Quick & Easy Breakfast Sausage Recipe

This quick and easy, simple recipe for ground breakfast sausage is sugar free, easy to make, and delicious to boot. Cook it loose and add it to a hash or make into patties. It's just what your breakfast has been missing!

When I first started reading my ingredient labels, one of the things I was most surprised at were the ingredients in most meats. Particularly things like sausage, where the spices had been mixed in ahead of time - they almost all contain some form of sugar. Cane sugar, brown sugar, dextrose, whatever name you want to call it - it was sugar.

I couldn't figure out why meat would need sugar in it. Yes, it balances some flavors (makes salty things taste less salty), but why wouldn't you just put less salt in?

It's also really common for breakfast sausage to contain gluten. Here's a breakdown of some gluten free store-bought breakfast sausage options!

So, I've set out to make my own recipes for different ground meats, as I go, excluding the sugars but none of the flavors - chorizo, taco meat, sausage, beef bulgogi - the list goes on and on. Are you ready to make your own sausage for breakfast? Let's go!

How to make this breakfast sausage recipe

This breakfast sausage recipe is for pork sausage. I've seen a number of searches for ground beef breakfast sausage recipes - I have not tried this recipe with beef, so I can't speak to the results of that.

Making this breakfast sausage recipe couldn't be easier. You're going to grab a small bowl and combine all your spices first. Then, in a large bowl, you're going to combine your ground pork with your pre-mixed spices.

If you can't find ground pork, you can always grind your own. It's typically made from pork shoulder or pork butt (same cut that is used for pulled pork!) You'll need a meat grinder to do so - we use this one as an attachment to our KitchenAid mixer and it works great!

I prefer to cut in the spices initially with a fork or wooden spatula. If you handle the meat too much (insert silly dirty joke here) it can get overworked and turn kind of pasty. Once you've got the spices mostly mixed in, you'll be good to use your hands to work it in the rest of the way.

From there, you'll set it up in whatever form you're looking for. I usually just go with a crumble and break it up in the pan because its easiest. You can also make patties (which work really well in this eggwich breakfast sandwich) or if you want to make sausage links, you can use a sausage stuffer like this one, or a KitchenAid mixer attachment like this one.

What goes in this homemade breakfast sausage recipe

Not sugar, haha!

Ground pork - your base! Usually made from pork shoulder or pork butt, this cut of meat adds depth of flavor due to it's marbling.

Fennel seeds- a slightly sweet flavored seed, adds a nice depth to a breakfast sausage and gives it great flavor.

Red pepper flakes - I only use a small amount of these to enhance the flavor. If you prefer a more spicy sausage, you can adjust the amount of red pepper flakes as needed.

Other spices are:Garlic powder, ground mustard, thyme, oregano, onion Powder, cinnamon, salt, black pepper.

I have had some comment that they felt the sausage came out too salty - others love it. If you are sensitive to salt, start with 1 teaspoon salt instead of 2, and then you can always add salt to the meal or crumbled sausage later on.

Can I make this recipe into breakfast sausage patties

Yes, definitely! If you can make your own breakfast sausage, you can easily turn it into breakfast patties.

After making your sausage mixture, shape the ground meat into patties. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lay the patties out in a single layer on the pan.

You can use this post for instructions on how to cook the patties in the oven, or you can cook them over medium heat in a skillet on the stove, just as you would the ground sausage.

When they are done, remove them to a plate covered in a paper towel to absorb some of the extra grease before serving!

Now listen...Recently I asked some close friends who follow this blog to describe it in three words. I got a lot of great answers:

1. Delicious, Uncomplicated, Comprehensive
2. Fresh, Easy, Innovative
3. Meat, Clean, Natural
4. Creative, Fun, Yummy
5. Funny, Healthy, Sporty

Wait a second. "Meat?"That one made me laugh out loud. I mean, yes, I include meat in a lot of my recipes, but it never occurred to me that that would be a key word to describe the site.

At first I got so down on myself. Paleo already has a tendency to be misconstrued as being meat-heavy (when in reality, its smaller amounts of protein surrounded by lots of veggies and fruits), and I was so crest-fallen: I try to make sure that I use lots of veggies, include vegan and vegetarian dishes once in awhile, and keep everything fairly balanced. 

What if other people that I didn't know personally were looking at my site and leaving it because all they saw was "Meat?"

But then I thought about it a bit harder. I DO like meat. I DO include meat in a lot of my recipes (or even make recipes that are just meat, like my spicy chorizo recipe, and this here breakfast sausage recipe.)

I firmly believe that having the correct portion size of protein in your meal is a healthy choice, and I fully support eating non-CAFO, humanely raised, as local as possible, meat.

And if there are people out there who don't like my site because it has too much meat, so what? I'm sure there are also people out there who don't like my site because I'm mostly paleo, or because I'm sarcastic, or because they think I look funny. Those are not my people.

YOU are my people, which is why you're still reading when I've been talking about meat for the past 3 paragraphs. So thank you. Thank you for being here, listening to my ramblings, trusting my kitchen experiments, and being all-around awesome.

Thank you for your support, your honesty, and your love of meat.There's a quote out there that says: "You will always be too much of something for someone: too big, too loud, too soft, too edgy. If you round out your edges, you lose your edge. Apologize for mistakes. Apologize for unintentionally hurting someone — profusely. But don’t apologize for being who you are." ~Danielle Laporte

Amen, sister. Meat lovers unite, and enjoy this incredibly delicious, perfectly seasoned breakfast sausage recipe. It's sugar free, Whole30 compliant, and tastes way better than any pre-packaged sausage you'd buy in the grocery store.

And when you try my recipe for a delicious breakfast hash that uses this sausage, I hope you'll be glad you stuck around.

I may earn a small commission off purchases made through affiliate links in this post from Amazon and other sellers. This helps me continue to run the blog and keep providing you fresh content. Thank you for your support!

I may earn a small commission off purchases made through affiliate links in this post from Amazon and other sellers. This helps me continue to run the blog and keep providing you fresh content. Thank you for your support!