Our homemade breakfast sausage recipe combines ground pork and chicken with the perfect blend of spices. It turns out juicy, flavorful, and incredibly delicious.
We’ve made this breakfast sausage so many times over the last few months, and honestly, we fall in love with it a little more every time we make it. We both love the sage-heavy breakfast sausage seasoning, which works so nicely alongside our favorite breakfast recipes, like pancakes, blueberry muffins, and biscuits.
If you’ve never thought about making your own sausage before, consider this our little nudge to start. If you’ve made burgers or meatloaf, then you already know the process. It’s easy, quick, and the raw sausage patties last in your freezer for months. We also use it as bulk sausage, and love it for homemade sausage gravy.
Key Ingredients
- Ground Pork and Chicken: You can use one or the other, but the combination makes this homemade breakfast sausage a bit lighter on its feet while still being super juicy in the middle. Ground turkey would be an excellent substitute for the chicken. Just remember you want to use chicken or turkey with some fat (7% to 10% is ideal).
- Sage and Onion: We love a classic sage breakfast sausage, especially with onion, which this recipe has. For the best results, use fresh sage and a sweet onion. We like to grate the onion so it’s small and “melts” into the sausage meat.
- Maple Syrup and Brown Sugar: The best breakfast sausage balances savory and sweet. So we add pure maple syrup and brown sugar (not much, though).
- Breakfast sausage seasoning: We love the spice blend in this sausage. To bump up the savoriness, we mix in salt, pepper, crushed pepper flakes, smoked paprika, and poultry seasoning to create the perfect blend. If you prefer spicy sausage, increase the pepper flakes a bit. The blend works so well with the sage and onion.
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
How to Make Breakfast Sausage
- Mix the sage, spices, grated onion, maple syrup, and brown sugar in a bowl to create your breakfast sausage seasoning.
- Add the ground pork and chicken, using your hands to mix until the meat is smooth and thoroughly combined.
- Cook the sausage immediately, or refrigerate the mixture overnight in an airtight container for the best flavor.
- Roll the mixture into meatballs, and press them flat into patties.
- Bake the patties at 350°F for 15 to 20 minutes, or cook them in a skillet over medium heat until browned and cooked through.
Our Secrets for Making It Best
Tip 1: Mix the sausage really well. When combining the ingredients for your breakfast sausage, don’t be shy. Start by mixing everything but the meat first (spices, maple syrup, brown sugar, sage, and onion). Then really get in there and mix thoroughly once you add the ground pork and chicken. We use food-safe disposable gloves and work the mixture until it feels smooth and slightly sticky. That’s when you know it’s fully combined.
Tip 2: Chill the sausage mix for the best flavor. You can definitely cook the sausage right away, but for the absolute best flavor, let it rest in an airtight container in the fridge overnight. This gives our sausage seasoning time to fully permeate the meat, resulting in much more flavorful sausage.
Tip 3: How to make the patties. You can refrigerate or freeze this sausage as bulk sausage or form it into patties. To make patties, we scoop a portion of the mix, roll it into a ball, then gently press it into a disk (not all that different from making smash burgers; we just don’t press as hard). They hold their shape beautifully and cook nicely in a skillet or oven.
What We Love Serving It With
Our family tries to keep a stash of these homemade breakfast sausage patties in our freezer. We love them with so many of the breakfast recipes on the blog. Here are a few favorites:
- We both love these creamy scrambled eggs (our method makes the creamiest eggs)
- Pancakes! Our most-made are probably this easy pancake recipe or these blueberry pancakes.
- When we’re not feeling pancakes, we turn to crispy waffles or French toast
- The patties are perfect with homemade biscuits or English muffins for breakfast sandwiches
- Adam loves them with our easy breakfast potatoes (the spices on the potatoes work so well with the breakfast sausage seasoning in this recipe)
- And if we are feeling fancy, we make eggs Benedict, but swap the ham for these sausage patties.
Even More Ways to Use this Sausage
Beyond making patties, you can use this homemade breakfast sausage recipe for bulk sausage. We especially love it when making sausage gravy, these breakfast enchiladas, our tater tot breakfast casserole, and even in our sausage stuffed peppers (which aren’t a breakfast recipe, but it still works wonderfully).
Breakfast Sausage (Better than Store-Bought)
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
We’ve made this homemade breakfast sausage recipe so many times over the last few months, and honestly, we fall in love with it a little more every time we make it. We both love the sage-heavy seasoning, which works so nicely for breakfast sausage.
You Will Need
1 pound (450 g) ground pork
1 pound (450 g) ground chicken, 7% to 10% fat
¼ cup finely chopped fresh sage leaves
2 teaspoons fine sea salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon crushed coriander seeds
¾ teaspoon smoked paprika
¾ teaspoon poultry seasoning
½ cup (80 g) grated sweet onion
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 teaspoons brown sugar
Directions
1Combine the sage, salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes, crushed coriander seeds, smoked paprika, poultry seasoning, grated onion, maple syrup, and brown sugar in a mixing bowl. Mix these ingredients well to create your breakfast sausage seasoning.
2Add the ground pork and chicken. Using clean hands (or food-safe gloves), really get in there and mix everything. Keep working until everything is thoroughly combined and the mixture feels smooth.
3Cook the breakfast sausage now, or for the best flavor, refrigerate the mixture overnight in an airtight container.
4Scoop out 3 to 4 tablespoons of the mixture and roll it into meatballs. Press them flat into patties.
5Bake the patties on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper in a 350°F (180°C) oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or cook them in a skillet over medium heat until browned and cooked through.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Keep the raw mixture in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days, with a piece of parchment paper pressed onto the surface to prevent it from drying out. Freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge before cooking.
- To freeze raw patties, form the patties and arrange them in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Freeze until solid, then transfer them to a freezer-safe bag or container.
- We prefer fresh sage, but if you only have dried, use 2 to 3 teaspoons.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
So, I have made these twice; each time making them into tube shaped, link real sausage without the casings. The flavour is great. So I make the mixture, adding a gratted apple. I let the mixture sit for a few hours to over night, well covered in the refrigerator. To get the tube shape, I use a small spoon and feed the meat into the end on my Pineapple Corer, and push it in tight with the end of a screwdriver. Then I carefully push the meat out the other end using the same screwdriver, onto a cookie sheet. When I get all the sausages on the cookie sheet, I lay the cookie sheet uncovered in the freezer for an hour. Then I carefully place the sausage rolls into Ziplock bags and continue leaving them in the freezer to freeze completely. When frying, I thaw them overnight and carefully (since they do not have casings on the,) lay them in an electric fry pan and cook them on medium, while rolling them as they brown. The browning helps keep them held together. They eat very tender.
Hi John, Thanks so much for sharing your process and we are thrilled that you enjoy the sausage as much as we do.
I trust, in deference to British tastebuds, the maple syrup (which I really loathe and I have tasted it fresh from the tree when in Canada) and the sugar can be left out, and also the smoked paprika?
Hi Julia, We have not tried this ourselves, but yes, the maple sugar should be okay to leave out. You will (obviously) have a more savory sausage in this case.
I have ground sage and powdered onion. Any idea as to where I should start in measurements? I plan on making half of this without the sweetness.This sounds so easy! I’ll make a bunch of patties and freeze. Yum!
Substitutions for dried sage are in the recipe (you’ll need about 1/3 of the amount compared to fresh). I have not used onion powder in this recipe myself, but I’d image 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons should do the trick (for the full recipe).
WOW!! Fabulous recipe for sausage patties! Loved making my own & yeah, no casings! Left overnight in fridge, cooked next day, yum! Would like to turn into Italian using fennel seed, oregano, basil & many of your spices, question, is the brown sugar & maple syrup needed to bind mixture? Any ideas for substitute? Love your recipes, straightforward & always successful. Thank you from Down Under to Walla Walla, my favourite onions in the world Cheers
This is amazing! We are thrilled you enjoyed the recipe so much. I think you would be fine removing the maple/brown sugar for a more savory Italian sausage. The sugars definitely help with the caramelizing when you cook the patties, but there’s enough fat in the sausage that you should still get a nice sear.
Excited about this recipe. Can I use ground Turkey rather ground chicken?
Hi Gary, You can! I recommend still getting ground turkey that’s got some fat left (7-10%).
Why are they not sausage shaped? And what binds them together?
Hi Chris, This recipe makes bulk breakfast sausage, which we form into patties. They hold together really well. You could always add the sausage mixture to casings for links, but you would need special equipment.
Since these sausages do hold together really well, I would like to try rolling them into a round cylinder shape, like a traditional looking sausage (without using casings). They may shrink a bit and not remain perfectly shaped, but I think they should still hold together. What do you think of the idea?
Sounds like a great idea.