Turkey Sausage substitute

Substitutes for Turkey Sausage with ratios

1. 2Plain ground turkey plus your own sausage seasoning

   Close match

   1 lb ground turkey + 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp dried sage, ¾ tsp black pepper, ½ tsp dried thyme, 1 tsp maple syrup, ¼ tsp red pepper flakes, 2 tsp olive oil

   The genuinely useful answer, because ground turkey is in every supermarket and the seasoning is the whole difference.

   What changes

   Best for

   breakfast patties, breakfast casseroles, sausage gravy, soups, pasta sauce, stuffing

   This is real turkey sausage, not an approximation, since commercial turkey sausage is exactly this. For an Italian-style version, drop the sage and maple and use one and a half teaspoons of fennel seed crushed under a knife, one teaspoon garlic powder, one teaspoon dried oregano, half a teaspoon each of salt and paprika and a good pinch of chilli flakes. Two things make or break it. First, the oil: plain ground turkey has almost no fat, and without a couple of teaspoons per pound the result is chalky and squeaky. Second, resting: mix the seasoning in and leave it in the fridge for at least thirty minutes, ideally overnight, so the salt penetrates and the meat firms up enough to hold a patty. Buy ground turkey thigh or 93 percent lean rather than 99 percent lean breast if you have the choice.

2. 3Chicken sausage

   Close match

   Use the same amount by weight

   The closest thing to turkey sausage on the shelf, and often sitting right next to it.

   What changes

   Best for

   any recipe calling for turkey sausage, soups and pasta, sheet pan dinners, breakfast dishes

   Near enough identical in leanness, texture and how it behaves in a pan, so no adjustments are needed. Read the label though, because chicken sausage is sold in far more flavours than turkey sausage: apple and sage, spinach and feta, sun-dried tomato, andouille-style. A sweet apple chicken sausage will make a savoury breakfast casserole taste odd. Match the seasoning family, not just the meat. If the only option is a strongly flavoured one, use it in a dish where those flavours belong rather than fighting them.

3. 4Ground chicken or ground pork plus the same seasoning blend

   Close match

   Use the same amount by weight, seasoned as above

   Same do-it-yourself approach, different base meat, for whatever your shop actually has.

   What changes

   Best for

   breakfast patties, casseroles, pasta sauce, soups

   Ground chicken behaves almost exactly like ground turkey, just slightly milder and a bit wetter, so it needs the same added oil and the same rest in the fridge. Ground pork needs no added oil at all and will give you something noticeably richer and more traditional-tasting, essentially homemade pork sausage. If you use pork, cut the salt slightly, to about three-quarters of a teaspoon per pound, because the fat carries salt more strongly on the palate.

4. 5Smoked turkey sausage or kielbasa, for a dish that gets simmered

   Taste and texture differ

   Use the same amount by weight, sliced into coins

   The pre-cooked smoked rope sausages, which are a different texture entirely but work well in soups, beans and skillets.

   What changes

   Best for

   bean soups and stews, jambalaya and rice skillets, sheet pan dinners with potatoes, cabbage and sausage dishes

   Understand what you are trading. Fresh turkey sausage crumbles into loose grains that disappear into a sauce; smoked sausage stays in firm, snappy, sliceable coins and adds a definite smoky, cured flavour that fresh sausage does not have. That is excellent in a bean soup and wrong in a breakfast casserole or a sausage gravy, where you needed crumbles. It is already cooked, so you are only browning it for colour, two or three minutes a side. It is also considerably saltier, so hold back on salt until the end.

5. 6Plant-based sausage or crumbles

   Taste and texture differ

   Use the same amount by weight

   The meat-free option, which handles the seasoning job well and the texture job less well.

   What changes

   Best for

   breakfast casseroles, pasta sauce, pizza topping, stuffing

   Modern plant-based sausages nail the sage-and-fennel flavour profile, which is most of what turkey sausage contributes to a casserole or a ragu. What they do not reproduce is the way real ground meat browns and shreds, so the crumbles stay a little uniform and soft, and they release no fat at all, which means you must add a tablespoon of oil to the pan or nothing else will brown either. They also cook in a few minutes since there is nothing to cook through, so add them near the end of a long simmer rather than at the start, where they turn mushy.