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This Homemade Breakfast Sausage is going to knock your socks off. Super tasty and surprisingly easy…just a handful of seasonings mixed together with ground pork, plus a secret ingredient! Use this recipe in a casserole like my Classic Breakfast Casserole or on the side of some pancakes. A little drizzle of maple syrup on these guys is kind of a dreamy combination. If you’ve never made your own, I’d highly recommend it!
How to Flavor Sausage to Make it Breakfast Sausage
I love store bought breakfast sausages because they taste so good…I mean, they really do! But I’m telling you right now there is nothing about making your own at home. BUT!!! I really wanted to base my own homemade breakfast sausage based on the ones I know and love. This means I used spices like:
- thyme
- rosemary
- sage
- marjoram
- nutmeg
- and cayenne pepper
Plus, I used my secret ingredient: smokehouse maple seasoning. This stuff gives that maple flavor that we all love about breakfast sausages.
How to Make Homemade Breakfast Sausage
Like I said before, making homemade breakfast sausage is so simple, why wouldn’t you always go this route? It’s so much more flavorful than store bought, while giving you that familiar flavor that you love. For full recipe details, including ingredients needed and measurements, see the printable recipe card down below.
Combine Ground Pork + Seasonings
In a large bowl, place ground pork in the bowl. Add nutmeg, cayenne, sage, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, brown sugar, salt and pepper to the bowl. I also added some McCormick Grill Mates Smokehouse Maple Seasoning…totally optional, but I just love the flavor it brings to the sausage.
Combine + Mix Well
Stir all the spices into the meat and mix well. Using a cookie scoop or spoon, divide mixture into 12 even sized balls and flatten into patties.
Pro Tip: If you have the time, mix the ingredients ahead of time and give it time to marry. This step is completely optional and you can cook right away if you want, but giving it even just a few hours will help the flavors to marinate and develop into even more deliciousness. Bonus: that means this recipe is the perfect “prep-ahead” dish.
Cook + Serve
Cook sausage balls in the pan until thoroughly cooked and drain on paper towels. Serve as you like!
What if I Want a Spicy Breakfast Sausage?
If you like your breakfast sausage to be spicy, the traditional thing to add is Red Pepper Flakes, but you could also rev up the Cayenne Pepper. I only use a pinch of Cayenne in my recipe though, because I’m wimpy.
Can I use Fresh Herbs instead of Dried?
Yes! Just keep in mind that dried herbs are much more potent than fresh so the general rule for herb conversion ratio is 1 tablespoon of fresh herbs to 1 teaspoon of dried herbs.
Pro Tip: You can also use a combination of fresh and dry. In the summer months I have fresh thyme, rosemary and sage growing like crazy, but marjoram…not so much. Maybe next year. 🙂 Feel free to use whatever fresh AND dried herbs you have on hand, using the above stated conversion ratio.
Storing Leftover Breakfast Sausage
Place any leftover breakfast sausage in an airtight container and place in the fridge. Sausage will stay fresh for 4-5 days.
To Freeze: allow to cool completely before placing in an airtight, freezer safe container or sealable bag. Sausage will stay fresh in the freezer for 3-4 months. Allow to thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating.
Other Breakfast Recipes to Try:
- Breakfast Casserole
- Biscuits and Gravy
- Southwest Steak and Egg Breakfast Burritos
- Breakfast Tacos
- BEST Overnight Breakfast Casserole (with brioche bread!)
- The Best Crepe Recipe (Better than Paris!)
- Funeral Potatoes (one of my most popular recipes)
The printable recipe card is below. Have a great day, friends!
If you make this recipe, I would really appreciate it if you would give it a star rating and leave your review in the comments! If you have a picture of your finished dish, post it on Instagram using the hashtag #laurenslatest and tagging me @laurens_latest.
Homemade Breakfast Sausage
Ingredients
- 1 lb. ground pork
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1/2 teaspoon dried sage
- 1/8 teaspoon marjoram
- 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- pinch cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon smokehouse maple seasoning optional
Instructions
- In a large bowl, stir seasonings together with ground pork.
- Scoop into 12 even balls (I used a cookie scoop for this) and pat down to form into patties.
- Fry sausage patties in a nonstick skillet with a little cooking spray if needed.
- Once fully cooked, remove to paper towels and serve as desired.
I’ve been on the hunt for a breakfast sausage recipe and found yours last night. I made it the morning for my biscuits and gravy breakfast casserole, and my husband and I were both very pleased with it. This will definitely be my go-to recipe for breakfast sausage. Thank you for solving my issue so nicely.
Subbed Real NY Maple Syrup for Brown Sugar. Didn’t measure but used all the seasonings except smokehouse maple. Pound and a half of ground pork and spiced till it looked good. Cooked it in the same pan as a pound of bacon, added precooked salt taters, onions, eggs and cheese. Man it was sooooooo good.
Can you use ground chicken or turkey instead of pork? Would I need to adjust any seasoning?
Hi, widower so I cook my own,and am allergic to rosemary, what could I substitute if any.
Hi Fred, I would just omit it and double up on one of the other herbs that are your favorite.
It’s like jimmy dean came for breakfast. I used maple syrup instead of brown sugar. Delicious! Will make again.
I made this recipe yesterday. I was skeptical but was I ever wrong. It is delicious. Had 3 lbs of pork and belly. I made a 1 lb batch first. My husband said he loved it and so did I. So made other two pounds. I agreed with an older post to finely chop the herbs. And I added a sprinkle of crushed pepper. Thank you for this recipe.
Hello! I’ve a completely noob question. I don’t use much of the herbs you listed. I was just wondering if Italian herb mix blend would work for this recipe? And could I average it out to the same qty you’ve listed?
I mean, you certainly could try but the results wouldn’t be quite the same.
I doubled the recipe and made it exactly as written except I used 1 lb ground pork and 1 lb ground turkey. I only thing I would change would be to add a pinch of crushed red pepper, just because I like heat. The sausages were a hit at my company’s socially distanced office holiday party.
Husband LOVED this recipe….still haven’t bought the rosemary and substituted oregano for the marjoram but so far it’s great!
Fantastic seasoning! Well done!
Just made it this morning at 3x the quantity. CAME OUT DELICIOUS!! Recipe saved. Thank you so much for sharing.
I ground up some squirrel meat and made me some of these breakfast sausages.
Recipe quantities make no sense! Used Lauren’s recipe. Turned out great!
Rosemary in anything sucks sorry! My daughter uses it. One of the most obnoxious spices there is next to oregano. Sorry
Waaaait, how do you gauge the obnoxiousness of a spice? Like is there a tool or a meter?
We have made this several times and love it! Perfect compliment to scrambled eggs.
[…] Easy Homemade Breakfast Sausage […]
We always put garlic in our breakfast sausage. I’m going to have to look up the recipe.
[…] Homemade Breakfast Sausage Recipe […]
Lauren,
Thank you for this recipe! Your recipe inspired me to create a breakfast sausage the rivals the best I have had ever. I needed a breakfast sausage my wife could eat, aka low salt. I had tried using potassium chloride instead of sodium chloride, but it was horrible. So,I knew I needed to use salt, but cut it down to portions that would work for her. This recipe is delicious and has 100 mg of salt (sodium chloride) per 1.6 oz patty. Searching the web, I was inspired by the comments on Lauren’s homemade-breakfast-sausage. However, some of the ingredients were obvious misses for my palate (probably should try it though :-). Most sausage has a signature herb, and for breakfast it is sage, kielbasa is marjoram, and andouille is thyme. This recipe had all of those plus rosemary! Also, this recipe called for salt from 2 sources. So, I tweaked it and came out with an amazing sausage with 100mg of salt per patty! Thank you.
First my pork: I grind my own and add in .5 pounds of back fat (Not salt pork) to every 2.5 pounds of ground pork butt. Or 3.2 Oz to 12.8 oz for a pound of ground meat. Here is the recipe with my teaks.
1 lb. ground pork as noted above
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
½ Teaspoon salt
½ Teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ Teaspoon dried thyme
½ Teaspoon dried sage
½ Teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 Tablespoons Maple Syrup
I make a lot of smoked meats, my own bacon, jerky, and lots of other thing to do with meat. This recipe was UNREAL. Instead of maple flavored product I used my own home made maple syrup. Legit unreal. Thank you for the recipe!
[…] I flavor my ground pork with a homemade spice blend (based on my homemade breakfast sausage recipe here). Of course you can use breakfast sausage that is already flavored but I didn’t have any on […]
It looks amazing, I will try it ASAP using electric meat grinder at home. I am sure that this will be tasty.
Had some extra pork from a roast and normally we make ham loaf, but hubby wanted to try and make some sausage. To Pinterest we went and this is the one we tried. It is so good! We didn’t have the smokehouse seasoning, but it really didn’t need it. The spices are savory and warm with just a bit of sweetness from the brown sugar. If you don’t like sweet you could cut back and it will still be delicious! We will for sure be making this again!
Its sausage looking yummy! Thank you so much. I’ll try to make it my kitchen.
[…] Easy Homemade Breakfast Sausage | … – If you love breakfast sausage, try this homemade version. Super tasty and surprisingly easy…just a bunch of seasonings mixed together with ground pork! […]
It is simple. I will make it for my kid.
Thank your share!!!
Do u think it would work with ground beef instead?
I tryed it with 1/2 beef 1/2 goose was amazing
I am going to try this,I am after a spicy sausage,I am not sure what the Marjoram is,I don’t think I have used it b4.This sounds like what I am wanting to make.I am taking Pork,and making spicy sausage out of it.Then taking Burger,Mixing it and Making Chile.Not quite sure what I am expecting,I just know I want something different.I am open to suggestions if any one has made Chile Like this b4.I think I’m wanting hot with a Spicy sausage taste.I know I’m probably not making since but it’s just a thought and I wanted to see if I can do that.After all thats what experimenting with cooking is about,a Idea then Try and c Right? Thanks for ur Receipt and Thanks to who ever sends me any help for What I think I want.lol.
I just tried a half batch of this with a 1/2 pound of ground turkey I had. I mixed it all thoroughly and took a tsp of the mixture and made a mini patty to taste test. I was impressed. I’m making a biscuit sized patty for my hubby to have in the morning. That will be the real test for me! Regardless, I love it and it’s definitely something I can tweak, if needed. Thank you!
I don’t do sugar. If I leave the sugar out, will it affect the taste too much?
I made these for without the optional seasoning (because I didn’t have it) and used maple syrup instead and they were GREAT!!! I have tried a few other recipes for breakfast sausage and this is the BEST one! Thank you.. This is going in my recipe catalog!!!
This looks so awesome! I will be trying your recipe this weekend (:
Ps. I love the picture of the plated spices!
Your breakfast sausages are amazing and you are a caring wife.
However, if your husband is sick, it’s better if he’s eating hot soup.
Go back to your breakfast sausage, it is easy to do. I will try to do it this weekend with the kids.
I made this recipe today. Have to say im a little disappointed, it doesnt taste like those breakfast sausages you buy on the supermarket, it has too much rosemary and it dominates the flavors.
I didnt have the last one, the smoked….maybe this is the problem.
All the ingredients were weighed on a digital scale to cut weight errors.
Made 2 separate batches of pork loin and pork leg.
But thank you anyway for sharing the recipe.
Try grounding the rosemary. I dont like big chunks so I just smashed the rosemary needles with the bottom of my meat tenderizer and it was perfect. . At first it sounded like thee would be too much herbs but it was perfect. Mild and farm fresh flavor so, this is my go-to sausage from now on. I SUGGEST 2 POUNDS OF PORK- it’s that good.
We love homemade breakfast sausage (I’ve used Alton Brown’s recipe in the past). I’ll have to try yours w/ the maple seasoning – sounds yummy! By the way, we have had great success at using ground turkey too, for those who want a leaner option.
Best breakfast sausages EVER!!!!! When I did the steps I thought ‘oh this isn’t that difficult at all’. I called over my kids to try it out and they thought that I bought it in the store . Next thing you know I had to make some more of how good it was .
Awesome! So glad you {and your kids!!} liked it!
Looks yummy!
I’ve made homemade breakfast sausage once before, but I want to try this one now too!
What a great idea – I bet it’s delicious! And I so have to try the smokehouse maple seasoning.
Ugh. I totally feel you on the sick front. The hubby and I are both sick right now so I can’t even get him to make me tea and give me sympathy back rubs. The two of us together are ultra pathetic. But it does make for some great snotty TV watching.
When we’re healthy we put sausage in EVERYTHING, so I’ll definitely have to try this!
I love making breakfast sausage. I have a great recipe that uses ground turkey.
LOVE this idea! I have some frozen in my freezer as we speak.
My husband is a high school football coach and we are expecting our first baby come December so I have been saving Parenthood and Friday Night Lights for us to watch during feedings and rare moments of downtime during the holidays. I know he will be so hooked too! These are so easy, I need to get on this and make a batch and pop them in the freezer for later.
Every year my family gets together to make large batches of homemade sausage. (like over 200lbs.) By about August we are out of sausage. This recipe is great to have on hand for those mornings you want the good homemade stuff.
Hope you feel better soon!
I hope you are feeling better! I have never made breakfast sausage like that but definitely will! The smokehouse maple seasoning is SO good! I love to use it when I bake salmon.
I hope you feel better soon. I’ve never made my own sausages and really look forward to trying it out.
I hated being sick when my kids were really little… now I can just tell them to get their own toast while I nap on the couch, so it gets easier… promise! Ps..This is on my to do list fo sho!
This is great. I love how I can control the ingredients. Will be trying this with ground turkey! Thank you!
Sounds great! I’ve never made my own sausage. Can’t wait to try this!
I just tried your recipe & have to admit it was so easy and tasteful! I’m a scratch cook & have been for years… I had been given some fresh ground pork and my husband asked for some sausage this morning. … so being the great wife that I am (lol) I found your recipe and the spices are spot on. I would add a bit more cayenne pepper next time but other than that it was a hit. Hubby asked what kind of sausage it was… when I told him it was mine (or yours) he was impressed. I will be doing this more often since I have the fresh ground pork to use… thanks a lot!!!
It has never occurred to me to try to make my own breakfast sausage, but that would be so fun to experiment with different spices. I have also never heard of that smokehouse maple seasoning but I think I need it!
I really love the idea of having control of portions. I’m hoping these freeze well 🙂 Would be perfect for quick breakfast sandwiches too!