Name: Chicken Breakfast Sausage
Prep time: 30 min
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Yield: Makes 8 sausage patties
Cuisine: american
Ingredients: 2 teaspoons dried sage; 1 teaspoon dried marjoram; 1 teaspoon dried thyme; 1 teaspoon granulated garlic; 1 tablespoon store-bought or homemade barbecue rub spice; 1 to 3 teaspoons kosher salt; 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, or less to taste; 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice; 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup (omit if follow keto); 1 pound ground chicken, preferably dark meat; Mild vegetable oil

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These chicken breakfast sausage patties, made with ground chicken and a blend of spicy, sweet, and savory spices, are perfect for quick weekday breakfasts, or to stash in the freezer for holiday entertaining.

A metal dish filled with chicken breakfast sausage patties and a mound of arugula, with biscuits, eggs, and a breakfast sandwich in the background.

Adapted from Caleb Zigas | Leticia Landa | We Are La Cocina | Chronicle Books, 2019

Ever feel a little leery about what goes into breakfast sausage patties sold at the supermarket? Us, too. Which is why we were ecstatic to discover these healthier, homemade sausage rounds that are made with ground chicken and just the right blend of sweet, spicy, and savory.–Angie Zoobkoff

Chicken Breakfast Sausage

Quick Glance
Quick Glance
30 M
1 H, 30 M
Makes 8 sausage patties

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Ingredients

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Directions

In a large bowl, combine the sage, marjoram, thyme, garlic, spice rub, salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes, allspice, and maple syrup.

☞ TESTER TIP: If your barbecue spice rub contains salt, you’ll want to go easy on the amount of salt you add. To avoid guessing and ending up with overly salty sausage patties, initially add just 1 teaspoon of salt to the mixture. Then pinch off a small spoonful, fry it in a skillet until cooked through, taste it, and, if desired, add more salt.

Add the chicken and stir gently or use your hands to thoroughly mix in the seasoning. Don’t overmix as this can make the sausage tough.

Divide the mixture into 8 equal portions. Roll each portion into a ball and gently press between your hands to form a patty 1/2-inch (12-mm) thick and 2 1/2 to 3 inches (6 to 7 1/2 cm) wide.

Place on a rimmed baking sheet and refrigerate, uncovered, for at least 45 minutes or up to overnight. (You can freeze the sausage patties, well wrapped, up to 1 month, then cook without thawing.)

In a nonstick skillet over medium heat, warm 1 teaspoon oil. When hot, add the patties, taking care to not overcrowd the skillet. You may need to cook the sausage in batches.

Cook one side until browned and then flip and cook on the other side until the patties are cooked through, 3 to 5 minutes per side. Repeat with additional batches, adding an additional teaspoon of oil per batch.

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Recipe Testers Reviews

Barb P.

I'm a fan of breakfast sausage, usually in the form of pork or turkey. This was the first time I tried a chicken breakfast sausage and I was glad to add it to my repertoire. The ingredients are nicely balanced so no one flavor overwhelms the others. A little sweet, a little hot, and all good.

I used a store-bought smokehouse rub. It's tomato based with sugar added as well as garlic, onion, and other spices. It contains salt so I reduced the salt in the recipe to 1 teaspoon, which was fine with me but salt addicts may need to add more.

Not counting the time of digging through the cabinets looking for stray spices, the total hands on time was only about 5 minutes.

A couple patties were leftover and refrigerated overnight and then microwaved on low power the next morning. The microwaving warmed them without toughening them.

Erin Bloys

I thought the flavor of this chicken breakfast sausage was a good jumping off point. To me, this doesn't truly taste like Jones or Jimmy Dean (in my book, the most iconic breakfast sausage flavors), but it's tasty in its own right.

Next time I would most definitely start with 1 teaspoon of kosher salt and go from there. I love red pepper flakes, but for a breakfast sausage this was too much. I would halve the amount next time.

A surefire way to toughen up the chicken is to mix it with a wooden spoon. Forget the spoon and put put on some prep gloves and gently mix it with your hands so you can FEEL what you're doing, much the way you would with making a pie crust by hand.

Next time, I would also allow the patties to sit for much longer in the fridge (I only did 45 minutes) to see if the flavors would mellow and coalesce a bit more. I will use this recipe as a foundation to build on since this is the kind of thing that works well for my family and is much less expensive than premade chicken breakfast sausage at our local Wegmans! (Now thinking that chopped apples might also be a good addition!)

I used A.A. Borsari Coffee Rub & Seasoning (sea salt, coffee, sugar, garlic powder, paprika, coriander, chili pepper, cocoa, garlic, basil, rosemary, black pepper, nutmeg).

I reheated a patty about 2 hours later (after being refrigerated) in my 1800-watt microwave on high for 18 seconds and it was fine. Not dried out at all.

Susan Hall

I had great expectations when reading this recipe and I wasn't disappointed. It’s so much healthier than pork sausage and tasted fabulous. I used chicken thighs and ground the meat myself as I wanted to be sure that the ground chicken was all dark meat. It only took a minute.

The sausage mixed together very easily and there were no issues forming the sausage patties. I did reduce the salt because the rub that I used already had salt in it.

The only thing that I will change the next time that I make this is to decrease the amount of sweetness which was caused by the rub that I used. I used a homemade rub and next time I will eliminate the sugar in the rub.

I let the patties rest overnight in the refrigerator. I cooked 4 patties the next morning in a skillet and I then fried an egg in the same skillet and had that along with the sausage. Delicious!!!!! I put the other 4 patties in the freezer to enjoy at a later date.

Overall, this is a delicious and healthy traditional breakfast sausage. I plan to make a much larger batch and freeze to serve during the Thanksgiving holiday when my house will be full of hungry house guests!!!

Jenny Hunt

This is a fantastic breakfast sausage recipe for those who don’t eat pork sausage. I was drawn to this recipe for that reason. This is a quick, easy, and very satisfying substitute.

The classic spice mix is the star of this show. I fried 4 sausage patties and baked 4, and both were delicious, with the fried having a lovely crust. Make a double batch and freeze, either ready to cook or already done, for a quick breakfast to warm in the microwave. These would be perfect to add to the breakfast sandwich!