One food my boys go nuts for is sausage. They love sausage in just about anything. We usually purchase it, which if fine, but after the kids were looking at the labels, we discovered there were several ingredients that we didn’t know how to pronounce. I thought it would be fun to come up with our own recipe……one that was filled with ingredients we recognized. After a few attempts at getting the seasonings right, I will now be making my own breakfast sausage —occasionally. (I still need to be realistic and know that I won’t be making all of ours) It’s so delicious, and I know exactly what’s in it.
The ingredients in my spice blend include the typical sausage seasonings such as garlic, poultry seasoning, salt, pepper and fennel, but I also added ground ginger for added sweetness and crushed red pepper flakes for extra zip. Of course, you can certainly adjust the seasonings to suit your personal preferences, but this is the mix that worked well in my house for both adults and kids.
Before you fry the entire batch, it works best to cook a test sausage. That way you can adjust the seasonings as needed. If you have time to plan ahead, I add the seasonings to the meat and place it in the refrigerator overnight to bring out more of the flavors. I like to make a double or triple batch to save time in the mornings. I form them into patties, only partially cook them and then freeze the patties in packages that are perfectly portioned for our mornings.
When it’s time to reheat them, make sure the outsides a nice shade of golden brown and cook them until your thermometer reads 165. You don’t want to overcook them or your patties will be dry and tough. Homemade breakfast sausage in 5 minutes! Not too bad! Toast an English muffin, add some scrambled eggs and cheese and you have a breakfast sandwich better than any drive-through in town.
This sausage can also be substituted in any of your favorite recipes. It also works great in the crumbled form, just don’t form it into patties before you cook it.
Homemade Turkey Breakfast Sausage
20 ounces ground turkey
1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
2 teaspoons fennel seed
½ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ to ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon white pepper
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
Combine all ingredients in a medium-size mixing bowl or the bowl for your stand mixer. Use paddle attachment mix on low speed for 1 minute or until all seasonings are evenly distributed. Form ground turkey mixture into patties. In a skillet over medium heat, spray pan with a small amount of pan spray or brush with a small amount of olive oil. Place sausages into the hot skillet and fry until no longer pink in the middle. Do not overcook the sausages as this will cause them to be dry.
Makes 16 sausage patties.
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