The best and easiest way to cook crispy and juicy sausage is in the oven. We always bake breakfast sausage patties or links, Italian sausages, or other full-size sausages for perfect sausages every time without the mess.
🐖Ingredients
Sausage—breakfast sausage patties or links. Or larger sausages like Italian sausages, kielbasa, brats, or smoked sausages. Use pork, turkey, or chicken sausage.
PAM cooking spray or parchment paper to prevent sticking. Or aluminum foil for easy cleanup.
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Featured Comment by Kari :
"Breakfast made easy! Thank you for the instructions; this worked great! "
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
There is no need to stand at the stove and make a mess—cooking sausage in the oven is less work, less messy, and produces better results. We haven't cooked sausage any other way for years.
Baking breakfast sausage patties or links only takes about 15 minutes, while larger sausages, like brats, kielbasa, smoked, or Italian sausages, will take about 25 minutes to cook.
Check out other great breakfast recipes, like How to Cook Bacon in a Convection Oven, Oven Baked Blueberry Pancakes, and Cinnamon Coffee Cake.
👨🍳How to Cook Sausage in the Oven—Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
You may use breakfast sausage patties or links. Or cook larger sausages like brats or Italian sausages.
1. Prepare a baking tray with sides with cooking spray, parchment paper, or aluminum foil.
2. If using breakfast sausage patties, dimple in the center to prevent puffing.
3. Evenly spread the sausage on the prepared tray.
4. Bake in a preheated 400° oven. Flip or rotate about halfway through baking.
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5. Cook to an internal temp of 160° or 165° if the sausage has poultry. The cooking time for breakfast sausage is about 15 minutes and for thicker sausage about 25 minutes. You can do a few minutes under the broiler if you want more browning.
For more details, keep reading. See the Recipe Card below for complete instructions and to print.
⏲️How long to cook sausage in the oven
In a 400°F convection oven, breakfast sausage patties or links take about 15 minutes to cook while larger sausages take about 25 minutes. Cook to a final internal temperature of 160° or 165° if the sausage has poultry
Baking time will vary by the thickness of the sausage, oven temperature, amount of preheating, and even the pan can affect cooking time. So, use an instant-read thermometer and check the temperature early.
✔️Tips to make it right every time
Pork sausage, turkey sausage, or chicken sausage will all cook the same. If you cook sausage patties, dimple the center by ¼ inch and about ¾ inch in diameter to prevent puffing during cooking, which can lead to overcooking the surface before reaching a safe temperature.
Use a baking tray like a sheet pan with sides. Line the pan with foil for easy cleanup if you're making link sausage, but if you're making patties, spray the tray with PAM or add parchment paper since the spatula will frequently rip the foil.
A convection oven and a high oven temperature will both promote the sausage's browning, so use convection if you have it and a pan with low sides, like a sheet pan. But a conventional oven will also work.
This recipe quickly cooks smoked sausage, brats, kielbasa, and Italian sausage. Sliced bell pepper and onion can be added to kielbasa, smoked, or Italian sausages to make quick, delicious hoagie sandwiches or a sheet-pan dinner.
The oven temperature can match the other dishes you are cooking. I have cooked as low as 350° and as high as 450°. The time will vary, so cook by internal temperature.
If you have reached the correct temperature but the sausage is not fully browned do not bake more, but use a few minutes under the broiler for more browning.
❄️Storage and reheating leftovers
This recipe is perfect for leftovers, as you can cook a whole package at once.
To store, Seal airtight in a container or storage bag and refrigerate for 4 days. You can also freeze it for 1 to 2 months.
To reheat: If frozen, thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Microwave to reheat.
❓FAQs
No, the casing holds the juiciness in; it may break during cooking,,, but do not drain your moisture.
Yes, it will take longer since you are cooking to a temperature endpoint. The thicker the sausage and the colder your freezer, the longer it will take.
According to the USDA, ground meat is safe to eat at 160°, except ground poultry should be cooked to 165°. If you are sure there is no poultry in your sausage, you can safely stop at 160°.
Most precooked sausage is safe to eat out of the package—check the package. So you usually don't have to cook it thoroughly but just heat it through.
I prefer to cook precooked sausage for reasons of moisture and texture. Try it both ways and see which you like.
📖The Recipe Card with Step-by-Step Instructions
How To Cook Sausage in the Oven
Video Slideshow
Ingredients
- 1 pound sausage - breakfast or other sausages
- PAM or Parchment Paper - to prevent sticking
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400° convection. Any oven temperature from 350° to 425° with or without convection will work—you will need to adjust time and perhaps need a couple of minutes under a broiler at the end to brown up some.
- Prepare a sheet pan baking tray with a coat of PAM cooking spray, aluminum foil, or parchment paper to prevent sticking.
- For breakfast sausage patties, make them ¾ inch thick, then dimple the patty center by about ¼ inch deep and ¾ inch diameter. This will prevent the puffing of the meat during cooking.
- Spread sausage on the prepared baking pan, so they don't touch.
- If cooking breakfast sausage patties, flip in 8 minutes. Links or round sausage should be rotated halfway through the estimated cooking time.
- The cooking time for breakfast sausage is about 15 minutes, and for thicker sausage, about 25 minutes. Cook to an internal temperature of 160° or 165° if the sausage contains poultry. If you want more browning, you can do a few minutes under the broiler.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips
- You can use the sausage you want, breakfast links or patties, or larger sausages like Italian sausage, kielbasa, brats, or smoked sausage. You can also use pork, turkey, or chicken sausage.
- You can use uncooked or cooked sausage.
- It cooks well with other dishes since you can use different oven temperatures
- You need a pan with some sides, like a sheet pan.
- I like to use foil for sausage links due to drainage but foil will tend to rip when flipping patties. I use parchment paper or cooking spray for patties.
- Dimple the center if using patties.
- Flip or rotate about halfway through cooking.
- The most important thing is a safe internal temperature of 160° or 165° if the sausage contains poultry.
- A few minutes of the broiler may be needed at the end to get the browning you want. Do not just cook longer or you will dry the sausage.
Your Own Private Notes
To adjust the recipe size:
You can adjust the number of servings above; however, only the amount in the ingredient list is adjusted, not the instructions.
Nutrition Estimate (may vary)
Originally Published February 14, 2015. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
Kp says
Found your recipe tonight when needing to cook 2 lbs of sausage patties for my 93 year old Dad. I’m not a sausage fan and hardly ever cook it. This saved me and they came out great. Thanks for your detailed instructions.
Ann Smith says
Which level should I place the rack? I didn't know if there would be a better way to deal with any grease that may splatter.
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Ann,
Welcome to the blog.
Oven recipes, including on this blog, should be assumed to have the rack placed to have the cooking food approximately in the middle of the oven. I have done this recipe hundreds of times never had splattering. I use a sheet pan (like a jelly roll pan) that has a rim of a bit under one inch. But we also use lean sausage (Bob Evens) but there is still a fair amount of fat.
The point where it might splatter is near the end of you use the broiler to brown it up but the rim seems to prevent it.
I don't generally use foil for this and the pan cleans well as long as I don't let it get cold. Wipe out with a few paper towels and use hot water with soap and scrub a bit. Done. But if you wait, it is not so easy.
Hope that helps.
Dan
Vanessa Loftis says
Excellent! I'd been buying the large box of Sams Club sausage, baking all the patties, laying each flat on baking sheet & quick freezing. Removed them in an hr & returned loosely to the freezer in a gallon zip lock bag. I just take out precooked patties I need & microwave for 45 to 60 sec depending on how many. Tastes just made!!! Breakfast in minutes!
Aloha Trotter says
THANK YOU SEVERAL TIMES OVER! I have been looking for something easy and good for 2 weeks, then I found this!!!! I am signing up for your your recipe to come to me!!! Not very much on line for 2!
Ni says
Thanks you for this post. I’ve always had trouble making ground sausage patties to my liking. The oven is the perfect hack. Not overdone. Just perfect!
JE Reading says
The sausage turned out beautifully. Clean up was a snap. Looking forward to the oven baked, blueberry pancakes. Just have to clean and reseason our old, weather-worn, cast iron griddle. Thanks for the oven baked directions.
Aly says
Many thanks! Worked wonders with parchment paper. :)
Susan says
I'm an avid bacon in the oven gal and looked to try sausage too. Thanks for your blog, I've got 2 pounds of sausage patties in the oven now. And, I'm actually a health inspector for food safety and greatly appreciate you throwing in the repeated reminders to use a thermometer!
Mary says
Hello, Dan!
Thank you very much for your detailed answer. Indeed, a deep-fryer is not the best choice, I wanted to consider a more budget option. Plus, my kitchen is not very spacious and it is difficult to fit large-sized appliances there. I think I better wait a little, save more money and choose an oven.
Many thanks for your advice and helpful articles. Inspiration to you!
Mary
Mary says
Tell me, please, if a deep-fryer is suitable for such cooking technique? The manufacturer claims that it can cook not only French fries, but also battered chicken strips. So, I’m wondering if I will be able to cook sausages like in your recipe using this deep-fryer. I don't have an oven.
DrDan says
Hi Mary,
Welcome to the blog.
I don't see that deep frying sausage is related to baking it but it will definitely work. Stovetop works well but is a mess for me. I can not give you an estimate on the time needed for deep frying sausage.
I don't see a deep flyer as a good substitute for an oven. If give a choice between an oven and deep fryer, the oven wins hands down for usefulness. Maybe look at a countertop convection oven.
I have lots of stories, here's one. A local restaurant was getting well know in the "health crowd" for their excellent turkey sausage. Of course they were looking for low fat. Turned out that they were deep frying it. Not really healthy or low fat.
Dan
Chris J says
It would definitely give a great flavor to anything you deep fry after the sausage though.
Erik says
What is the cook time/flip time if you are coking frozen sausage patties?
DrDan says
Hi Erik,
Welcome to the blog.
I have never used frozen. Having said that, I believe it would work well. I will "guess" how I would do this. But my guesses are usually fairly good.
I would think you would need about 20% more time. Flip at about 11-12 minutes. Cook to 165 internal temperature and hit it with a little broiler if needed at the end to get more browning.
If you try it, please report back. Somebody else may benefit.
Dan
Pam says
Have you ever baked the the sausage roll as one whole piece?
DrDan says
Hi Pam,
Welcome to the blog.
Baking a whole roll of sausage intact is just not going to work. You need to get the temperature of the thickest part to 165 degrees to be safe. That will be tough without the outside being overcooked and dry.
Dan
diane senft says
How do you cook link sausages in the oven?
DrDan says
Hi Diane,
Welcome to the blog.
While I have never done it, I would say a definite yes but the time might be a bit less to get to the required 165 internal temperature and I think they won't brown very well so you will probably want a little broiler time at the end.
Dan
S says
Thanks for the recipe. During the summer, I use my gas grill instead of the oven to help keep the house cool. I preheat the grill to 400F, place the sausage on heavy duty aluminum foil and follow your instructions.
Jim says
How much mess is made I'm the oven from the splatter??
DrDan says
I have never had any significant issues. But I use very lean sausage. If you are having some, switch to a pan with a higher side like a cake pan.
Dan
Alyssa R says
I am so happy I checked this out. I been doing bacon in the oven and called myself being lazy today so without a thought I put the sausage in the oven then searched to see if i could do this lol. Thanks for these tips!!!