Sausage Balls Recipe
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This Sausage Balls recipe is the perfect savory appetizer or addition to a meal during the holidays. This recipe is easy and made without Bisquik or a baking mix.
There are those certain foods that are always present at each holiday year after year. They become a permanent expectation, like the Family Tablecloth, or Aunt Judy’s cookies. Sausage Balls are one of those foods. From as long as I can remember I remember Sausage Balls being a part of our holiday celebrations.
If you’ve never had Sausage Balls you may not understand why they have become a regular, but if you have, you know what I mean. They are the perfect bite of savory, with just a hint of spice on the back end. They can be served at breakfast, lunch or dinner, or as an appetizer. They’re a flexible food. Of course, everything in moderation. It’s a good thing we only enjoy these during the winter holiday months because they can be sneaky addicting.
Another thing I like about this recipe is that once made the sausage balls can be frozen before or after baking, for up to a couple of months. How’s that for easy party prep?
Sausage Balls Recipe
Sausage Balls Recipe
Easy savory bites made with sausage and cheese.
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne/red pepper
- 3 tablespoons melted butter
- 1 pound sharp cheese, grated
- 1 pound ground sausage (I like the sage flavored sausage for this recipe.)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400-degrees F.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cayenne/red pepper and butter. Add grated cheese and toss to coat. Crumble up sausage as it is added in and using your (clean) hands, combine well. The best way to fully incorporate the mixture is to squeeze and squish, almost kneading it together. It takes a few minutes but it works.
- Firmly roll into approximately 1 1/2-inch balls and place on un-greased baking sheets about an inch or so apart.
- Bake at 400-degrees F for 15 minutes.
I love the idea of these sausage balls and I plan to give them a try.
The perfect recipe to use my favorite Cabot Artisan Cheese. Can’t wait to try this!
Love these Amy! They look like the perfect comfort food! I might have o make these for Thanksgiving appetizers.
They would be perfect for an appetizer for Thanksgiving!
I like to make these with the sausage they make at Anderson Meats on Powdersville Road. They have a hot and a mild sausage. We like the hot. Their sausage is so lean compared to what you buy in a regular grocery store.
Thank you for letting me know, Deborah. We’ve bought other meats there but I’ve never bought sausage from there, but will be sure to get some before the next batch of these.
These little savory delights look so yummy!!!
I see that you have butter listed as an ingredient. I don’t see where you use it in the recipe. I love butter. How do I incorporate it into this recipe?
Oh my! I left it out of the instructions. It is fixed now.
I’m so glad you pointed that out!
has anyone tried making these ahead and freezing them? do they taste good re-heated?
I have, Lori. They tasted great! I reheated them on a baking sheet in the oven on low heat.
This recipe was tasty. I must have done something wrong though. As the mixture was very very dry… like it has too much flour. Next time I will reduce by one cup. Very tasty though and great recipe.
I was wondering the same thing. I am hosting a party this weekend. I wanted to make these in advance today. Was trying to figure out how I would reheat them. Do you think 250-degrees for 20 minutes would work?
Thanks!
Hi, I was wondering what kind of sausage you can use. What about breakfast sausage like jimmy deans? And do you brown the sausage before mixing it?
I would also like to know if you Brown the sausage before mixing in.
The sausage is NOT cooked or browned before forming the balls.
Has anyone ever tried putting some celery and onions in their sausage balls?
And do you like them better with or with out celery and onions?
The recipe I use has onion, celery, & garlic powder. We prefer sausage balls with these ingredients.
Amy, loved this recipe! Deliciousness indeed!! Normally, I make sausage balls with bisquick but, since I was out of it this recipe was a perfect fit to try. I didn’t Have sharp cheddar. Only cheese in our home was fiesta blend, which I definitely would not recommend using if anything even just A mild cheddar might have given it more flavor. So, definitely stick with the recipe and use sharp cheddar if possible or even a Colby Jack if the taste of cheddar isn’t your favorite cheese. Mine seemed to have too much flour so just wondering if I could use half a cup less and add an extra tablespoon of butter and Louisiana hot sauce to the recipe so it isn’t so dry.
Have you ever tried onions and celery in the sausage balls? ?
No, but that sounds delicious, Sarah!
I made these tonight for our New Year’s Eve/Alabama football (Cotton Bowl) celebration! Everyone approved! They love them and said they definitely want them more often. Thanks for the great recipe that doesn’t use Bisquick.
I’m so happy to hear they were a success, Becky. Go team!
The mix is very dry, but we really enjoyed these little tasty bites!! Will make again and add some hot sauce and maybe blue cheese to the mix,
Thank you!!
Can I use whole wheat flour for these?
The texture may be slightly different but I think it will work.
Think these would work with bacon instead of sausage??? Would love to try with bacon!
I’m not sure how that would work as the sausage is ground. I suppose you could try crumbled cooked bacon?
Try using less sausage and add crumbled bacon.
Instead of using flour can I use bisquick?
Bisquick is used in most recipes but you wont need the baking powder!
That’s how my family used to make them.
I love the fact that these are truly homemade and cant wait to try them!
Can you make these ahead of time and freeze? If so, do you need to adjust cooking time?
You can freeze them before you bake them. Place them in a single layer on a baking sheet or pan, cover with aluminum foil or plastic wrap, freeze until firm, them transfer to a freezer ziptop plastic bag. Bake a few or the whole batch as you like!
Can’t get the recipe
The recipe is at the bottom of the post. Is it not showing for you, Frances?
Way too much flour. They came out gritty and wouldn’t stick together when I rolled them. At least half the flour didn’t even mix because it didn’t have anything to stick to. Could the 3 cups be a typo?
What I did was I added a half of stick of melted butter to make it stick. And I also added sage instead of cayenne since I didn’t want it to be spicy. It came delicious and they were gone within 30 minutes. Hope this help!
I agree – the original recipe does use 3 cups flour – but then you add the 4.5 t of baking powder – and no milk.
These are some of the best sausage balls I have ever made! I usually use the recipe with Bisquick but decided to give these a try. I will be making them this way from now on! Thank you for sharing.