Breakfast Sausage substitute

Best substitute

Ground pork plus homemade breakfast seasoning

Use the same amount by weight; per 1 lb pork use 1 tsp dried sage, 1 tsp salt, ½ tsp pepper, ½ tsp brown sugar, ¼ tsp thyme, pinch of nutmeg and cayenne as the breakfast sausage you are replacing

Best for biscuits and gravy

Close match

Not a compromise, this is the real thing. Commercial breakfast sausage is ground pork with sage and pepper, so mixing your own gets you an identical result and you control the salt. Fresh sage, tripled in quantity and chopped fine, is even better.

Other breakfast sausage substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Italian sausage, casings removed
Different taste
Use the same amount
Same fat content, same crumble, wrong herb.
What changes
Italian sausage leads with fennel seed and garlic, so a sausage gravy made with it tastes vaguely of pizza. Adding 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of dried sage per pound and a pinch of nutmeg closes most of that gap.
Best for
biscuits and gravy, breakfast casserole, stuffing, pizza and pasta breakfasts
Use sweet or mild Italian, not hot, unless you want heat. If you can spot whole fennel seeds in the mix, pick out what you can, they are the loudest signal that you swapped.
3Ground turkey or ground chicken plus seasoning and added fat
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight, plus 2 tbsp butter or oil per pound
Season it the same way as ground pork.
What changes
The problem is not flavor, it is fat: 93 percent lean turkey renders almost nothing, so the meat browns dry and tight and there is no grease in the pan. Expect a leaner, slightly grainier crumble and a paler brown.
Best for
lighter breakfasts, breakfast burritos and tacos, casseroles where other fat is present, pork-free cooking
For sausage gravy this is the swap that trips people up. Add 3 tablespoons of butter to the pan before you sprinkle in the flour, or the roux will be dry and pasty and the gravy will taste like flour.
4Bratwurst or fresh kielbasa, casings removed
Different taste
Use the same amount
Fatty fresh pork sausage that crumbles well.
What changes
Bratwurst is seasoned with marjoram, nutmeg and white pepper, so it lands surprisingly close to breakfast sausage once you add sage. Fresh kielbasa is more garlic-forward and reads as savory rather than herby.
Best for
breakfast casserole, stuffing, gravy, hash and skillet breakfasts
Squeeze the meat out of the casing and break it up in a cold pan so the fat renders before the outside seizes. Add 1 teaspoon sage per pound.
5Mexican chorizo (fresh, bulk)
Different taste
Use the same amount or use half chorizo and half ground pork
A deliberate detour rather than a match.
What changes
Chorizo brings vinegar tang, dried chile and a lot of red-orange rendered fat, so a breakfast casserole made with it is spicy, bright and stains everything orange. It is delicious. It is not breakfast sausage.
Best for
breakfast burritos, migas and scrambles, hash, breakfast tacos
Pour off some of the rendered orange fat before you add eggs or flour, chorizo throws off much more than breakfast sausage does. Half and half with plain ground pork gives you a middle ground.
6Plant-based sausage crumbles
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by volume, plus 2 tbsp oil
Modern plant-based breakfast crumbles get the sage and pepper profile right and crumble convincingly.
What changes
What is missing is rendered fat and the browned, chewy edges pork develops, so the result is softer and tastes seasoned rather than roasted.
Best for
vegetarian breakfast casserole, vegan biscuits and gravy, breakfast burritos, stuffing
They contain no raw meat, so they will not release fat and cannot overcook the way pork does. Brown them in oil first, hard, before adding liquid, or the dish tastes flat.

What is Breakfast Sausage?

Breakfast Sausage is fresh, uncured ground pork seasoned heavily with sage and black pepper and usually a little sugar, sold as a bulk roll, as pre-formed patties or as small links, and it brings three things to a dish at once: sage-forward seasoning, browned meaty crumbles and the rendered pork fat that a sausage gravy is built on.

Cooking tips

Know what job the sausage is doing before you swap. In biscuits and gravy it does three things: it seasons the dish with sage and salt, it supplies the browned meaty bits, and critically it renders the fat that becomes the roux. A lean substitute breaks the third job, so add 2 to 3 tablespoons of butter before the flour goes in.
Sage is the single flavor that says breakfast sausage. If you take away nothing else from this page: any fresh pork sausage plus sage tastes like breakfast sausage. Bloom the dried sage in the hot rendered fat for 20 seconds before adding liquid and it tastes far less dusty.
The sugar in breakfast sausage is what makes patties develop that dark, almost lacquered crust, and it is also why they scorch. Cook patties over medium, not high, and expect a browner surface than plain ground pork gives you.
It is raw pork, so it needs to reach 160 F. In a casserole or stuffing, brown it fully before it goes in, because a casserole hits temperature unevenly and the sausage may look done while the center of a clump is not.
Bulk roll, patties and links are interchangeable by weight. Links are usually seasoned slightly more aggressively and a 1 lb package of links yields the same as a 1 lb roll, just chop or squeeze them out of the casings.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave it out?

In a breakfast casserole, yes, if you replace both the savory depth and the fat: sauteed mushrooms with a splash of soy sauce plus 2 tablespoons of butter get you a genuinely good vegetarian version. In sausage gravy, no. Without the sausage you have milk gravy, which is a real Southern dish in its own right but a different one, so make it deliberately with butter, flour, milk and a lot of black pepper rather than expecting sausage gravy without sausage.

What is the difference between breakfast sausage and Italian sausage?

Almost entirely the seasoning. Both are fresh ground pork of similar fattiness. Breakfast sausage is sage, black pepper and a little sugar. Italian sausage is fennel seed, garlic and often red pepper or, in the sweet version, a touch of basil. Swap them freely as long as you understand the finished dish will lean American breakfast or Italian accordingly, and add sage if you want to move Italian toward breakfast.

How do I make breakfast sausage seasoning from scratch?

Per pound of ground pork: 1 teaspoon dried sage, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, 1/2 teaspoon coarse black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar, 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme, a pinch of nutmeg and a pinch of cayenne or red pepper flakes. Marjoram instead of thyme is a common regional variation. If you use fresh sage, use about a tablespoon, chopped very fine.

Can I use ground beef instead?

You can, and it will taste like seasoned ground beef rather than sausage. Beef fat has a heavier, more mineral flavor than pork fat and no sweetness, so the sage sits on top of it rather than blending in. Use 80/20 so you have enough fat for the gravy, season a little more aggressively, and add a small pinch of sugar to soften the beefiness.

Is breakfast sausage already cooked?

No. Bulk rolls, patties and fresh links are raw pork and must be cooked to 160 F. The exception is fully cooked heat-and-serve links sold in the refrigerated or frozen case, which are labeled as such. If you are substituting a fully cooked product into a recipe written for raw sausage, add it late, because it will not render much fat and will only dry out with long cooking.

Related substitutes

More meat & protein substitutes

Breakfast Sausage substitute

Other breakfast sausage substitutes

2Italian sausage, casings removed

3Ground turkey or ground chicken plus seasoning and added fat

4Bratwurst or fresh kielbasa, casings removed

5Mexican chorizo (fresh, bulk)

6Plant-based sausage crumbles