These chicken breakfast sausage patties have all the same sausage flavor you love with a fraction of the fat and calories. Now you can have peppery, smoky breakfast sausage for just 60 calories a piece.
And if you think making your own sausage might be complicated, think again. Mix a few spices together, add to ground chicken, form patties like you’re making burgers, and throw ’em in a pan. That’s it!
Chicken Breakfast Sausage Ingredients and Substitutions
If you’re familiar with my recipes, you know I love using reduced fat pork sausage. While it’s a great ingredient, it’s still rather high in fat and calories—even for a reduced fat version.
These chicken sausage patties use a leaner source of meat in ground chicken. Not only is ground chicken much leaner, it takes on the breakfast sausage flavors really well.
In case you have trouble finding ground chicken, you’re welcome to use ground turkey or even ground pork. You may also be able to have chicken breast ground for you in the butcher section of your grocery store.
Chicken Breakfast Sausage Seasoning Recipe
After testing SO many spice blends, I think I finally nailed the classic breakfast sausage flavor. Here’s everything you’ll need:
- salt
- black pepper
- crushed red pepper
- smoked paprika
- allspice
- sage
- brown sugar
With all the testing, I’ll say that there’s plenty of wiggle room with the ingredients. I tried adding a bit of thyme, ground cloves, and sweet paprika without any failures. So, if you’re missing an ingredient, you can probably substitute something else and get pretty close.
The only ingredients I’d try to nail 100% would be the salt, black and red pepper, and brown sugar.
Side note: For another fun seasoning blend, check out my ground chicken chorizo (seasoning from scratch) or lean pork Mexican chorizo (pre-mixed chorizo seasoning option) recipes.
Tips for Cooking the Chicken Sausage
As I mention in the recipe notes below, stainless steel or cast iron will work best for creating a sear and crispy crust. A nonstick skillet should work just fine but if you’re lacking that fatty-like sausage exterior, this could be the culprit.
And in case you’re wondering if the oil is necessary, it’s not, but I highly recommend using it. The olive oil provides a ton of flavor and, once again, helps create the crust on the chicken breakfast sausage. You can, however, use another type of oil if you don’t have olive oil on hand.
Freezer Storage and Bulk Meal Prep Tips
I think making an even bigger batch is smart since this a more labor intensive breakfast recipe to begin with. It’s not much more effort to mix an extra pound or two of ground chicken with the seasoning blend and get a second pan going.
The sausage patties should refrigerate well for 3-4 days, and you can freeze them in an airtight container or bag for later. I would recommend placing small sheets of parchment paper between them inside whatever freezer container you use. That way they’re easy to separate and pop in an air fryer or microwave to reheat.
I always like to thaw proteins before reheating instead of reheating from frozen, if possible. So you might freeze the chicken sausage patties in smaller portions to easily transfer from the freezer to refrigerator the night before. This also makes it easier to submerge the bag or container in water for 30 minutes to thaw on the day of.
Healthy Breakfast Sandwiches and Other Ways to Serve Your Homemade Breakfast Sausage
These sausages make the perfect breakfast sandwich. Try my Greek yogurt biscuits or pair them with folded eggs to make Homemade McGriddles. Or feel free to keep it simple and serve this recipe up with a fried egg on toast or biscuits, or with a side of my air fried breakfast potatoes and peppers.
That should be plenty of inspiration. If you have any recipe questions, drop a comment below. And don’t forget to snap a pic of your healthy breakfast sausage and tag me on Instagram!
Chicken Breakfast Sausage Patties
Ingredients
- 1 lb Ground Chicken, I used 97/3
- 2 tsp Black Pepper
- 1 tsp Smoked Paprika
- 1/2-1 tsp Crushed Red Pepper
- 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt, or 1/4 tsp table salt
- 1/2 tsp Rubbed Sage
- 1/4 tsp Allspice
- 2 Tbsp 24g Swerve Brown Sugar (or dark brown sugar)*
- 1 Tbsp 16g Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Instructions
Making the Sausage Patties
- Mix the dry spices and brown sugar in a small bowl before adding to the ground chicken. Work the chicken and spices together until evenly mixed.
- Divide the ground chicken into 10 pieces (about 48 grams or 1.8 ounces each) and press between your palms to flatten.
Cooking the Chicken Breakfast Sausage
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat with the olive oil. (I used a 12" cast iron skillet. If you’re using a smaller skillet, you may need to cook in batches.)
- Once the oil is hot, carefully add the sausage patties to the skillet. Cook for 3-4 minutes or until the bottoms are a crispy brown. Flip each patty and cook for an additional 3-4 minutes or until the patties are cooked through and reach an internal temp of 165ºF. Transfer to a plate and let the sausage patties rest for a few minutes before serving.
Notes
- Each sausage patty has 0 WW SmartPoints (blue).
- With 92/8 ground chicken, each chicken breakfast sausage patty has 80 calories, 9g protein, 0g carbs, and 5g fat
- Check out my sausage gravy and sausage egg and cheese breakfast skillet casserole if you love the flavor of this breakfast sausage and want more ways to use it.
In my opinion, these are way too sweet. If I make again, I will add more pepper flakes, more sage and use either 1/4 teaspoon brown sugar or none at all. I hope I can fix the mixture I have left.
Trying to cut back on fats and nitrites. This recipe tasted great – I got 12 patties, as I wanted them small to fit on the English Muffin. The hubs didn’t even know it was ground chicken (which he dislikes) and I didn’t tell him. The only thing I might do next time is cut the brown sugar down about 1/2 or 1/3 a tablespoon. Thank you for sharing.
Amazing !! I was looking for an easy recipe. You absolutely combined ingredients for flavor. I have made several times and froze the patties, also made fresh for breakfast. I have made with maple syrup and also with dark brown sugar , every time absolutely best ever chicken sausage. Thank you for our favorite breakfast sausage. 💯
Fantastic recipe! I trippled the amounts so that I could freeze pre-made uncooked patties for a quick breakfast before work. Thank you for sharing thie wonderful recipe.
I don’t think I’ve ever left a review on a blog recipe before, but these 1000% warrant it! They are the most amazing breakfast sausage I’ve ever had. I eyeballed the seasonings, used 1tbsp of maple syrup instead of brown sugar. Smokey, sweet, and purely delicious! And so much cheaper than store bought ones!!
I admit I was skeptical of this recipe but these are delicious!!! In fact I made 3 of your recipes today. Love the balance of flavor and healthiness. This is a keeper!
Thanks, Amy!
These were excellent! A little too spicy for me, but still otherwise good. The directions made it easy to follow and make. I hate when I have lots of prepping and cooking sometimes. This is actually my first time making something with ground chicken and I used this recipe- and I did good. I cooked it on my stainless pan for 4 minutes per side on about med high heat. For some reason it wasn’t showing 165. And my pan was big but only enough for 4 patties. So I had to cook in batches. After they finished cooking i put them in the oven for about 12 minutes to get the right temp. I tasted them- very good however as I mentioned above just a tad bit too spicy. I will make these again but next time I will do 1/4 tsp of the red pepper and 1 tsp of pepper instead of 2.
Can you use ground turkey instead
Should be fine but try to get one without added rosemary for preservation (affects the flavor).
I made the recipe twice .. it was great but I tweaked the brown sugar 1 tbl instead of two and used kosher salt instead of table salt … it was perfect .. I also think the 97/3 ground chicken worked best also .. they tasted fantastic !! Love this recipe !!!
Loved them definitely a 5 star