
Enjoy sausage with all the flavor of classic Italian sausage but without nitrates, nitrites, and other ingredients you prefer to avoid.
There’s an oft-repeated saying that bacon makes everything better. Cooking with sausage is much the same way.
From pizza, pasta, and egg sandwiches to soups, stews, spaghetti sauce, and casseroles (I could go on!), sausage imparts flavor that is a notch above that of plain ground pork, turkey, or chicken. For that reason, I love to cook with it.
But like bacon, sausage, and other processed meats have come under fire for health reasons. They are often highly processed and contain chemicals called nitrites and nitrates.
So while moderate consumption is unlikely to be harmful, for day to day cooking, I use the following recipe. It relies on herbs and spices you likely have on hand to mimic the flavor of Italian sausage. Conveniently, the spice mixture can be added to ground pork, turkey, or chicken and used in all the same ways you’d use bulk sausage or sausage removed from its casings.
The process is simple. Take two minutes to combine the herbs and spices. Evenly sprinkle them over your ground meat of choice, and then fold them into the meat, taking care not to overwork it.
From there, you can form the sausage-flavored meat into patties, meatballs, or burgers. Or sauté for use in soups, sauces, casserole, etc.
Helpful hint: When using ground chicken or turkey, I highly recommend using thigh meat. I’ve made the sausage with lean breast meat, but it tends to be drier and tougher. If you avoid the dark meat because it’s fattier, you may be surprised by how little grease there is when you cook this sausage.
Helpful hint: Mixing the spices well and then sprinkling them as evenly over the meat mixture as possible makes it easier to incorporate the mixture into the meat without overworking it. The less you work the meat, the more tender the cooked sausage will be.
Tips & options:
- Versatile sausage alternative: You can use this recipe anytime a recipe calls for bulk sausage or sausage removed from its casings.
- Easy to scale: Cut the recipe in half as needed – or double and use one pound now and freeze the other pound for later.
- To eliminate sticking, I rub a little oil on my hands before shaping patties, burgers, or meatballs. Lightly wetting your hands with water will also prevent sticking.
- Prefer spicy sausage? The stated amount of red pepper contributes flavor with very little perception of heat. For mild heat, double the amount. For a medium level of spiciness, use 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes or ½ teaspoon cayenne. For even more heat, feel free to adjust upward as desired.
- For even portions: I like to use my kitchen scale to evenly portion the meat into 2-ounce patties for breakfast sausage (for a yield of 8 per pound) or slightly bigger patties (6 per pound) for use in egg sandwiches. Quarter pound sausage burgers are also delicious!
We’d love to know if you try this recipe. Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo @fountainavenuekitchen on Instagram and Facebook. Your feedback is always appreciated.

Homemade Sausage
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground pork, turkey, or chicken (for best results when using poultry, I recommend thigh meat)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt (I use Morton's)
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon each garlic powder, ground sage, dried thyme, dried oregano, and smoked paprika
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes (may substitute ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper*)
- a pinch (1/16 teaspoon) ground cloves
- Optional: ½ tablespoon (10g) pure maple syrup
Instructions
- Place the pork (or turkey or chicken) in a large bowl and spread it out over the surface of the bowl. (This makes it easier to incorporate the spices without over-mixing.)
- In a small bowl, combine all the seasonings (except the optional maple syrup) and evenly sprinkle the mixture over the pork, turkey, or chicken. Drizzle the maple syrup overtop, if using. Using your hands, mix the seasonings evenly into the meat without overworking it.
- At this point, the mixture is ready to use as you would raw Italian sausage. You can brown it for use in soups, casseroles, and pasta sauces. Or form it into meatballs, breakfast sausage patties, or burgers. For breakfast sausages, I form 8 patties per pound. For our favorite egg sandwiches, I make 6 slightly larger patties per pound .
- Make-ahead tip: Once the spices are mixed in, you may cover the bowl tightly and refrigerate for up to 2 days, until ready to cook as you wish. Patties and meatballs may also be covered and refrigerated for up to 2 days. Additionally, the sausage, both uncooked and cooked, may be frozen for about 3 months.
- If browning or making sausage patties, when ready to cook, lightly oil or spray a frying pan or cast iron skillet with olive oil, and heat over medium heat. (Alternatively, burgers may be cooked on the grill.) Depending on precise heat level and thickness of patties, they will be golden brown and just cooked through in about 5 minutes per side.
Notes
- To eliminate sticking when making patties, meatballs, and burgers, I first rub a little oil on my hands. Lightly wetting your hands with water will also prevent sticking.
- More advance prep: If you find yourself making the sausage often, you may wish to mix up individual batches of the spice blend and store in a small, airtight container or jar.
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