This homemade breakfast sausage recipe turns basic ground pork into juicy patties, links or sausage gravy with a spice blend you mix yourself.<\/p>\n
Skip the mystery meat.<\/strong> Most store-bought breakfast sausage hides its fat ratio and fillers behind a label. Mixing your own means you know exactly what\u2019s going into it.<\/p>\n I\u2019m Christie Vanover, a KCBS grand champion pitmaster and founder of Girls Can Grill. This seasoning blend started as a way to use up the trim from my Competition Pork Butt<\/a>, and after years of tweaking, it\u2019s the version I make on repeat for my own breakfast.<\/p>\n Breakfast sausage is as much a staple to the American breakfast plate as bacon or ham. It\u2019s simply seasoned ground meat, cooked up in patties or links or browned into crumbles for sausage gravy.<\/p>\n The most common meat used for breakfast sausage is ground pork, but there are no rules. You could also mix in ground beef, poultry or game meat. You can buy ground meat at your local grocery store or grind your own.<\/p>\n What makes homemade breakfast sausage stand out from the store-bought version is the seasoning blend, which you control completely. I\u2019ve shared the blend I use most often below, but it\u2019s fully adaptable to your taste.<\/p>\n This recipe is well balanced, with just a slight heat and a touch of maple. Make the base recipe once, then start adjusting it into your own signature blend.<\/p>\n Mix: <\/strong>In a small bowl, combine all of the spices together, until blended.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n Add Meat: <\/strong>In another bowl, combine 2 tablespoons of spice blend for every 1 pound of meat. Mix well. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n To Store: <\/strong>Place a sheet of plastic wrap on the counter. Add 1 pound of sausage on the plastic and roll it into a log, twisting both ends. Refrigerate or freeze until ready to use.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n Cook: <\/strong>Remove the plastic from the sausage and slice it into 8 patties. Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add the patties and cook for 10-15 minutes, flipping a few times, until they are brown on the outside and no longer pink on the inside.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Calories: <\/span>154<\/span>kcal<\/span><\/span>Carbohydrates: <\/span>1<\/span>g<\/span><\/span>Protein: <\/span>10<\/span>g<\/span><\/span>Fat: <\/span>12<\/span>g<\/span><\/span>Saturated Fat: <\/span>4<\/span>g<\/span><\/span>Polyunsaturated Fat: <\/span>1<\/span>g<\/span><\/span>Monounsaturated Fat: <\/span>5<\/span>g<\/span><\/span>Cholesterol: <\/span>41<\/span>mg<\/span><\/span>Sodium: <\/span>613<\/span>mg<\/span><\/span>Potassium: <\/span>173<\/span>mg<\/span><\/span>Fiber: <\/span>0.2<\/span>g<\/span><\/span>Sugar: <\/span>1<\/span>g<\/span><\/span>Vitamin A: <\/span>32<\/span>IU<\/span><\/span>Vitamin C: <\/span>1<\/span>mg<\/span><\/span>Calcium: <\/span>13<\/span>mg<\/span><\/span>Iron: <\/span>1<\/span>mg<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Instead of buying vinegar powder and maple sugar, you can also use a splash of white vinegar and maple syrup. <\/p><\/pre>\n This sausage seasoning makes enough for 2 pounds of sausage. Double or triple the seasoning recipe and save the blend in your pantry, or make a large batch of sausage and freeze the logs for later.<\/p>\n In a small bowl, combine all of the seasonings until well blended.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Place one pound of ground pork in a large bowl. Sprinkle in two tablespoons of breakfast sausage seasoning. Mix thoroughly. I find I get a better blend if I use my hands.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Place a sheet of plastic wrap or parchment paper on the counter. Shape the sausage mixture into a log and place it on the plastic wrap. Roll the plastic around the log and twist the ends.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n You can cook breakfast sausage patties on a griddle like a Blackstone or Ninja, in a large skillet on the stove or in an air fryer. My favorite method is a cast iron skillet<\/a> on the stove, because I like how the patties brown up in cast iron.<\/p>\n Remove the sausage from the plastic wrap. Slice it into eight 1\/4-inch thick patties.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Place a large cast iron skillet on the stove over medium heat. Add the patties to the pan in a single layer and cook for 5-7 minutes per side, until browned on the outside and no longer pink on the inside.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n To cook the patties in an air fryer, set it to 400F degrees. Place the patties in the basket in a single layer and cook for 5 minutes. Flip and cook another 3-5 minutes.<\/p>\n To cook homemade sausage patties on a griddle, heat it to medium and cook for 10-15 minutes, flipping occasionally for even browning.<\/p>\n Remove the patties from your pan, air fryer or griddle and place them on a paper towel-lined plate or baking sheet to absorb excess grease. If you\u2019re not serving them right away, keep them warm in an oven set to low.<\/p>\n Serve with eggs, biscuits<\/a>, waffles, pancakes<\/a>, hash browns, fresh fruit or whatever you enjoy for breakfast. Cooked sausage is also great on breakfast sandwiches<\/a> or broken up and mixed into eggs for breakfast burritos or omelets.<\/p>\n Breakfast sausage links use the same recipe and meat blend from above, but they take a little extra work. You\u2019ll need a sausage stuffer and sausage casings.<\/p>\n Personally, I use the LEM Products 1605 5-pound vertical sausage stuffer<\/a>. Unlike my Smoked Beef Sausage<\/a>, which uses a thicker casing, you\u2019ll want the smallest stuffing tube for breakfast sausage.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll also want smaller casings. Sheep casing<\/a> is usually the right diameter. If you\u2019d rather skip animal casings, which are made from intestines, use edible collagen casings instead.<\/p>\n There are two options for smoking breakfast sausage. You can smoke it all the way to 160F degrees, so it\u2019s fully cooked. Or you can cold smoke it, so it picks up just a hint of smoky flavor and finishes cooking in a skillet or air fryer.<\/p>\n For smoking, you could shape the sausage into logs without casing, but I prefer fibrous casings<\/a>. They aren\u2019t edible, but they help the meat hold its shape, and they\u2019re permeable so smoke can penetrate.<\/p>\n Soak the casing in warm water for 20-30 minutes. Squeeze out the excess water, then use your hands to stuff the sausage inside.<\/p>\n To fully cook the sausages, place them on a smoker set at 225F degrees with indirect heat. Smoke until they reach 160F degrees, which takes about an hour.<\/p>\n Cold smoking is a little more challenging, depending on your grill. If you have a pellet grill or Ninja Woodfire Grill<\/a>, set the temperature to 150F degrees and smoke the sausages for around 2 hours.<\/p>\n If you want to smoke them at an even lower temperature for more than 2 hours, add 1\/2 teaspoon of pink curing salt #1 to the spice blend in the recipe card above. This matters because the meat will be out of the USDA safe zone, which can cause botulism.<\/p>\n With either smoking method, the fibrous casings are not edible. You can store the smoked sausage in the casing in the refrigerator or freezer, but remove it before eating.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no need to wrap the sausage for gravy. This is the quickest way to turn your homemade breakfast sausage into a full breakfast.<\/p>\n Serve over my Tender Buttery Flaky Homemade Biscuits<\/a>.<\/p>\n If you make sausage in a one-pound batch, store the blended meat in the refrigerator, wrapped tightly, for 3-5 days.<\/p>\n I like making several pounds at a time, so I leave one pound in the fridge and freeze the rest for up to six months. I roll the logs in plastic wrap and store them in a resealable plastic bag, so a fresh log is always ready to slice and cook.<\/p>\n Once cooked, store the sausage in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or freeze it for up to 6 months.<\/p>\n Mix ground pork with a spice blend of salt, pepper, sugar, herbs and a few flavor boosters. Shape it into a log to slice into patties, stuff it into casings for links, or cook it loose for sausage gravy.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Sausage patties take about 10-15 minutes to cook in a skillet over medium heat. You\u2019ll know they\u2019re done when the outside is brown and the inside is no longer pink. You can also check with a digital meat thermometer. The goal internal temperature is 160F degrees.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Ground pork is commonly used for breakfast sausage and Italian sausage<\/a>. Breakfast sausage seasoning usually has salt, pepper and herbs like thyme, rosemary, sage and fennel. Italian sausage usually includes coriander, paprika, garlic and Italian herbs.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n One pound of this breakfast sausage makes eight 1\/4-inch thick patties.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n This recipe does not include nitrates or nitrites by default. If you want to cold smoke breakfast sausage at temperatures below 140F degrees for longer than 2 hours, you\u2019ll need to add a preservative like pink curing salt #1 to prevent bacteria growth.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Yes. You can use any type of ground meat to make breakfast sausage. The flavor really comes from the spices more than the meat. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Both work well. A griddle like a Blackstone is great for cooking a large batch at once. A cast iron skillet gives the patties a deeper brown crust, which is why it\u2019s my go-to method.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Want even more great grilling recipes and tips? <\/strong>Subscribe<\/strong><\/a> to my newsletter and follow me on Facebook<\/strong><\/a>, Instagram<\/strong><\/a> and TikTok<\/strong><\/a> for my latest grilling adventures. If you make a recipe, please leave a comment and rating below.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"pitmasters.\"](\"https:\/\/girlscangrill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/pitmasters.webp)
<\/picture><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n![\"uncooked](\"https:\/\/girlscangrill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/breakfast-sausage-hero.jpg\"\/)
![\"uncooked](\"https:\/\/girlscangrill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/breakfast-sausage-hero.jpg\")
<\/picture>What is homemade breakfast sausage?<\/h2>\n
After I trim my Competition Pork Butt<\/a>, I'm left with a lot of excess pork trimmings. I usually freeze them in 2-inch cubes, until I'm ready to make sausage. I grind the partially-thawed cubes into ground pork and then mix in 2 tablespoons of the breakfast sausage seasoning blend for every pound of meat.<\/pre>\n
Breakfast Sausage Seasoning<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\nIf you slice your sausage into thinner patties, they will only take about 10 minutes to cook. Thicker patties will take a bit longer.\u00a0<\/span>
\nRead the article above to learn how to smoke or cold smoke the sausages.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\nWhat You\u2019ll Need<\/h2>\n
![\"bottles](\"https:\/\/girlscangrill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/breakfast-sausage-ingredients.jpg\"\/)
![\"bottles](\"https:\/\/girlscangrill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/breakfast-sausage-ingredients.jpg\")
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Substitutions: <\/strong>Once you master the base recipe, you can make all sorts of adjustments. If you like spicy breakfast sausage, add more cayenne pepper or crushed red pepper flakes. If you prefer maple breakfast sausage, mix in more maple sugar.
Make-Ahead Tip: <\/strong>Mix a double or triple batch of the seasoning blend and store it in an airtight container in your pantry for up to a year. That way, you're never more than a couple tablespoons away from fresh homemade breakfast sausage.<\/pre>\n
\nHow to mix breakfast sausage<\/h2>\n
Step 1: Combine the seasoning<\/h3>\n
![\"bowl](\"https:\/\/girlscangrill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/sausage-blend.jpg\"\/)
![\"bowl](\"https:\/\/girlscangrill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/sausage-blend.jpg\")
<\/picture><\/figure>\n![\"spoonful](\"https:\/\/girlscangrill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/sausage-mix.jpg\"\/)
![\"spoonful](\"https:\/\/girlscangrill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/sausage-mix.jpg\")
<\/picture><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\nStep 2: Mix the meat and seasoning<\/h3>\n
![\"bowl](\"https:\/\/girlscangrill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/mixed-sausage.jpg\"\/)
![\"bowl](\"https:\/\/girlscangrill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/mixed-sausage.jpg\")
<\/picture><\/figure>\nStep 3: Shape into a log<\/h3>\n
![\"log](\"https:\/\/girlscangrill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/sausage-roll-1.jpg\"\/)
![\"log](\"https:\/\/girlscangrill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/sausage-roll-1.jpg\")
<\/picture>![\"plastic](\"https:\/\/girlscangrill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/sausage-roll-2.jpg\"\/)
![\"plastic](\"https:\/\/girlscangrill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/sausage-roll-2.jpg\")
<\/picture>![\"plastic](\"https:\/\/girlscangrill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/sausage-roll-3.jpg\"\/)
![\"plastic](\"https:\/\/girlscangrill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/sausage-roll-3.jpg\")
<\/picture>![\"ends](\"https:\/\/girlscangrill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/sausage-roll-4.jpg\"\/)
![\"ends](\"https:\/\/girlscangrill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/sausage-roll-4.jpg\")
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\nHow to cook breakfast sausage patties<\/h2>\n
Step 1: Slice the patties<\/h3>\n
![\"two](\"https:\/\/girlscangrill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/twisting-sausage.jpg\"\/)
![\"two](\"https:\/\/girlscangrill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/twisting-sausage.jpg\")
<\/picture><\/figure>\n![\"using](\"https:\/\/girlscangrill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/slicing-sausage.jpg\"\/)
![\"using](\"https:\/\/girlscangrill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/slicing-sausage.jpg\")
<\/picture><\/figure>\nGCG Pro Tip: <\/strong>If your sausage log is partially frozen, it will be easier to slice because it holds its shape better. My favorite knife for slicing sausage is the Cutco cheese knife<\/a>. The open blade keeps the meat from sticking.<\/pre>\n
Step 2: Cook the patties<\/h3>\n
![\"sausage](\"https:\/\/girlscangrill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/sausage-in-skillet.jpg\"\/)
![\"sausage](\"https:\/\/girlscangrill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/sausage-in-skillet.jpg\")
<\/picture>![\"cooked](\"https:\/\/girlscangrill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/cooked-breakfast-sausage.jpg\"\/)
![\"cooked](\"https:\/\/girlscangrill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/cooked-breakfast-sausage.jpg\")
<\/picture>How to serve breakfast sausage<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/girlscangrill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/sausage-breakfast.jpg\"\/)
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/girlscangrill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/sausage-breakfast.jpg\")
<\/picture>
\nHow to make breakfast sausage links<\/h2>\n
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\nHow to smoke breakfast sausage<\/h2>\n
My cousin Baron and several of his family and friends smoke hundreds of pounds of breakfast sausage in Kentucky. They use the cold smoke method: light a charcoal fire, let it burn down to a bed of coals, then put the grill in the smokehouse and cover the coals with pre-soaked hickory wood, smoking it overnight. He said it's important to soak the hickory wood so it doesn't catch fire and increase the heat.<\/pre>\n
\nHow to make sausage gravy<\/h2>\n
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\nHow to store and freeze breakfast sausage<\/h2>\n
\nGCG Pro Pitmaster Tips<\/h3>\n
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\nFrequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n