Your typical packaged breakfast sausage product is going to have ingredients like sodium lactate, sodium phosphate, monosodium glutamate, sodium diacetate along with dextrose and maltodextrin. These unpronounceable words are code for salt and sugar.
Not just any old salt and sugar though.
No, these additives are meant to excite areas in our brain which trigger us to eat more and want more.
So say goodbye to Jimmy Dean and make your own healthy Breakfast Sausage with today's easy recipe.
I know we got a lot of bacon lovers around these parts, but if you are looking for a little variety with your morning eggs, how about trying your hand at making healthy Breakfast Sausage. It's super easy, I promise. All you need are a few spices, of which you probably already have in your cupboard, and a pound of ground pork, ground chicken, ground turkey or even ground beef. Heck, you can even go wild and do a combination.
You can make little sausage patties and cook in a cast iron skillet on the stove top or for variation, make cute little sausage balls and bake in the oven in a mini-muffin tin. Either way, this breakfast sausage is delicious! I hope you give it a try.
Oh, and by the way, to learn more about how food scientists have been employed to come up with the winning combination of salt, fat and sugar to trick not only our brains but our bodies into the cycle of anticipation, craving and addiction, I highly recommend the fabulous book The End of Overeating by Dr. David Kessler, former Commissioner of the United States food and Drug Administration.
You can also read this short article I wrote late last year, with the same title. Just be prepared, you will never look at a box of cereal the same.
Let's get in the kitchen and make healthy Breakfast Sausage!
Say goodbye to unhealthy pre-packaged breakfast sausage by making your own with this easy breakfast sausage recipe.
Ingredients
- 1 lb. Ground Pork
- 1 tsp. Celtic Sea Salt
- 1 tsp. Sage
- 1 tsp. Thyme
- 1 tsp. Paprika
- 1 tsp. Black Pepper
- 1/2 tsp. Cayenne Pepper
- 1/2 tsp. Nutmeg
Directions
- Measure and mix spices.
- Add spices to ground pork.
- With hands, mix spices and pork together.
- For mini-sausage balls, roll into 24 balls and place each one in mini-muffin tin.
- Bake at 350°F for 20-23 minutes or until no longer pink in the center.
- For sausage patties, form into 12 equal size patties.
- Pan fry in cast iron skillet, on medium-high heat, 3-4 minutes per side or until no longer pink in the center.
- Enjoy!
I’ve made the patties and there delicious. Now I’m going to try making them in the oven. I only have half pound ground pork and half pound grass fed beef on hand but I know they will still come out great ;0)
These are yummy, aren’t they?! The pork and beef combo is great as well.
I made your breakfast sausage recipe this morning and it was absolutely delish i will try groundpork/beef next time and the oven bake also i will use this all the time can’t wait to try the other many-many recipes you have on your site Thanks.
That great you enjoyed them Joe!
Looks so delish! Can’t wait to try!
I make these and freeze them raw in scooped portions (1 oz), then just take out what I need, usually 1 is a perfect portion for an egg, 1 can be wrapped easily around a boiled egg (scotch egg) and I can take more for adding to other dishes….great invention!
Hi Vanessa! Are these okay to freeze so we can have them on hand after making a batch?
Wow! These are awesome!! Made them with ground chicken tonight. Never buying the “Jimmy Dean” sausages again. 🙂 Thank you!!
Seriously the BEST breakfast Sausage I’ve ever made.. My only variation is that I used ground turkey 93/7..
Yumm, thank you so much Vanessa for the recipe!
Thank you Trish! 😉
My first batch is just finishing up in the oven now. These are delicious! I used all pork, decreased the cayenne, and added some fennel seed. I’ve been searching for more economical ways to eat meat for breakfast since that’s what hubby and I prefer. I’m thus super happy to have discovered your recipe and will be adding it to my weekly meal plan. Thank you!
Made these with bison and they turned out delish! I am migrating toward a meat and nut breakfast concept and these will be a staple. So easy and can make them ahead for the week! Thanks.
I was recently diagnosed with an allergy to peppers. I thought I was going to have to say goodbye to sausage for good. I thought of making my own but all the recipes call for having your own meat grinder. Then I stumbled onto this recipe! So happy to see it getting great reviews and I CANNOT wait to try it! Thanks for sharing this!
Finishing up my first Whole30…ummmm…just discovered your absolute yumminess! Going to try turkey/pork combo next time. Thank you, so good, so fresh, so perfect for breakfast!
Thank you for this recipe! My son loves sausage but can’t eat them because he has asthma. The sulfites in them tighten him up!!! He’s going to be one happy little boy.
That makes me a happy girl. So glad you found the recipe!
Vanessa, is there any day you could post the calorie info for me? The recipes are great but for someone who counts sodium, sugars and calories etc I wish you would try to add the info.
Nutrition information is going to vary based on the specific ingredients you use. Here are couple online calculators you can use — http://www.fitday.com or http://www.nutritiondata.com
Vanessa, We made this sausage tonight with turkey, along with a cheese omelet and turnip hash browns. The sausage was delicious, the perfect combination of spices. Thank you. I will add this recipe to the bi-weekly rotation.
Vanessa – I made a “trial run” of these tonight to prep for Christmas Breakfast. You are a GENIUS! They are amazing (and spicy)!!! I combined all the ingredients using my kitchen aid to get a smooth texture & shaped into patties. My husband was utterly shocked & after he ate a few as my “tester”, he kept walking around the house, hollering into the kitchen, telling me how great they are. Thanks so much!!!!!!!
Anyone tried this with ground venison? I saw the person with Bison. Think I’ll give it a try. Thanks!
I am looking for a “healthy” breakfast sausage. NOTHING about PORK is healthy as it is one of the fattiest meats! I have used ground chicken thighs and it turned out quite well. Pork…the other white meat…is “white” because of all the fat in it.
This post should be retitled, Delicious Pork Breakfast sausage. I am not saying it is not delish….just saying it is not healthy!!
In the context of a paleo lifestyle, pasture raised pork is quite healthy. If you want to learn more I suggest the book Beyond Bacon.
Vanessa… do you source your pasture raised pork locally? Or do you recommend a retail source?
When we get pork we get it from our local food co-op which sources from local farmers.
I was just shopping for breakfast sausage last weekend, and I usually buy the fresh ground breakfast sausage from the store (not Jimmy Dean), but for some reason that I can’t explain, this time I noticed that it had MSG on the label! (I never have noticed before, and I usually check these types of things!). I decided I could just add the spice myself or, for heavens sake, just eat it plain without the spice rather than eat the MSG! I knew some site on line would provide a recipe for the spice, and this post just came across my facebook! Thanks!
Got a recipe without the pork…one for beef instead.
Substituting ground chicken or turkey for the pork will work just fine
These look awesome! I’m thinking of actually trying to prepare these in advance, so I have something for busy nights. Which would be better, to freeze these raw or fully cooked?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
I have not tried either. Sorry.
Have made them several times now and don’t think I would ever go back. Last two to three weeks in fridge. I used half ground turkey and half 93/7 ground beef. Imade a double batch cuz I want to have them for many breakfasts. I made small patties the size of golf balls and then flattened them a little and pan fried. When you reheat into to about 15 seconds they are juicy. Try it and see. I adjusted the Cheyenne pepper down a little cuz my hubby likes less heat spices. ENJOY
Thanks for this… was curious if anyone had frozen them and how they reheated! 🙂
I just made these this morning and they are quite good. They are my favorite breakfast recipe that I have tried so far, and I like that there are a fewer ingredients which happened to be my favorite flavorings! I didnt want spicy so just a sprinkle of cayenne did it for me. I love my pastured local pork!
Love this recipe! Have made several times and use ground turkey. I especially love the leftovers to easily take to work with yogurt, etc!
We made this last night to season a bulk blend of ground venison, ground grass fed beef, and grass fed beef fat (we don’t eat pork). It turned out wonderfully! We thought it would be too spicy with the full amount of cayenne pepper, so we did half of what it calls for. It’s just right! So yummy. Thank you for the recipe.
Thanks! I made these last week (patties) and froze a bunch. I take them out one at a time to have with a scrambled egg for breakfast (and today a GF egg mcmuffin). I love them!! I hadn’t been able to eat sausage patties since I went gluten free 2 years ago, and am so happy to be able to eat them again!
I make these with ground turkey. I cook all of them, let them cool, then wrap individually. Microwaved scrambled eggs and sausage. Fast with very little clean-up.
my Autistic son has such a limited palette when it comes to food! Sausage is one of the “likes”! He is so skinny because he refuses to eat the majority of what I cook so when I find something he likes I want him to eat as much as he would like. However stir bought sausage is not the healthiest… Thankyou for posting this! I can’t wait to cook it for him😊. I will be trying it with ground turkey and chicken as well!!
You are most welcome! I hope he enjoys them as much as we do!