Homemade Breakfast Sausage
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Nothing beats homemade! These sausage patties are so so easy to make and they’re also freezer-friendly. Win-win!
Not sure if it’s the New Year, or if it’s the quarantine-lockdown-stay-at-home-order, but I’ve been making A LOT of things from scratch.
Pizza dough. Rosemary bread. Sourdough biscuits. Pasta. English muffins. Hamburger buns. (recipes for the latter all coming soon). I HAVE BEEN MAKING ALL OF IT CONSTANTLY.
Now I can add sausage patties to the list. And believe me when I tell you that it is so hard to beat homemade.
With just a few spices, ground pork and bacon (yes, we need just a little bit of bacon fat here!), these guys are simply perfect. Not to mention, they are completely freezer-friendly, giving you 100% breakfast insurance down the road.
Homemade Breakfast Sausage
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage leaves
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, optional
- ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 ½ pounds ground pork
- 3 slices uncooked bacon, diced
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup, optional
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
Instructions
- SAGE MIXTURE: In a small bowl, combine sage, thyme, fennel seeds, red pepper flakes, nutmeg, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper.
- In a large bowl, combine pork, bacon, maple syrup and SAGE MIXTURE; be careful not to over mix.
- To shape the patties, scoop out 1/4 cup (about 2 ounces) of pork mixture and flatten to create 2 1/2- to 3-inch wide patties, forming about 16 patties.*
- Heat canola oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add sausage patties and cook until browned, about 2-3 minutes per side.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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I’ve been making these for months now as my kids love them. I live in Europe and a good ol’ American breakfast sausage is hard to come by here if they exist at all. I just made 3 batches of this today so thank you for this amazing recipe!
This made sausage that was under seasoned for me and mostly tasted of fennel. But I think there’s potential. Next time I would double the seasonings (except fennel) and would be more generous with the salt and pepper. I did use the maple syrup and would use it again! I love the idea of being able to make breakfast sausage from scratch and skip all the added stuff you get with store bought sausage.
My picky son said these were outstanding! The combination of fresh herbs is what does it. Make A LOT and freeze them – it’s convenient and they will go fast! I was going to halve the recipe but decided to make as is and am I glad I did! Otherwise they would all have gone in one meal haha! And you know what – when I cooked them and then cooked hash browns right after them in the same pan – you wouldn’t believe how delicious their drippings made the potatoes!! I think I will add these seasonings to hash browns/potatoes O’Brien from now on! Thanks Damn Delicious!
I would like to make this exact recipe, but I have decided to sub out every ingredient. Can you guarantee it will turn out great?
Wondering why you emphasized “do not defrost” in the freezing instructions. This recipe sounds wonderful and I would like to freeze batches in bulk to use for recipes other than patties. Is it ok to freeze, defrost and sauté or cook to add to other recipes?
Hi there! I think she recommends adding them to the pan frozen so they don’t fall apart and they’ll be easier to cook? So if you were to incorporate the patties into a different dish that doesn’t require them to retain the patty shape, you could thaw however many patties you need then. I hope this helps!
ha, see below. forgot to a
We made sausage gravy with this recipe. Literally the best sausage I have ever had, this will always be our go to recipe for sausage. The maple syrup in it – perfection.
Second time to make,+ smoked paprika, nutmeg, marjoram, omitted bacon, fennel, maple, + extra oil to keep from drying out
So good !
Had high expectations and your recipe didn’t disappoint.. delish..Will make this again and again and again. Thank you!
We don’t eat pork so I’m wondering if I can make this with beef…would I need to change anything?
Yes, you will have to substitute the beef for the pork.
We don’t eat pork either, I use ground turkey. It’s a lighter meat much like pork. Works great!
Priceless!!!!!
Seriously, mixing the spices into ground beef will create an overly tough (chewy?) product
I would try ground turkey
I would like to use ground turkey and make breakfast low-fat sausage how can I do this . Thanks
. Sandy
You can try it as written, just substitute turkey for the pork. The addition of bacon will help keep it moist. If you want to skip the bacon, I would add a bit of high quality broth to the mixture.
I did not have access to fresh herbs. I use dried. The recipe still works! Yum! BTW, this recipe also works with ground turkey.
Amazing recipe. I use 1 pound of ground sausage instead of 1.5 pounds, but I don’t decrease the amounts of the other ingredients. I love this recipe with the sweet syrup and savory herbs.
OUTSTANDING! I’ve been making this once or twice a year ( make enough to freeze). EVERYONE loves this sausage; nothing compares.
I used mince chicken instead of pork, and added a few panko breadcrumbs. I also made them bigger for a morning sausage sandwich. A winner in our house. Thank you for the great sausage recipe!
Don’t forget to add the bacon!
HooWoo!!!!
I made this yesterday. I didn’t have fresh sage or thyme, so I used dry. Just half as much. I formed into patties and froze over night. I made breakfast sausage biscuit with homemade sourdough biscuit, this sausage patty recipe, a slice of cheese and an egg over medium. It was fantastic! The maple syrup adds just a hint of sweetness. Way better than McDonald’s and you won’t feel sick after eating. I will be making again. I may try more sage and thyme or make sure I have fresh next time.
great combo of herbs. But Canola oil is a GMO. created by MONSANTO
TBF there are non-GMO canola oils. Still not a healthy oil.
All you need to do is substutute it out for avocado oil
This was amazing!!! I cannot eat store-bought sausage of any kind nor can I eat processed meats… I am on dialysis and I have issues with my phosphorus and all the processed meats including sausage has a lot of it… I have been searching for the longest time for a recipe that I would like… I did not expect it to taste like Jimmy Dean sausage but I wanted it to be good and flavorful… I came across this recipe by accident and I pinned two different ones yours and another one… I decided to try yours first and I lost my mind… I made sausage gravy out of it and believe it or not even with the maple syrup it taste amazing… a couple things I did different was I did not have any fresh sage and I used powdered and it was fine… The other thing was I mixed everything up together put it in a baggie squeeze the air out of it and let it sit in the fridge for two days before I cooked it so All the flavors could blend together… I wanna make some more and I started to try that other recipe to see how that was and I’ve just decided I’m not gonna mess with it anymore…. Your recipe is going to be my go to recipe now
Wonderful! I omitted the maple syrup, just started a no sugar diet, added extra fennel (the Sicilian in me), added some oregano, and instead of hot pepper flakes, I used a large, finely diced jalapeño.
Simply delicious!
These are truly so good! I used turkey instead of pork in mine. I would recommend reducing the salt to 1/2 tsp at most. The bacon is already makes the sausage pretty salty and the extra 1 1/2 tsp of salt made this too salty.
Holy Cow! This blew away my expectations.
I did not have fresh thyme so I used ground thyme, just cut it down.
I did not have nutmeg, so I used cinnamon.
Still, when all was said and done it tasted phenomenal. This one is going in my recipe books!
Had breakfast for supper tonight and these exceeded my expectations! Thanks for a delicious and easy recipe
Better than store bought with all the same flavor! How did it take me this long in life to discover the joy of home grinding ? I will definitely be saving and making this recipe again!
So so yummy, thank you! (I only had dried herbs which worked fine, I just lessened amounts a bit. Also, no bacon on hand so just omitted. Also used avocado oil instead of canola.
great taste!!
So good, great flavor, added a little more crushed red pepper because we like spice. Didn’t have breakfast sausage so I made my own with ground pork. I used your buttermilk biscuit recipe also Kids loved it too!
AMAZING! Just made them following your recipe to the point. And It’s so good I can’t stop thinking about having more!
People who omitt some ingredients or don’t properly substitute them don’t know what they’re missing!
And NO, I usually DON’T like maple flavoured meat! This one though – SO GOOD.
I make everything homemade. Being a farmers daughter we learn it at a young age. Thank You
Yummy! The only ingredient missing was the fennel seed. The store did not have any. They came out great and I have a dozen in the freezer for weekday breakfast. Thanks for another winner!
Fennel seed is used in Italian sausage while this is breakfast sausage
Tried this and it is really good. I had to leave out the salt, bacon and maple syrup (high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes). Added a few drops of liquid smoke and upped the other herbs and spices a little along with a little garlic powder and it came out really good. Thanks.
Very tasty! We made it for the kids while stuck inside during quarantine after testing positive. Everyone loved it. I would prob go down a bit on the salt next time but other than that, excellent! (We left out the maple)
This actually worked. I hate Maple flavored meat though, so skipped it.
I didn’t want to use Bacon, sort of defeating the purpose of making breakfast sausage. But One of the things I do is smoke pan of Lard when I smoke Brisket or some other meat that is smoked for over 4 hrs. Then I pour into a pint canning jar and refrigerate. Lasts forever that way and I use it to flavor smoked pork ribs or other things. Do I took 2tbs melted it, and want to cool it enough that you can touch it like around 115 deg, then mix it in the Sausage with all the other ingredients. Also I used about 1tsp kosher salt and 1tsp black pepper. My daughter actually liked it. surprised me. It smelled awesome cooking it too. Used the crush red pepper flakes, but reduce the amount unless you REALLY like a heat kick in your breakfast sausage. Went and bought several pounds of ground pork to make more and freeze them
Sooooo good
Do attempt, tastes nothing like chalk, it’s Monday… husband is liar
Ummmm……what? Am I missing something?
I believe her husband said it tastes like chalk but she thinks hes lying because its Monday? I think she likes it ?
Family likes this better than store-bought! I didn’t have bacon, but I had bacon fat, so I used that for the frying. Recipe adjusts easily for quantities and forms on hand (e.g., dried vs fresh herbs).
Can you freeze them after cooking?
Hi Doreen! You can locate the freezer instructions in our notes section under the directions. 🙂
*TO FREEZE: Uncooked sausage patties can be frozen between sheets of parchment paper for up to 1 month. Cook over medium low heat, turning often, until browned and cooked through, about 10 minutes. DO NOT THAW.
I want to freeze the COOKED patties so I can quickly warm them in the microwave in the mornings. Has anyone tried this?
These are excellent. My toddler and 6 year old love them. I had to omit the red pepper flakes and I omitted the bacon but there were still plenty of flavour left. And even my picky eaters did not detect the stage which was delicious as an additive! much so much healthier than buying breakfast sandwich at McDonald’s. I double the batch and freeze a bunch and in the morning breakfast as I cinch for busy working mama! Never buying frozen sausages ever again!
Skip the maple syrup and the canola oil and you have a pretty healthy and tasty sausage. Pastured Pork for sure. If you need fat to cook in use an animal fat. Canola is one of the less desirable vegetable seed oils that can wreak havoc in the our bodies. I get my side of pork tomorrow and am looking forward to making a version of these sausages.
This is the most delicious sausage I have ever tasted. My husband loves spicy foods so I will be experimenting with other herbs such as thai basil lemon balm dill seed rosemary and tarragon all of which I grow.
I just made these to prep for the week and they are so simple and AMAZING. The flavors are spot on and I love knowing there aren’t any additives in these. I cooked them in the oven instead of on the stove but extremely happy how these came out. I will definitely be keeping these on rotation!
More question than review.
What cut of pork would be good to try this recipe with, or home made sausage in general? I have a new Cabela’s grinder I’ve been itching to use.
Shoulder and Belly Cuts work well. If you get a fattier cut, you can omit the bacon. Usually the cheapest cut will make the best sausage in my experience. You can also make this with a 50/50 ratio of venison and it is great!
Great starter recipe, I read the comments, and used ground chicken, substituted the fat from the pork with a little Olive oil. Used a little molasses since I do not have maple syrup. I positively hate fennel so left that out completely. Overall, it tastes very similar to pork sausage. I will make it again so I can have a low fat, sodium version of the breakfast sausage I love.
I made this today from a Boston Butt pork roast that was on sale. I made about four pounds of it and fried a sample for my husband and I to try. Delicious, the hint of maple is the right touch.
Missing the secret ingredient that gives sausage it’s character. But overall good recipe.
Nope Brent. This recipe is not missing a thing. This is a classic breakfast sausage patty recipe. Only thing missing is sheep casings..but then it wouldn’t be a patty ♀️
I know..Juniper Berries!
Now what was the point of that?
Please reveal the secret ingredient. Inquiring minds want to know!
Get a life Brent, what a worthless comment.
Yeah Brent, sodium nitrates, artificial flavor-enhancers and msg – all of which are hideous for your body but have at it.
This is amazing. Delicious and easy to make.
Delicious! Amazing! Great flavors!
This recipe is amazing! I had to use dried spices, so I scaled down the quantities of seasoning, but I used the same approximate ratios. My family has requested this again several times!!!
Made this with a 50/50 mixture of ground pork and ground venison. Also cut way down on maple syrup, just a personal choice. Made a superlative breakfast sausage. Try it!
I have a question – can you do this with ground Turkey ?
I have substituted turkey for just about every dish I’ve made with great success. also at the store that I shop at, they have turkey sausage right next to the pork sausage in frozen one pound packages.
Thanks for the recipe! I used it to make turkey sausage and it’s delicious!
I made these and was pleased with the out come – however I would decrease the amount of fennel by half – its flavor overwhelmed all the other flavors.
These look delicious! My family will love them. It’s great that they are freezer-friendly too!
Not a review but rather a question that Have not seen answered and asked by many..Cah I substitute ground Chicken or Turkey??
Yes, but it won’t be as good. Fat content is important for consistency in sausages. Expect a more crumbly texture if you do it with poultry. If I did it with chicken or turkey, I’d add an egg yolk to the mixture.
Great recipient. I have made sausage like this often and I thought of using bacon to add some fat and flavor. Worked out great! This is the first recipe I have found online that added the bacon. Kudos! To the author. It is worth.
I’m an American expat living in France. My husband made homemade biscuits with sausage gravy this morning and it was super tasty-sometimes you need a taste of home. We were talking that the sausage we used was not “breakfast” sausage. They were lovely homemade ones we got from our butcher. I thought that there HAS to be a recipe for American breakfast sausage and I found this one! Looking forward to making this soon.
Just made these for breakfast & they were great! My family has asked for them to be a regular.
These look amazing, we don’t eat pork so I may try with a mix of beef and chicken and leave out the bacon, I guess. Will report back if I try!
What????? Never thought to even try! Thank you for sharing
Would like to try, but can’t eat sage – what would you recommend in it’s place?
Marjoram will give a similar, but milder flavor. Still very good,
I I believe there is a error in directions. The herbs and spices should be mixed into sausage prior to shaping into patties. Thank you for the lovely recipe.
I believe the herbs and spices (Sage mixture) aer mentioned in the text to be added to the ground pork and bacon along with the maple syrup before forming into patties.
Looks good. Worthy of a try. I find fresh herbs to be so expensive up here in Canada, especially during the winter months. A lot of it would end up going to waste, as I don’t use it often enough during the week. Are dried herbs recommended? Thanks
if you try dried herbs, just cut the amount in half. That is what I would do.
Keep some in pots on your widow sill. Sage, thyme, parsley all do well in pots
Other commenter said half and I tried that. Too powerful. And I used 2 lbs of pork instead of 1.5. Not sure if it was the (rubbed) sage or the thyme, or both, but upon further google investigation, seems guidance is a third, not 1/2, for those two conversions. I would suggest try using 1/3 of the amount to convert the fresh to dry in this recipe. The 1/2 was really, really strong flavor of the herbs. All that said, I think this is going to turn out great if I get the proper amounts of the dry herbs figured out.
I would definitely go 1/3 on the sage. In my experience, it tends to be much finer and denser than other dried herbs in relation to their fresh counterparts.
make sure to only use ORGANIC canola oil, as most canola oil is Genetically Modified !!! bad!!
i always use the best olive oil, or organic coconut oil…
GMO is not inherently bad, educate yourself
I don’t think coconut oil is particularly good for you either. I also think folks get too bent out of shape over GMOs, but to each their own.
Can you omit the maple syrup?
If I were you, because I don’t care for sweets, I would omit it!
No you CANNOT omit it!!!
Belinda, the maple syrup is optional according to the recipe.
So happy to see this recipe and anxious to make it. Have always loved spicy sausage but it’s hard to find good quality at the grocery store. I’m not crazy about sweets in general. Must I use all of the maple syrup? Thanks!!
These look delicious, but wondering if you could use ground chicken or turkey?
Looks Great… I’ll skip Maple syrup though.
BTW:
The ‘ingredients’ are missing “sage mixture”.
What’s the mixture and quantity
“Sage mixture” is step 1 of the Directions that use the first 6 ingredients.
Thanks Robin !
Mea Culpa
Wow they look amazing, definitely making soon.
can i use ground chicken for this recipe?
This looks fantastic! Is the diced bacon cooked or uncooked when mixed with the sausage?
Can I substitute ground sausage for ground pork?
You’re making sausage patties. Why would you use ground sausage?
I don’t really understand your logic used for this question. If the recipe is for homemade breakfast sausage, why would you want to use sausage to make it? That would pretty much make her recipe useless if you were to use sausage to make sausage. Ground pork is just plain pork ground by itself with no salt spices or seasonings added. When you add your spices and herbs, as per the recipe, this is what transforms the pork into sausage. If your starting with sausage, I’d say just cook that and eat it, lol. Then when that’s all gone, go to the market and buy you some real ground pork, or grind your own, and then follow this recipe to make you some DELICIOUS breakfast sausage.
God question. I was wondering that too.
Recipe indicates uncooked bacon.