How To Cook Sausage in the Oven

Name: How To Cook Sausage in the Oven
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 18 min
Total time: 23 min
Ingredients: 1 pound sausage; PAM or Parchment Paper (to prevent sticking)

Mar 26, 2021 | Last Updated Apr 14, 2021 by Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan

Recipe Table of Contents

4.63 from 241 votes

Learn how to cook sausage in the oven with this easy oven "fried" method. Make great breakfast sausage, but the same method works just as well for larger sausages like brats, Italian, kielbasa, and other sausages.

Close up image of a well done round piece of breakfast sausage on a pile of others

Table of Contents

🐖The Sausage
The Pan
🌡️Oven Temperature
⏰Time
✔️Three Tips
📖Breakfast Recipes
🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
📖Recipe
💬 Comments

Blue ribbon divider used for visual effect

Introduction

Why are you standing at the stove and making a mess? I have been cooking bacon in the oven for several years, but everybody still stands at the stove and makes a mess with sausage.

Well, let's put a stop to that now. Just pop it in the oven, flip once, and done. That is a recipe?

My Rating

I love sausage.

🐖The Sausage

For breakfast sausage, I use patties or links, and both work fine. We love Bob Evans but use your favorite brand, but I digress.

With minor cooking time adjustments, the same simple technique that works for breakfast sausage will work for any ground meat like larger sausage like Italian sausage, brats, kielbasa, or other larger sausage.

If you are cooking patties, dimple the center by ¼ inch and about ¾ inch diameter to prevent puffing.

The Pan

Almost any over-safe pan will do, but a ¼ sheet pan works great. Whatever pan you use, it needs some sides to prevent a mess.

I would try to avoid something with high sides that might interfere with the cooking. A larger sheet pan would be preferred to a cake pan.

There is no need for a rack, and I don't use foil since it cleans up well.

While my sheet pan is "non-stick" and there is minimal sticking, if you have sticking on your chosen pan, then a piece of parchment paper would be a good idea.

🌡️Oven Temperature

If I'm just doing the sausage by itself, I use 400° convection or 425° in a conventional oven. But I have done this as low as 350° conventional and as high as 425° convection. Just adjust the time and use your thermometer.

So use the temperature you are using for your other dishes. I frequently do this with my Oven Baked Blueberry Pancakes to may my wife's favorite breakfast for special days.

A lower temperature will take a few minutes more, and of course, higher will cook a little faster.

⏰Time

Cooking time is generally about 18-20 minutes for breakfast sausage. But it is dependent on the oven temperature you choose and the thickness of the sausage.

If you are cooking bigger sausage, cooking time may be closer to 30-40 minutes, like a brat. But always check the internal temperature, never by time only.

Like any ground meat, the minimum safe internal temperature is 165°. Please use a meat thermometer to tell. Do not cook by color or time, please. Use that thermometer for safety.

Due to oven temperature variables and sausage variables, they may not be nicely brown. If you want, turn on the broiler for a few minutes at the endpoint to get the color you want if needed.

✔️Three Tips

If cooking patties, dimple the center to prevent puffing. A depression of ¼ inch and ¾ inch diameter will prevent puffing up of the meat as it cooks and will help more even cooking.
Flip patties or rotate links every 10 minutes through cooking.
Cook to 165° internal temperature and use a few minutes under the broiler if you want more color. Secret tip—the bottom of the sausage is browner when you reach 165°.

📖Breakfast Recipes

How to Cook Bacon in the Oven

Oven Baked Blueberry Pancakes

Cinnamon Roll Cake

This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.

Breakfast Recipes, Cooking Techniques, Pork Recipes

🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions

Preheat the oven at 400°convection. Anything from 350° to 425° with or without convection should be fine, but you will need to adjust time and perhaps need a couple of minutes under a broiler at the end to brown up some.

If cooking patties of sausage, dimple the patty center by about ¼ inch deep and ¾ inch diameter. This will prevent puffing of the meat during cooking.

Spread sausage over a rimmed baking tray, so they don't touch. I'm using a non-stick baking pan. A spray of PAM doesn't hurt. You could use parchment paper or non-stick foil also.

Bake for 10 minutes then flip the sausage. If using links, rotate them.

Finish cooking to an internal temp of 165°. You can do a few minutes under the broiler if you want more browning.

📖Recipe

How To Cook Sausage in the Oven

From Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan

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4.63 from 241 votes

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Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 18 minutes

Total Time: 23 minutes

Servings #/Adjust if desired 8 servings

Ingredients

US Customary - Convert to Metric

▢ 1 pound sausage
▢ PAM or Parchment Paper - to prevent sticking

Instructions

Preheat oven at 400°convection. Anything from 350° to 425° with or without convection should be fine, but you will need to adjust time and perhaps need a couple of minutes under a broiler at the end to brown up some.
If cooking sausage patties, dimple the patty center by about ¼ inch deep and ¾ inch diameter. This will prevent puffing of the meat during cooking.
Spread sausage over a rimmed baking tray, so they don't touch. I'm using a non-stick baking pan. A spray of PAM doesn't hurt. You could use parchment paper or non-stick foil also.
Bake for 10 minutes, then flip the sausage. If doing links of sausage, rotate them.
Finish cooking to an internal temperature of 165°. If you want more browning, do a few minutes under a broiler.

See the step-by-step photos in the post. Some recipes have an option to display the photos here with a switch above these instructions but the photos DO NOT print.

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Recipe Notes

Pro Tips

Use the sausage you want, links or patties.
Cooks well with other dishes since you can use different oven temperatures
Using a sheet pan works very well. You need a pan with some sides.
If you have sticking, use some parchment paper. This has never happened to me.
Be sure to dimple if using patties. Be sure to flip or rotate about every 10 minutes while cooking.
The only really important thing is an internal temperature of 165°. Bigger sausage like brats will take longer.
A few minutes of the broiler may be needed at the end to get the browning you want.

To adjust the recipe size:

You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.

Nutrition Estimate

Serving size is my estimate of a normal size unless stated otherwise. The number of servings per recipe is stated above. This is home cooking, and there are many variables. All nutritional information are estimates and may vary from your actual results. To taste ingredients such as salt will be my estimate of the average used.

Course : Breakfast

Cuisine : American

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Originally Published February 14, 2015. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.