Nothing beats waking up to a hearty breakfast in the morning! Try these 4 ways to cook breakfast sausage patties: pan-fried, air fryer, baked, and grilled. All four versions are so easy and foolproof.
❤️ Why you will love this post
- Easy: All 4 of these methods are so easy to do! I’ve included each step for frying in a hot pan, air frying, baking, and grilling breakfast sausage patties at home.
- Quick: Each method takes less than 20 minutes to make. So fast!
- Homemade or store-bought: You can make your own homemade breakfast sausage patties, or try a commercial brand for convenience.
- Meal prep: The best part is that you can make a large batch and save the extras in the fridge or freezer for later.
✨ Homemade Breakfast Sausage Recipe
We need to start with a good recipe, right? My Keto Breakfast Sausage recipe is tried and true, I make it all the time!
🗝️ Key Ingredients for homemade spicy sausage
- Pork mince: The only meat used in this recipe is ground pork. Making my own sausage saves me from having to add any preservatives or additives, which is something that store-bought sausages tend to need. I sometimes also use a 50/50 ground meat mixture of beef and pork.
- Spices & herbs: I added coriander seeds, sage, fennel seeds, and thyme, which are traditional sausage herbs. The coriander seeds occasionally offer a flash of flavor that I love, and I find the popping texture from them quite fun. Ground black pepper, cayenne pepper for some spicy heat, and smoked paprika for a hint of smoke were also included for even more flavor. You could add in some red pepper flakes to really amp up the heat if desired.
- Salt: I was careful with the salt because I feel that sausage can be quite salty. Although I think the seasoning is about right, if you prefer a salty sausage you might want to add more.
🥣 Here’s how to make homemade breakfast sausage patties:
1. Add everything (ground pork, smoked paprika, dried sage, coriander seeds, dried thyme, cayenne powder, pepper, and salt) apart from the olive oil to a mixing bowl and mix well together. Don’t be afraid to use your hands!
2. Form the sausage mixture into round, 2-3 inch balls and flatten them down into a circular patty shape.
🍳 Pan-fried Breakfast Sausages
Possibly the most popular way to cook breakfast sausages is in a frying pan. I like this method because I can cook other things like eggs in the same pan, which means less clean-up later.
Here’s how to do it:
1. Heat the olive oil in a medium-large pan over medium heat.
2. When the oil is hot, add the patties and fry for 5 minutes on each side, until they begin to brown. You may need to do a couple of batches if they don’t all fit in the pan.
3. Remove from the pan when they’re finished cooking and serve immediately or allow them to cool on paper towels and store for later. It’s a good idea to check the internal temperature with a meat thermometer if you have one handy. Simply insert the thermometer into the thickest part of the sausage. If it reaches 160-165°F it’s ready to eat!
4. Serve as part of a healthy, balanced breakfast with eggs, bacon, tomatoes, fried mushrooms, and fresh fruit.
🥧 Baked Breakfast Sausages
Baking breakfast sausages in the oven is the best way to do a large batch all at once. Here’s how I do it:
- Begin by preheating the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit for a conventional oven, and 380 degrees F for a fan oven.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
- Place the commercial or homemade sausages in a single layer on the shallow baking pan.
- Bake for 10 minutes, and then turn them over.
- Cook for a further 8 minutes, until they are cooked through. The total cooking time will depend on your oven and the thickness of the patties.
- Optionally, to make the sausage patties browner, broil them for a couple of minutes in the end. Keep an eye on them so they don’t burn!
- Remove the sheet pan from the oven and allow the breakfast sausages to cool a little before serving.
⚡ Air Fryer Breakfast Sausages
This is my favorite way to cook breakfast sausages. It’s so quick and easy, and you don’t really need to watch the sausages.
- Preheat the air fryer to 400°F. I set the timer on for about 15 minutes, allowing 5 minutes or so to heat up.
- Lightly grease the air fryer basket with spray oil.
- Place the raw sausages in the air fryer basket and cook for 5 minutes.
- After 5 minutes, flip the sausages over with tongs and then cook for a further 3 minutes.
- When the air fryer sausage patties have finished cooking, remove them from the air fryer basket, check that they’re cooked properly, and serve!
🔥 Grilled Breakfast Sausages
A great way to cook sausage patties throughout the summer months, or whenever you fancy sparking up the grill.
- Add charcoal to a grilling chimney and light it.
- Pour out and scatter the coals evenly over the whole of the coal grate once all the charcoal is covered with grey ash.
- Place the cooking grate on the grill, close it, and let it heat up for five minutes.
- Oil and clean the cooking grates.
- Grill patties for 7 to 10 minutes, flipping once halfway through, over high heat until well-browned and cooked through.
🪄 Tips for cooking breakfast sausages
- The thickness of the sausage patties will determine how long it takes to cook them properly. Thicker sausages will take longer, so it’s best to check the temperature with a meat thermometer.
- If you don’t have a meat thermometer, slice the thickest sausage and check if it’s cooked through. If it’s still a pink color inside, cook the breakfast sausages for longer.
🫙 Storage & reheating Instructions
- Store any extra breakfast sausages in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
- Reheat in the microwave, oven, or air fryer until they are piping hot all the way through. You may want to add a little bit of water to the patties or place a heat-safe cup of water in the microwave or oven when reheating to keep the sausages from drying out.
- Freeze cooked breakfast sausage patties in an airtight container or freezer bag for up to 4 months. Thaw completely before reheating.
🍽️ What do breakfast sausage patties go with?
- Drizzled with maple syrup
- Pancakes
- Waffles
- French toast
- In a Breakfast Sandwich
- Toast
- English muffins
- Crumpets
- Fried eggs
- Fried tomatoes
- Hash browns
- Potatoes
- Sweet potatoes
👀 Looking for ways to cook fresh breakfast sausage links?
Try my Baked Sausage Links or my Air Fryer Sausage Links recipes. They are foolproof!
😋 More sausage recipes to try
- Keto Breakfast Casserole
- Whole30 Breakfast Casserole
- Greek Stuffed Cabbage
- Keto Sausage Stuffing
- Whole30 Gumbo
Have you made this recipe? I’d love to know <3 Tag me (@makehealthyrecipes) on Facebook and Instagram, Pin it on Pinterest, and please give it 5 stars with a review below! Don’t forget to subscribe to the email list (top right of this page) for sparkly new recipes in your inbox.
📖 Recipe
How To Cook Breakfast Sausage (4 Ways)
Ingredients
- 500 g ground pork or 50/50 beef & pork mix
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 2 tsp dried sage
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp cayenne powder
- 2 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Instructions
Make the patties:
- Add everything (ground pork, smoked paprika, dried sage, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, dried thyme, cayenne powder, pepper, and salt) apart from the olive oil to a mixing bowl and mix well together. Don't be afraid to use your hands!
- Form the sausage mixture into round, 2-3 inch balls and flatten them down into a circular patty shape.
Pan-Fried Method
- Heat the olive oil in a medium-large pan over medium-high heat.
- When the oil is hot, add the patties and fry for 5 minutes on each side, until they begin to brown. You may need to do a couple of batches if they don't all fit in the pan.
- Remove from the pan when they're finished cooking and serve immediately or allow them to cool and store for later.
- Serve as part of a healthy, balanced breakfast with eggs, bacon, tomatoes, fried mushrooms, and fresh fruit.
Baked Breakfast Sausages
- Begin by preheating the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit for a conventional oven, 380 degrees F for a fan oven.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
- Place the commercial or homemade sausages in a single layer on the shallow baking pan.
- Bake for 10 minutes, and then turn them over.
- Cook for a further 8 minutes, until they are cooked through. The total cooking time will depend on your oven.
- Optionally, to make the sausage patties browner, broil them for a couple of minutes in the end. Keep an eye on them so they don't burn!
- Remove the sheet pan from the oven and allow the breakfast sausages to cool a little before serving.
Air Fryer Breakfast Sausages
- Preheat the air fryer to 400°F. I set the timer on for about 15 minutes, allowing 5 minutes or so to heat up.
- Lightly grease the air fryer basket with spray oil.
- Place the raw sausages in the air fryer basket and cook for 5 minutes.
- After 5 minutes, flip the sausages over with tongs and then cook for a further 3 minutes.
- When the air fryer sausage patties have finished cooking, remove them from the air fryer basket, check that they're cooked properly, and serve!
Grilled Breakfast Sausages
- Add charcoal to a grilling chimney and light it.
- Pour out and scatter the coals evenly over the whole of the coal grate once all the charcoal is covered with grey ash.
- Place the cooking grate on the grill, close it, and let it heat up for five minutes.
- Oil and clean the cooking grates.
- Grill patties for 7 to 10 minutes, flipping once halfway through, over high heat until well-browned and cooked through.
Notes
- The thickness of the sausage patties will determine how long it takes to cook them properly. Thicker sausages will take longer, so it's best to check the temperature with a meat thermometer.
- If you don't have a meat thermometer, slice the thickest sausage and check if it's cooked through. If it's still a pink color inside, cook the breakfast sausages for longer.