Sausage Balls Recipe (2024)

One cup of Bisquick can be substituted by a mixture of one cup of flour, ​1 1⁄2 teaspoons of baking powder, ​1⁄2 teaspoon of salt, and ​2 1⁄2 tablespoons of oil or melted butter (or by cutting in ​2 1⁄2 tbsp Crisco or lard). (Wikipedia, 24.12.2019)

This is a classic recipe that I’ve loved since I was a kid. Tried something new this year and mixed the one pound sausage with 12 ounces of prepared pimiento cheese plus two cups bisquick. I hate to be that guy who leaves a substantially different recipe in the comments, but I highly recommend the pimiento cheese version to any sausage ball fan.

These freeze extremely well. Form into balls and set on sheets and then shove them in the freezer. As soon as they're frozen, pull them off the sheets into an airtight container to cook on another occasion.Do. Not. attempt to use fancy, high-grade sausage. Without the correct percentage of fat, these come out very crumbly and a bit sad. They truly are best with that pound of cheap sausage in a tube.

Mixing it all up can be done easily with a food processor. I used my vintage Cuisinart DLC-7 Super Pro and pulsed the stuff till it held together. You could easily do this with half the recipe as well. I made rather larger balls than the recipe specifies and came out with 30. My family likes them to be substantially sized! A classic, ultra simple, nothing fancy but a crowd pleaser!

These can be a little dry. I add a little buttermilk. The liquid binds the ingredients and gives the end product both moisture and tang. Yum!

For those who ball at bisquick - a friend made sausage balls several years ago, and they were amazingly good. Her recipe - which is what I use now - is a pound of sausage, 8oz cream cheese (softened), 4oz shredded cheese, and 1.25c almond flour. No need to buy bisquick for a once a year recipe now, and better ingredients. (Obviously not for those with certain tree nit allergies.)

I know this is going to sound weird and perhaps be met with some skepticism, but serving these with blackberry jam is a *game changer*. Give it a shot!

Also, the ingredients are best mixed by hand, a food processor will grind them to tastelessness. Do not use low fat sausage or low fat cheese, or they will also lose flavor.

I’ve never had these before (being from the Midwest) and made exactly as directed, using an inexpensive block cheddar and Jim Dean sausage. They were a good and easy appetizer. Everybody enjoyed them, and the payoff is hard to beat for the effort. Also relatively inexpensive to make in these inflationary times.

Perfect as is. Enhancements to boost spice and umami, if you wish - add 1/4 cup Parmesan and 2-3 heaping tablespoons on your preferred chili crisp. Magic.

Ridiculously easy and a big hit at a party. It takes more than a few minutes to really get the Bisquick and cheese mixed in with the sausage, and it goes better if the cheese is finely grated. I did this with Wegman's bulk pork sausage, which comes with seasoning, and didn't need to add flavorings. A nice changeup from usual appetizer meatballs.

Tried mixing by hand but gave up and deployed the food processor. Also added maybe two tablespoons of water. They came together quickly.

A friend makes these for their annual Christmas party ever year, and I would be lying if I didn't say I looked forward to them every year. A true highlight and a very good and simple appetizer.

I think the consistency is perfect. But I did have to increase the cooking time an extra 5 minutes. Parchment paper worked very well instead of using nothing.

A big thank you to the reader who recommended adding a bit of buttermilk. My mixture was so dry that I couldn't see how I would form balls, so I added just 1/4 cup of buttermilk to my 1-1/2 times batch and after mixing it in with my hands, Voila! Workable. 1/4 cup is not much for a batch this large but perfect. Haven't baked them yet, but at least they are balled up and in the freezer now. Phew!

Been making these family favorites for years. Variations include sausage type (spicy Italian, chicken, etc), cheese (usually use a sharp cheddar), and flavored biscuit mix. When using plain biscuit mix or homemade biscuit mix, I usually add spices such as cayenne, garlic powder, paprika, etc. Have also found that adding a little liquid to the mix makes it less dense. Usually add water (or maybe a splash of wine). Recipe is so versatile and easy to adapt to personal tastes.

I found this recipe problematic. Too much flour & cheese, not enough sausage and they never really browned with twice the cooking time.

I mixed this in stages. Added fresh shredded cheese to the bisquick and toss to coat and distribute the cheese. Broke up the sausage into pieces and I also added 4oz of pimiento cheese. It took about 5 minutes of hand mixing for everything to come together. Could have used a stand mixer but didn’t need it. Used a small cookie scoop to portion them. Served with sour cherry spread. They all were gone in 20 min.

On my 2nd attempt I used a finer shred of cheese which made it much easier to form the balls. Using the paddle on my stand mixer also helped alot. Unfortunately by trying to upgrade my cheddar, the cheese I used was not quite as sharp. I'll stick with the lesser priced common extra sharp brand in all the stores. Also, I'm going to try to cut back a little on the Bisquick as this batch seemed a bit pancakey. Nevertheless, they were all gobbled up with pre-dinner co*cktails before Christmas dinner.

I used a popular national brand of bulk sausage and they seemed dry - like more fat was needed.

Never heard of them or tasted them before but threw it together quickly. They were scarfed up by the 8 of us with beer, martinis and wine. The only issue I had was that the recipe simply said "shredded" cheese but did not specify course or fine. I did course which was difficult to work with and took a lot of pressure to form the 1" balls. Next time I'll try a fine shred and might use the paddle on my stand mixer. Also, made more than 20 balls.

Added a shallot, a small bell pepper and a dollop of yogurt. Used hot Italian sausage and cheddar. Mixed everything in the food processor…delicious!

Does the raw pork sausage really cook enough in just 8 - 10 minutes? Anyone else try cooking sausage first?

Perfect as is. Enhancements to boost spice and umami, if you wish - add 1/4 cup Parmesan and 2-3 heaping tablespoons on your preferred chili crisp. Magic.

I’ve never had these before (being from the Midwest) and made exactly as directed, using an inexpensive block cheddar and Jim Dean sausage. They were a good and easy appetizer. Everybody enjoyed them, and the payoff is hard to beat for the effort. Also relatively inexpensive to make in these inflationary times.

You can easily make this vegetarian by substituting one pack of defrosted Impossible ground sausage (in the tube). From the fridge into the oven, I baked them for 15 mins and they were perfect.

Have made this a few times now—really tasty and absolutely perfect for freezing as others have mentioned (having folks over on a whim? Hot apps ready in less than 20 mins!) I’ve found that if you use “better” bulk sausage (not in an opaque blue and white tube [which is still delicious for these], want to use Italian, Polish, etc.), adding in a heaping spoon of mayo helps them not turn out dry. My favorite dip for these so far is equal parts salsa verde and mayo.