSG. And when I started to look at the ingredients in purchased breakfast sausages, I was a bit shocked. Most brands have added corn syrup, preservatives, gluten, and MSG. And the sodium content was through the roof! Not that appealing in my book!
But with just a few simple ingredients and a few minutes of work, you can leave the nasty additives on the shelves and make your own Breakfast Sausage that not only tastes better and is better for you, it is actually a money-saver as well!
Whether you are gluten-free, Paleo, on a low-sodium diet, or avoiding MSG and preservatives, this recipe is perfect for you. Made with just simple ingredients, you can control exactly what is added–or not added in this case, making this breakfast sausage recipe perfect for anyone.
Ingredients for Breakfast Sausage
Homemade Breakfast Sausage is incredibly versatile. Feel free to follow the base recipe but change up the type of meat you use or the seasonings to suit your family’s needs/preferences.
- Ground Meat: Pork is traditional when preparing sausage. I personally purchase organic ground pork to use for breakfast sausage, but ground turkey is or ground chicken is a great substitute for the pork. Beef is a bit overpowering in flavor, so while it can be used, it is better to stick with pork, chicken, or turkey to make homemade sausage. I also find that using a protein to fat ratio of 80/20 is best for the most flavorful sausage.
- Maple Syrup: Maple syrup and sausage go hand in hand. Pure maple syrup gives this sausage incredible flavor–just be sure to use 100% maple syrup, this is not the time for artificial syrup. If you happen to not have maple syrup on hand, brown sugar is a perfect substitute. Do not use granulated sugar.
- Spices: Here is where you can get creative. I find that a bit of sage, onion powder, a pinch of cloves, black pepper, thyme, crushed red pepper flakes, salt, and paprika are the perfect combination for breakfast sausage. If you like things spicy, add in a bit more red pepper flakes. If you despise sage, omit!
How to Make Breakfast Sausage
Not only is homemade breakfast sausage simple to make, but it can also be used in three ways. You can choose to form patties, brown up as ground sausage crumble, OR use in any recipe that calls for raw bulk breakfast sausage.
The first step is to make the sausage mixture. Which is simply combining the ground meat with the seasonings. I find it is best to mix the dried spices together first before adding ground meat, just to ensure the spices are evenly distributed.
At this point the sausage is ready to be used, but if time permits, I HIGHLY suggest covering and refrigerating for 12-24 hours. This allows the meat to marinate a bit and really absorb all the flavorings that have been added to the meat.
Homemade Sausage Patties
Once the sausage mixture has come together, form the mixture into 2-inch patties that are about 1/2 inch thick.
Cook on a skillet over medium heat for 4-5 minutes per side. The meat will get a bit dark, where the maple syrup caramelizes, and that is okay–just more delicious flavor!
You want your patties to cook to an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
Once the patties have cooked, remove from the skillet and place on a paper towel-lined plate to absorb excess grease.
Homemade Ground Breakfast Sausage
If you would like to use your homemade breakfast sausage for a recipe, simply brown up the ground meat in a large skillet over medium-high heat, breaking into small pieces as the meat cooks.
This is perfect for a recipe like Hash Brown Breakfast Casserole that calls for cooked breakfast sausage.
You can also the ground sausage in any recipe that calls for raw breakfast sausage, like Sausage Balls, Sausage Gravy, etc.
How to Store Breakfast Sausage
Homemade Breakfast Sausage is a great recipe to prepare in large batches. Pro Tip: When you see a great sale on ground pork, stock up and prepare homemade sausage to keep on hands to make mornings a bit less hectic!
Once you prepare the sausage mixture, you have a few options on how to store.
- Freeze the raw breakfast sausage mixture. This is great to freeze in 1 pound portions and pull out of the freezer for recipes that call for ground breakfast sausage.
- Store as sausage patties. Cook as sausage patties and allow the patties to cool fully. Store in the fridge for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months. Pull out as many sausage patties as desired from the freezer and heat in the microwave for 1-2 minutes or in a skillet over medium-high heat with 2 tablespoons of water added to skillet–this keeps the sausage from drying out as it reheats.
- Store as cooked crumbled breakfast sausage. Brown the breakfast sausage as directed. Once cooked, allow to cool. Store in the fridge for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Serve Breakfast Sausage With
- French Toast Casserole
- Gluten Free Banana Oat Pancakes
- Green Chile Egg Casserole
- Use sausage patties in place of ham in Egg McMuffin Sandwiches
Breakfast Sausage
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground pork see notes
- 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon ground pepper
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon ground sage optional
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine salt, pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, onion powder, sage, and cloves together.
- Add pork to a large mixing bowl and add in spices and maple syrup. Mix very well to combine. I find it is best to mix by hand.
- Cover and refrigerate for 12-24 hours if time permits.
- Shape sausage into 2-3 inch sausage patties and cook patties over medium-high heat for 4-5 minutes per side, or until an internal temperature of 165 degrees is reached.
- Instead of shaping into patties, use in any recipe that calls for ground breakfast sausage.
Notes
- You can use any ground meat you like, but pork is traditional. This is one recipe that is better suited to a using a meat with a 20 percent fat ratio, to keep the breakfast sausage full of moisture and flavor.
- Maple is my go-to sweetener for this breakfast sausage, but feel free to use brown sugar in place of the brown sugar, just mix together with the spices before adding to the ground meat.
- Cooked breakfast sausage will last for 3 days in the fridge and up to 3 months in the freezer.
- Raw breakfast sausage can also be frozen for up to 3 months.
- Feel free to change up the spices or use up to 1 tablespoon more maple syrup if desired.
Nutrition
This recipe looks so good. I was wondering what spices to add if I wanted to make Italian sausage. Thanks so much for this recipe as well as your other delicious recipes!
Hi Robin! I would use 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon onion powder, 1 teaspoon oregano, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, 1 teaspoon dried parsley, 1/2 teaspoon ground fennel or fennel seeds. I also would add in 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar.
Homemade sausage is so tasty, perfect for the weekend. Thank you for the recipe, can’t wait to try it!
I love that I can make delicious sausage without all the added ‘ingredients’. It’s a bonus that this is easy too – perfect breakfast dish!
So glad you enjoyed Beth!