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These are the best sausage balls you’ll ever make…trust us.
We can’t help but think of our grandma when we make sausage balls. Ever since we could remember, our grandma would make bags of sausage balls for the whole family to eat over the holiday and Christmas certainly wouldn’t be right without them.
Sausage balls are mostly made in the South to enjoy as an appetizer or breakfast food — mainly during Thanksgiving and Christmas.
While our grandma’s recipe calls for Bisquick, we wanted to see if we could make a recipe from scratch that tastes just like hers. We’ve tried and failed over the years to make some that compare to hers, but we just cracked the code.
These sausage balls are so delicious and are the perfect breakfast food to serve with chocolate chip muffins or cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning.
Keep scrolling to see how to make them.
Want more holiday recipes? Check out these recipes:
The Best Sausage Balls
Ingredient Snapshot:
- Flour, Cornstarch, Baking Powder, Salt, and Butter: This mixture essentially replicates the use of Bisquick in the mix. Many traditional sausage ball recipes use BIsquick, but in our opinion, using these ingredients makes it taste so much better.
- Hot Pork Sausage: Hot pork sausage is the way to go. The heat adds such a yummy flavor that is needed in the recipe.
- Sharp Cheddar and Sharp White Cheddar: High quality sharp cheddar cheese adds richness, moisture and flavor to the sausage balls.
Sausage Ball Q&A?
Tips for Making the Perfect Sausage Balls:
Sausage balls can surprisingly be more finicky than you would think to get just right, so if you follow these tips they should come out just right:
- Use Hot Sausage: Trust us when you say that you will want to use the hot sausage. It adds the perfect amount of heat and flavor. We’ve tried making sausage balls without the hot sausage and the flavor falls a little flat. If you do use regular sausage, try adding a 1/2-1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes.
- Mix the Flour Well into the Sausage: Mixing the flour mixture into the meat is crucial to getting the perfect consistency and flavor throughout. If you don’t mix the flour enough you’ll have pockets of pure sausage (which still tastes good but creates an interesting consistency). Pro tip: We recommend mixing the meat into the flour mixture for about 5 minutes. You don’t want any flour poking through or lumps of sausage that aren’t properly mixed with the flour.
- Use Quality Sharp Cheddar Cheeses: The better quality the cheese, the better it’s going to taste. For this recipe we opted to use sharp cheddar and sharp white cheddar. Feel free to use 2 cups of one type of cheese.
Can You Freeze Sausage Balls?
Yes! We love making large batches of sausage balls and freezing them. To do this, all you have to do is form the sausage into balls and place on a parchment lined tray. *DO NOT bake them*
Put the raw sausage balls in the freezer for 20-30 minutes. Flash freezing them before putting them into a freezer bag will help them not stick to each other. If you skip this step, your sausage balls will be really hard to separate once frozen.
Keep the sausage balls in your freezer for up to free months.
How to Store Sausage Balls After They Are Cooked
To store cooked sausage balls, place them in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days for peak freshness.
The Best Sausage Balls
- Total Time: 30 minutes
Description
A Southern classic we love all year round, but especially during the holidays.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp thyme
- 1 cup sharp cheddar
- 1 cup white cheddar
- 1 lb hot pork sausage
- 1/4 cup milk
- 3 tbsp butter, melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F and line a rimmed sheet pan with parchment paper.
- In a small mixing bowl combine flour, cornstarch, baking powder, salt, pepper, and thyme.
- In a medium size bowl add the sausage, milk, butter and flour mixture. Using your hands, incorporate the ingredients together. You will want to mix the sausage very well into the flour. Even after all the flour is soaked up, keep mixing for a few more minutes. This will help make an even consistency throughout the mixture.
- Form the sausage into small balls, place on a parchment lined baking sheet and transfer to the freezer for 20-30 minutes. Cook 12-15 sausage balls at a time for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown on the outside.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Breakfast/Brunch
