Sausage is already seasoned, already cooked in many cases, and it browns in minutes. That is why it rescues so many weeknights. The 25 recipes below are sorted by how you actually cook them, so you can start from the pan you want to use rather than scrolling through a list of names.
Every recipe here has been checked for the three things people look up before they commit: how many it serves, how long it takes from start to finish, and how many ingredients you need. Those numbers appear under each one. They come straight from the recipe card, not from an estimate.
The shortest dinner on this page is 35 minutes. The longest is a gumbo that needs just over two hours, almost all of it hands off. If you only have a half hour, start with the sheet pan and skillet groups.
Sheet Pan and Oven Baked Sausage Dinners
One pan, one layer, and the oven does the work. Smoked sausage is the easiest kind to use here because it is already cooked, so you are really just roasting vegetables and heating the sausage through.
Sheet Pan Sausage and Potatoes with Onions
The simplest version on this page and the one most people are looking for. One pound of smoked sausage, two pounds of potatoes cut into three quarter inch cubes, one onion, and five seasonings. Everything goes on the pan at once and roasts at 400 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes with one stir halfway. View the full recipe — Serves 4 · 45 minutes · 8 ingredients
Sheet Pan Sausage and Veggies
The fastest sheet pan dinner here at 35 minutes. Fourteen ounces of kielbasa with butternut squash, bell pepper, zucchini and red onion, seasoned with thyme, smoked paprika and garlic powder. The squash gives it a sweetness the potato versions do not have. View the full recipe — Serves 4 · 35 minutes · 10 ingredients
Chicken Sausage Sheet Pan Dinner with Veggies
The vegetable heavy option: baby potatoes, two cups of bell pepper strips, broccoli, red onion and zucchini around one pound of fully cooked chicken sausage. Thirteen ingredients makes it the biggest list in this group, but five of those are dried spices you already own. View the full recipe — Serves 4 · 50 minutes · 13 ingredients
Honey Garlic Sausage Sheet Pan with Sweet Potatoes
This one has a real sauce rather than just oil and spices. A quarter cup each of honey and low sodium soy sauce with four garlic cloves and a tablespoon of cider vinegar, thickened with a teaspoon of cornstarch, poured over sweet potatoes, broccoli and smoked sausage. View the full recipe — Serves 4 · 45 minutes · 10 ingredients
Kielbasa Sausage Cheesy Potato Casserole
The potluck dish of the group. A 32 ounce bag of frozen hash browns bound with cream of chicken soup and a cup of sour cream, two cups of cheddar, and a crushed cornflake topping with two tablespoons of butter. Serves eight from one 9 by 13 pan. View the full recipe — Serves 8 · 60 minutes · 11 ingredients
Skillet Sausage Dinners
Same idea as the sheet pan group but on the stove, where you get a harder sear and finish faster. The trade off is that you have to stir.
One Pan Smoked Sausage and Potatoes Skillet
The stovetop answer to the sheet pan version above, and genuinely a different dish. The sausage is browned and set aside, the potatoes steam under a lid with a quarter cup of water for about seven minutes, then bell pepper and onion go in. You get crisper edges and a bell pepper the oven version skips. View the full recipe — Serves 4 · 40 minutes · 10 ingredients
One Pan Sausage Green Beans
The lightest dinner in this group at only eight ingredients. One pound of baby potatoes, eight ounces of green beans, an onion and twelve ounces of smoked sausage with three tablespoons of olive oil and three seasonings. Nothing to measure out of a can. View the full recipe — Serves 4 · 40 minutes · 8 ingredients
Smoked Sausage BBQ Pasta Skillet
The pasta cooks in the skillet in two cups of water, so there is no separate pot to drain. A cup of barbecue sauce and a tablespoon of honey go in with fourteen ounces of smoked sausage and eight ounces of penne or rotini. Done in 35 minutes. View the full recipe — Serves 4 · 35 minutes · 10 ingredients
Italian Sausage and Peppers with Diced Tomatoes
The classic. Four Italian sausage links, two bell peppers, an onion, garlic, and a 14 ounce can of diced tomatoes so it finishes with a light sauce instead of staying dry. Good on its own, better piled on a roll. View the full recipe — Serves 4 · 40 minutes · 8 ingredients
Creamy Sausage Pasta
Italian sausage carries a cream sauce better than almost any other meat because the fennel and pepper in it cut through the dairy. All three of these build the sauce in the same pan the sausage browned in.
Sausage Alfredo Pasta with Fried Sage
The one with a trick worth learning. Twenty sage leaves are fried in three tablespoons of olive oil until crisp, then the sausage browns in that same flavored oil. Two cups of heavy cream and half a cup of grated Parmigiano Reggiano finish it over a pound of fettuccine. Serves six in 35 minutes. View the full recipe — Serves 6 · 35 minutes · 9 ingredients
Garlic Butter Sausage Pasta with Creamy Parmesan Sauce
Built on two tablespoons of butter, four garlic cloves and half a teaspoon of red pepper flakes, with a cup of heavy cream and a cup of Parmesan over eight ounces of rotini. Thirteen ingredients but only 35 minutes, and nine of them are pantry staples. View the full recipe — Serves 4 · 35 minutes · 13 ingredients
Cheesy Beef and Italian Sausage Rigatoni
The biggest pasta here and the one to make when you are feeding a crowd. Eight ounces each of ground beef and Italian sausage, ten ounces of frozen spinach, and a proper roux sauce from four tablespoons of butter and a quarter cup of flour with three cups of milk, broth and cream. Two tablespoons of Cajun seasoning make it noticeably spicy. View the full recipe — Serves 8 · 60 minutes · 19 ingredients
Sausage Lasagna
Three very different time commitments for the same comfort food. Read the total time before you start one of these on a weeknight.
Sausage Skillet Lasagna with Ricotta and Fresh Mozzarella
Lasagna without the baking dish or the two hour wait. Eight ounces of dry noodles cook right in the skillet in 24 ounces of pasta sauce and two and a half cups of broth, then ricotta and eight ounces of fresh mozzarella go on top. Eight ingredients, 50 minutes, serves six. View the full recipe — Serves 6 · 50 minutes · 8 ingredients
Million Dollar Sausage Lasagna
The middle option. A pound each of ground beef and Italian sausage with three cups of jarred marinara instead of a scratch sauce, which is what cuts it to 80 minutes. Fifteen ounces of ricotta, three cups of mozzarella and twelve noodles. View the full recipe — Serves 8 · 80 minutes · 13 ingredients
Diner Style Italian Sausage Lasagna with Fennel
The full weekend project at 170 minutes. The sauce is made from scratch with two 28 ounce cans of crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce and half a teaspoon of fennel seeds, then simmered down before any assembly starts. Twenty ingredients and twelve servings. View the full recipe — Serves 12 · 170 minutes · 20 ingredients
Sausage and Rice
Rice soaks up everything the sausage renders out, which is why this pairing shows up in Cajun and Creole cooking over and over. All three of these are one pot.
One Pot Smoked Sausage and Rice
The weeknight version. A cup and a half of long grain white rice cooks in two and three quarter cups of broth with fourteen ounces of sliced sausage, two bell peppers and two cups of peas folded in at the end. Thirteen ingredients, 45 minutes, serves five. View the full recipe — Serves 5 · 45 minutes · 13 ingredients
Andouille Sausage and Rice with Peppers and Tomatoes
Andouille instead of generic smoked sausage, which brings real heat. One pound of it with a cup of rice, a 14 and a half ounce can of diced tomatoes, a cup and a half of broth and two teaspoons of Cajun seasoning. The smallest ingredient list of the three. View the full recipe — Serves 4 · 50 minutes · 11 ingredients
Cajun Sausage and Chicken Gumbo
The real thing, and the longest recipe on this page. A dark roux from a cup and a quarter of flour and a cup of oil, three pounds of bone in chicken thighs, a pound of andouille, the full pepper and celery base, and six cups of broth. Twenty four ingredients and just over two hours, but most of it is simmering. View the full recipe — Serves 8 · 130 minutes · 24 ingredients
Breakfast Sausage
Breakfast sausage is a different product from Italian or smoked sausage: ground pork seasoned with sage and pepper, sold in bulk or as patties and links. Do not swap it into the dinner recipes above.
Homemade Biscuits and Gravy with Sausage
Both halves from scratch, which is what separates this from the canned biscuit versions. Two cups of flour with a tablespoon of baking powder and a quarter cup of cold butter for the biscuits, then a pound of sausage with a quarter cup of flour and two and a half cups of milk for the gravy. View the full recipe — Serves 4 · 45 minutes · 9 ingredients
Sausage Gravy Biscuit Breakfast Pizza
Biscuit dough pressed flat and pre baked at 425 degrees, then topped with sausage gravy, a cup of mozzarella, half a cup of cheddar and two eggs cracked on before the final 11 to 12 minutes. Serves eight, which makes it the one to make for a houseful. View the full recipe — Serves 8 · 55 minutes · 15 ingredients
Sausage Scramble Breakfast Burritos
Twelve ounces of bulk sausage with bell peppers and onions, six eggs and a cup of cheddar split across four large flour tortillas, with sour cream and salsa on the side. These freeze and reheat, which is the real reason to make them. View the full recipe — Serves 4 · 35 minutes · 9 ingredients
Tater Tot Sausage Breakfast Casserole
Assemble the night before, bake in the morning. Two pounds of frozen potato puffs, a pound of breakfast sausage, two cups of cheese between cheddar and mozzarella, and a six egg custard with half a cup of milk. Serves eight. View the full recipe — Serves 8 · 65 minutes · 12 ingredients
Sausage Party Food
Three things to bring to someone else. All of them hold well at room temperature or in a warm slow cooker, which is more than you can say for most appetizers.
Cream Cheese Sausage Balls
Five ingredients and 35 minutes, which is why these show up at every holiday party. A pound of spicy breakfast sausage, eight ounces of cream cheese, a ten ounce can of diced tomatoes with green chilies, two cups of cheddar and baking mix, rolled into balls and baked at 375 degrees. View the full recipe — Serves 12 · 35 minutes · 5 ingredients
Crockpot BBQ Cocktail Sausages
Six ingredients into a slow cooker and nothing else to do. Two pounds of cocktail sausages with 18 ounces of barbecue sauce, a cup of grape jelly, a quarter cup of brown sugar, mustard and red pepper flakes. The four hour time is almost entirely unattended. View the full recipe — Serves 10 · 245 minutes · 6 ingredients
Sausage Peppers and Onion Stromboli
The one with real dough. Three cups of flour, a packet of active dry yeast and a cup of warm water, rolled around a pound of Italian sausage with green pepper, onion and a cup of mozzarella. Ninety five minutes total, most of it rising. View the full recipe — Serves 8 · 95 minutes · 11 ingredients
Before You Choose Your Recipe
The single most common mistake with these recipes is swapping one kind of sausage for another. Smoked sausage and kielbasa are fully cooked, so they only need browning and they will not release much fat. Italian sausage is raw and loose or in links, it renders a lot of fat you can build a sauce on, and it is seasoned with fennel. Breakfast sausage is ground pork with sage, and it tastes wrong in anything Italian. Andouille is smoked, coarse and genuinely hot. Chicken sausage is leaner, which means it can dry out in the oven, so the recipes here that use it pair it with a glaze or plenty of vegetables. Match the type the recipe calls for and everything else follows.
Common Questions About Cooking With Sausage
What is the fastest sausage dinner on this page?
Three recipes tie at 35 minutes: the sheet pan sausage and veggies, the smoked sausage BBQ pasta skillet, and the garlic butter sausage pasta. The sage alfredo also comes in at 35 minutes and serves six rather than four, so it feeds the most people per minute of work.
Do I need to boil smoked sausage before browning it?
No. Smoked sausage and kielbasa sold in US grocery stores are already fully cooked. Boiling first only washes out flavor and makes the slices harder to brown. Slice and put them straight into a hot pan or onto the sheet pan.
How do I know when raw Italian or breakfast sausage is done?
Ground pork sausage is safe at 160 degrees F, and several recipes on this page say so in the steps. If you are cooking it loose in a pan, the reliable visual cue is no pink remaining and the fat running clear. Links are thicker and benefit from an instant read thermometer.
Can I make the sheet pan recipes on one pan if I double them?
Spread them over two pans instead. Crowding is the reason sheet pan dinners come out pale and steamed rather than browned. The sheet pan sausage and potatoes recipe says this explicitly in its steps, and it applies to all five in that group.
Which of these can I prepare the night before?
The tater tot sausage breakfast casserole is built for it. The kielbasa cheesy potato casserole also assembles ahead and goes into the oven cold, though it needs a few extra minutes. The lasagnas can be assembled a day early and baked from the refrigerator. The sheet pan and skillet recipes are best cooked fresh.
More Collections to Browse
If you came here for one of the cooking methods rather than the sausage itself, these collections cover the same ground from the other direction.
- 25 Pasta Recipes — Every shape and sauce, including the rest of the creamy ones.
- 25 30 Minute Recipes — Dinners that beat the clock on a weeknight.
- 25 Rice Recipes — One pot rice dinners beyond the Cajun ones here.
- 25 Appetizer Recipes — More party food that travels well.
- 25 Bacon Recipes — The other breakfast pork, used all day.
- 25 Cheese Recipes — For when the cheese is the point.
Browse all of our recipe collections.
