Last Updated on 16th September 2022 by
Chicken sausage is slightly leaner and healthier than pork sausage, and it cooks up quickly and easily. That’s why it’s a great breakfast meat, because it can be cooked fast in the morning when you may not have much time to put something together.
It will provide you with the protein you need to get going first thing in the morning, and the flavorful sausage makes a great start to the day, feeling like you’ve already rewarded yourself.
I love to throw chicken sausage into a scramble with some eggs, cheese, or little veggies. It’s also really good on sandwiches for lunch, or part of a veggie medley for dinner.
One of my favorite ways to have chicken sausages mixed in with rice and red kidney beans for a very filling, nutrient-rich meal. I’ll share with you how to make Italian chicken sausage and some other ways to give you some ideas on how to use it and help you cook it with confidence.
How to Cook Chicken Sausages on Stove
The quickest and simplest way to cook chicken sausage is to slice it up and prepare it in a frying pan on the stovetop. You don’t need to add any oil and you don’t need to preheat the pan. You can simply throw sliced sausage or a whole sausage into the frying pan and warm it up on medium high heat. Turn the sausage over every so often to help it cook evenly and ensure that it is cooked on every side.
If the sausage is raw and uncooked, then it may take three to five minutes to fully cook in the frying pan on medium high heat. If it is pre-cooked, then all you’re really doing is warming it up in the frying pan and blackening the outside to give it some slight char marks. It should only take about two minutes to cook up if it has been precooked already.
How to tell when chicken sausage is done? If it starts to blacken on the outside and you have the heat set to the right level, then it should be cooked all the way through at that point. Fully cooked chicken sausage lets out its own juices when cut. It will start sizzling on the inside, and that tells you that it’s done cooking.
You can use an internal instant read thermometer to determine if the chicken sausage is finished cooking. It should reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit, the same as if you were cooking chicken breast or any other kind of chicken meat.
How to Grill Chicken Sausages
Grilling sausages is almost every bit as easy as cooking on the stovetop. You’ll need a grill setup for this, and this method will give you beautiful char marks on the sausage. It’s best to cook whole sausages on the grill, because small slices would fall through the grates.
Make sure you let the grill warm up all the way before adding sausages. You only need to use half of the grill, since this is a small meat, and you can probably cook as many chicken sausages as you want at once on half of the grill. The grill should be turned to a medium high heat, just like when you’re cooking chicken sausage on the stovetop.
You won’t be cooking the chicken sausage over direct heat, however. If you’re using a charcoal grill, put the charcoal briquettes to one side and then cook the sausage on the other side of the grill, over indirect heat.
This allows you to cook the sausage more carefully, ensuring it cooks all the way through and doesn’t dry out. If you cook it too fast at too high of a heat, you’re going to ruin the texture and flavor of the sausage and make it a little tough and dry.
How to Bake Chicken Sausages
If you have extra time on your hands, you can bake chicken sausage. This is a good way to cook the sausage without having to keep an eye on it the whole time, but it takes longer to cook this way than the other methods I’ve given you.
Remember that temperature control is important when you’re cooking chicken sausage. You don’t want the heat too high, as that would dry out the chicken. The ideal temperature for baking chicken sausage in the oven is 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Allow the oven to preheat, and as it is heating up, you can prepare your chicken on a baking sheet. Spray down the chicken sausage or the pan with a cooking spray. This keeps the chicken sausage from sticking to the pan. Give the sausages a little room between each other and cook for 20 minutes in the oven, once the oven has heated fully. That’s all there is to it.
How to Make Chicken Sausages from Ground Chicken
I want to share with you a method for how to make chicken sausage patties from scratch. You’ll be using ground chicken and some spices for this recipe.
Ingredients:
- 1 pound of ground chicken
- 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon of rubbed sage
- 1/4 teaspoon of table salt
- 2 teaspoons of black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon of allspice
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- 2 tablespoons of light brown sugar
Directions:
- Mix together your dry spices with the brown sugar and then add the ground chicken to that. Work everything together with your hands until the mixture is combined evenly.
- Break your mixture part into 10 pieces of even size, which should be about 1.8 ounces each. Press them down between your palms to flatten them out into patties.
- Once you have made the raw patties, you can heat up a skillet on medium high heat and add the olive oil. Once the oil becomes hot, add the sausage patties carefully.
- Cook them for about three or four minutes on one side and then flip them over and cook for an additional 3 or 4 minutes. When the patties have browned thoroughly and have reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit, they are done cooking.
I'm Pauline, a mother of four grown children, my passion for cooking stemmed from the joy i get cooking for my family. I love to try new dishes, especially when dining out but creating and sharing my own recipes is my favourite thing to do!
