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Breakfast sausage is easy to make with ground pork, sage, and just the right seasonings. You can form it into patties or use it for recipes like biscuits and gravy. This recipe is super flavorful!
Why this recipe works:
Every delicious breakfast recipe is even better when accompanied by perfectly cooked tasty homemade sausage!
- The ingredients are simple: just ground pork and some seasonings that you most likely already have in your pantry.
- It just tastes better knowing you added all the spices yourself. So many kinds of store bought breakfast sausage contain preservatives and/or ingredients that I don’t want to eat. Homemade is always best!
- Always keep some ground pork in the freezer and you can enjoy this recipe whenever the craving kicks in!
Ingredients:
My Sage Breakfast Sausage recipe contains the following ingredients that get mixed into the ground pork:
- 1 tablespoon sage dried or minced fresh
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes or more if you like heat
- 1/4 teaspoon marjoram fresh if you have it
- pinch of ground cloves
Popular store bought breakfast sausage contains the following: PORK, WATER, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: CORN SYRUP, SALT, SPICES, DEXTROSE, MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE.
I’m sure you’ll agree homemade is so much better!
Here’s how to make it:
- In medium sized bowl, thoroughly combine all ingredients. It’s easiest if you use your hands to mix.
- Form sausage into patties.
- Heat a skillet over medium low heat and add the sausage patties.
- Cook until brown, about 5 minutes per side.
Cooking tips:
- To ensure that they are fully cooked, you can verify that the internal temperature is at least 145 degrees F when checked with an instant read thermometer.
- Once you’ll make this recipe and taste it, take note if you want to adjust the seasonings for next time. Did you think it needed to be more salty, sweet, or spicy?
- If you used dried herbs, try using fresh next time and see which you prefer.
- These breakfast sausage patties can be made ahead and frozen. Just be sure to squeeze out as much air as possible to prevent freezer burn. To reheat, completely thaw in refrigerator and then cook in a pan over low heat until heated through.
Related recipes:
In addition to making breakfast sausage patties, I use this same exact recipe in other savory breakfast treats. I highly recommend making:
- Sausage gravy served over homemade biscuits
- Scottish Eggs
- Egg and Cheese Breakfast Sandwiches – just use sausage patties instead of the ham
- Biscuits and gravy casserole
- You can even make Gluten Free Country Sausage Gravy
- Sausage Stuffing
- Sausage Tater Tot Breakfast Casserole
- Keto Breakfast Casserole
- Egg Muffin Cups
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Ingredients
- 1 pound ground pork
- 1 tablespoon sage dried or minced fresh
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes or more if you like heat
- 1/4 teaspoon marjoram fresh if you have it
- 1 pinch ground cloves
Instructions
- In medium sized bowl, thoroughly combine all ingredients. It's easiest if you use your hands to mix.
- Heat a skillet over medium low heat. Form sausage into patties and cook until brown, about 5 minutes per side depending on thickness.
Notes
- To ensure that they are fully cooked, you can verify that the internal temperature is at least 145 degrees F when checked with an instant read thermometer.
- Once you’ll make this recipe and taste it, take note if you want to adjust the seasonings for next time. Did you think it needed to be more salty, sweet, or spicy?
- If you used dried herbs, try using fresh next time and see which you prefer.
- These breakfast sausage patties can be made ahead and frozen. Just be sure to squeeze out as much air as possible to prevent freezer burn. To reheat, completely thaw in refrigerator and then cook in a pan over low heat until heated through.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This recipe was originally published in November 2017 and has been updated with helpful information, ingredient and process photos, as well as recipe tips. Don’t worry – the recipe hasn’t changed!
I have a question about the pork. Cant but a pig but i have tried grinding pork myself w my kitchen aid grinder. Do you grind your own? Do you recommend pork loin or pork butt/shoulder? Tried pirk loin eas kinda dry, pork shoulder clogged up grinder due to fatty stuff? Looking forward to trying your recipe, havent been able to find one i like
Hi Donna, I don’t grind my own meat so I won’t be much help. As far as cuts go, I do believe that people will often combine various cuts using tender chunks, tough chunks, and some fat to come up with ground pork. Hopefully some day I’ll start doing that, but for now I just go to the freezer and grab a pack.
If the pork butts gums up your mixer, try putting it in the freezer for 1/2 hour to 1 hour to firm it up. Should go right thru the grinder without a problem. I make sausage with my venison and mix pork butts with it. That method works well. I like the sound of the breakfast sage mix, I will have to try it.
Boston Butt won’t gum up your machine if you cut it in small chunks before grinding. I cut in about 1” cubs and have no problems and I do 20 lbs at a time or more.
I make my own sausage and have for too many years to mention. I always and only use Boston Butt. Great taste and not overly fatty. As a matter of fact when my brother does his he buys extra fat. I don’t.
You want to use pork butt. You should also add more pork fat making sausage. I make Italian (mild & hot) breakfast sausage, rabbit, chicken & pork sausage & many other fresh meat styles. I prefer making fresh sausage as I get immediate feedback on what I’ve done. Most times I add 10% by weight of pork fat when making a pork sausage. That’s my personal preference. Some like more, some less.
I also find stuffing sausage with more fat is way easier. Even if I oil the hanks I use for stuffing.
That said, most sausage I make I use in bulk. We make patties or we crumble cook it.
Sometimes, I find stuffing is really the best way to get the most out of your recipe.
I am so excited! I love sausage gravy, but breakfast sausage isn’t a thing where I live (outside the US) so it never tastes right! I can’t wait to try this!
People stop arguing about MSG
Monosodium glutamate (MSG) makes foot taste “meatier”. It adds what the Japanese call umami and it is completely safe. It has received a bad reputation because of a general lack of understanding and a myth that widely circulated. Some people swear it gives them headaches but every time it is tested in studies where the participants don’t know they are eating it… no symptoms and yet when people eat food without while being told it contains MSG many complain of headaches and other symptoms. In short it is the placebo effect. Your body produces glutamate anyway.
Perhaps, but when given the choice to eat food vs something that was created in the lab, isn’t it better to choose the food?
It’s 100% natural. It’s salt and glutamate. Your body produces glutamate naturally, and of course you have no problem with salt, right? Like Jeff said, MSG has a bad rap because of bad publicity in the 50s and because it “sounds scary” just like dihydrogen monoxide, sometimes referred to as H2O, or water.
MSG is great! I bought a bag of it at the Asian food market!
MSG is used to excite ur brain. It tells u it taste better then it does. That’s why the lack of herbs in Jimmy Dean sausage. It is being added to the list of allergens. Some restaurants list foods w/ MSG. The food industry works over time finding new words to use MSG it is usually hidden in words like natural flavoring. U can bet it’s at least 40% MSG. yes it’s natural but so is arsenic. I suggest anyone interested in MSG to do ur own research and then decide if u want to use it.
I would do a bit more research before telling people that there is absolutely nothing dangerous about MSGs… the only reason it doesn’t cause brain damage and/or convulsions when we eat it is because our blood-brain barrier blocks most of it… most of it. Assuming the individual has a mature and properly functioning blood-brain barrier which is not always the case. Plus glutamate is a completely different molecule than mono-sodium glutamate. Plenty of chemicals with the word “sodium” mixed in there can kill you. MSGs are maybe fine in small amounts for some people and not for others. But I personally avoid it all together.
And some of us have wound up in the ER unable to breathe because of it. And don’t ask me about the headaches… Our bodies may produce glutamate naturally but no where near these quantities.
Krissy love the sausage!
Sorry but I get migraine headaches every time I accidentally ingest it. MSG is often hidden as “Natural Ingredients”. I am not sure to what studies you are referring, but there are hundreds of legitimate studies publushed in professional peer reviewed journals that purport the ills of MSG!
can I use oregano instead of marjoram?
Yep! Its all to taste.
Hello,
If you are using fresh sage, do we just chop it up into as small sizes as possible? Also, what do you mean by “dash cloves”.
Thank You
I changed it to “pinch of ground cloves” and yes – just mince the sage.
Is it possible to use turkey instead? And would it be just plain ground turkey?
You can, but it will definitely cook up differently w/o the fat (I’m guessing that’s the point). You’d just need a fair amount of oil to avoid sticking.
Hello! Your recipe calls for Sage (obviously) and on the spice aisle at the local grocery store there are two options – ground and rubbed. Which one should i buy?
Either, but I used ground. -Krissy
Pork sausage comes from “sad cows”?
Thanks for catching that! I just re-read my post… wow, I was feeling quite opinionated that day, huh! I meant to say sad pigs so I’ll update that now. And yes, I imagine any pig that gets turned into sausage is quite sad. 🙂 – Krissy
Fantastic, Krissy! I love homemade sausages. Once a year, we make ton of homemade sausages (we are talking like 200lbs of meat!). I will try your recipe soon, sage sounds delicious!