If you’re like me, you love having breakfast sausages in the morning. It’s a great way to get extra protein, but maybe you’re looking to make your own because a lot of the sausages at the grocery store are filled with artificial ingredients or potentially harmful nitrates, and even the ones that are nitrate-free might not be as healthy as they sound. Or maybe you’re looking to change up the type of meat in your sausage patties – this recipe will work with ground pork, ground chicken, ground turkey, ground beef, and probably other ground meats too. Or maybe you just love cooking something homemade like I do! 

Sausage patties go great with pancakes, waffles, scrambled eggs, breakfast sandwiches, and so many other classic breakfast foods. You can also pair them with my healthier fluffy pancake recipe, which you can make with oat flour or oats.

No matter how you plan to eat your breakfast sausage patties, get excited, because we’re going to make some quick, easy, sausages that freeze and reheat well, meaning they can help you meal prep quick breakfasts for months to come. This recipe uses simple ingredients – just ground meat, a dry spice blend, and oil for cooking. Let’s get started!

Tips for making the best breakfast sausage patties

Choose a ground meat with a high fat percentage

Make sure the ground meat you’re cooking with has a high fat content, especially if you’re not using pork. Chicken and turkey can be especially dry meats if you’re buying a ground meat with a lower fat content.

I’ve tried this breakfast sausage recipe with different ground meats, and my absolute favorite was one that used ground chicken legs. If you can’t find this at the store and are looking to use poultry, you can ask the butcher in your grocery store to remove and grind the meat from chicken or turkey legs. I recommend getting ones with the skin on for extra flavor in your breakfast sausage patties. But you can always use something easier to find like ground pork.

Mix your meat and seasonings well

Once the meat looks fully mixed in with the seasonings and you can’t see any more streaks of color, keep mixing for another minute or two to be sure the meat is really fully mixed. Not mixing your meat thoroughly means some bites of your sausage patties might be too salty or over-seasoned, while other bites may taste bland and dry. 

Let your meat rest before cooking it

If you want your flavors to really infuse into the breakfast sausages before cooking, let the meat rest for 5-10 minutes before putting it in the pan. This will let the herbs infuse into the meat, like they would in a tea. This will help the breakfast patties taste even richer, as the flavors spread through every part of the meat evenly.

Be careful not to overcook your sausage patties

Make sure you cook your breakfast sausages until they’re fully cooked through, and there’s no pink in the middle of any of your patties. Cooking them too much longer than this can make them dryer, especially if you’re planning on storing and reheating them later.

You’ll need the following ingredients to make sausage patties:

Ground meat with a high fat percentage

My favorite is ground chicken, but ground pork, ground turkey, and ground beef also work.

Salt

This is essential to most recipes and will bring out the flavors of all the other ingredients. I recommend sea salt or pink salt, but regular table salt will work too. 

Real maple syrup

We only use a little bit, so these sausage patties won’t be sweet. The maple syrup makes the sausages taste like classic breakfast sausages. If you don’t have any real maple syrup, I recommend substituting it with brown sugar over another type of pancake syrup. 

Fennel seeds

This will give your patties a sausage-y taste.

Smoked paprika

This will give your breakfast sausages a light smoked sausage flavor and will bring out the rest of the flavors in the meat.

Nutmeg

Although uncommon in meat recipes, a small amount of nutmeg will pair beautifully with the maple syrup and smokey paprika. Your breakfast sausages wont come out tasting like a pie, I promise!

Red pepper flakes

This is common in most breakfast sausage recipes, and the amount included wont make the sausages spicy, it’s just enough to elevate all the other flavors. Feel free to increase the pepper flakes if you’re looking for spicy sausages, or decrease it slightly if you’re really sensitive to pepper. I always recommend starting with the amount listed below for the first try, then increasing or decreasing the second time you make it.

Garlic powder

Garlic makes everything taste better! Don’t worry, the powder will cook through and these sausages won’t taste too garlicky.

Onion powder

This will round out all the other flavors. Don’t skip it.

Dried rosemary

This will bring a very light, herby taste to the sausage patties.

Dried thyme

Like the rosemary, this will add a light herby taste to your homemade sausages.

Oil

This is just to grease the pan before adding your sausage patties. You can use any neutral tasting oil. I used extra-virgin olive oil.

How to make the breakfast sausage patties:

Step 1: Put everything except the meat and oil into your mixing bowl

Measure all the spices, salt, and maple syrup and put them in a large bowl. Mix them together.

Step 2: Add your meat to the large bowl.

Add your meat of choice to the mixing bowl. Mix until you can’t see any more streaks of color from your spices, then mix for 1 more minute until you’re sure everything is evenly distributed. Let your meat rest for at least 5-10 minutes.

Step 3: Form the meat into patties

Divide your meat into 10 roughly equal balls and flatten them into 2 inch discs. You can of course make fewer, larger patties if you’re looking for bigger breakfast sausages to use in a breakfast sandwich.

Step 3: Preheat your pan and add oil

Heat up your pan on medium-low heat while your raw sausage patties rest. Once your pan is hot, add a small amount of oil to the pan so the meat doesn’t stick.

Step 4: Cook your breakfast sausage patties in the pan

The pan should be hot enough that you can hear them sizzling as soon as the meat touches the pan. Lay out your sausage patties in the pan. Do not crowd the pan.

Once your breakfast sausage patties are nicely browned on the bottom, carefully flip them with a spatula. Cook them until both sides are browned, the meat is fully cooked through, and there’s no pink in the center of any sausage patty.

Step 5: Remove your breakfast sausage patties from the pan

If you’re using pork, or if you used a lot of oil while cooking, you might want to let your breakfast sausages drain on a wire rack or paper towels. If you aren’t worried about draining off any oil, I recommend flipping them again when you put them on a plate. That way, the hottest side which was just on the pan will be exposed to air instead of the plate, which will help them retain their texture.

And that’s it, you’ve just made some delicious homemade sausage patties!

How to store your cooked patties

You can store your cooked patties in the refrigerator or the freezer in an airtight container, and reheat them the same as any store bought sausages. Quick reheating will be great on busy weekday mornings. Good luck and happy breakfast-ing!

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