Healthy Turkey Breakfast Sausage

healthy turkey sausage on a plate with berries and eggs.

Healthy Turkey Breakfast Sausage

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Keyword: turkey sausage

Prep Time: 20

Cook Time: 10

Total Time: 30

Servings:

Calories: 101kcal

Author: Megan Gilmore

Meet the best turkey sausage I've ever made. It has a slightly sweet flavor, reminiscent of maple breakfast sausage, but this version is made with sweet potato and no added sugar. While it might sound unusual, the result is healthy and incredibly flavorful. (And most importantly, easy.) Once you taste it, you'll want to make it every week!

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Ingredients

1 pound lean ground turkey
¾ cup baked sweet potato (tightly packed)
1 ½ teaspoons fine sea salt
1 ½ teaspoons ground sage
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Instructions

If you want to bake this sausage, preheat the oven to 400ºF and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. You can skip this step if you'd rather cook these patties in a skillet.
In a large bowl, combine the ground turkey, sweet potato, salt, sage, garlic powder, black pepper, and cayenne. Stir well, until the spices and sweet potato look evenly distributed.
Bake the Sausage: Scoop the mixture into 2-tablespoon portions onto the prepared pan, leaving about 2 inches between each ball. (I can fit 12 balls per half-sheet pan, so you can use two pans if you want to bake these all at once.) Wet your hands to prevent sticking, then flatten each ball. The sausage will shrink as it cooks, so flatten it as much as possible. Bake at 400ºF for 10-12 minutes, or until a meat thermometer reaches 165ºF in the center of each sausage. Baked sausage won't get caramelized/brown edges, but I find this method easiest and fastest.
Pan-Fry the Sausage: Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and spray it with cooking spray or oil to prevent sticking. Once the surface is hot, scoop a 2-tablespoon portion into your hands (get them wet to prevent sticking) and flatten them into a patty. Place the patty on the skillet, and repeat making patties and adding them to the skillet. I can fit about 6 patties at a time, so you'll need to work in 3 batches. Flip the sausage after 2-3 minutes and cook the other side until the center reaches 165ºF. (About 5 minutes total.) Repeat until you've cooked all of the sausage patties.
Once the sausage is cooked, it's ready to serve warm right away. Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.

Notes

Nutrition information is for approximately 3 sausage patties, assuming you get 18 from the batch. This is automatically calculated from an online ingredient database, so it's an estimate, not a guarantee.

Shaping Note: If you find it annoying to press the sausage into patties, you can also simply bake these as meatballs (dropped from a cookie scoop). In that case, I'd recommend baking them for 12-15 minutes, just to make sure the center reaches 165ºF.

Seasoning Note: I've tested this recipe with twice the ground black pepper and added a pinch of cloves. All of these additions are delicious, so feel free to experiment with extra seasoning if you like.

Nutrition