Easy Sausage and Peppers
Easy Sausage and Peppers is perfect for a potluck or a weeknight dinner made with Italian sausage, bell peppers, onions, and seasoning, ready in 30 minutes!
I love pulling out some crowd favorites when I’m hosting a party. For more ideas, check out these Cream Cheese Sausage Balls, and this Baked Potato Bar! Find all of my party recipes over here!
This is one of my favorite recipes to make when I’m having a crowd of people over or even just for a quick meal on a weeknight. It’s really easy to make and it goes a long way! I’ve grown up with this recipe, and it was always being served by food trucks at almost any event where I lived.
I like to use a combination of green, red, and yellow peppers to make the dish look colorful. You can serve this over white rice, brown rice, gluten free pasta, or mashed potatoes. For a lower carb version, try using cauliflower rice.
You can also use leftovers to make sausage and pepper sandwiches! Use a gluten free hoagie roll (or gluten free baguette) with some mayo or tomato sauce, then spoon everything onto the roll. Toast on a baking sheet in the oven for a few minutes before serving.
Ingredients You’ll Need
Sausage. There’s two really good choices for this dish: Italian mild sausage and hot Italian sausage. Whichever one you use depends on how spicy you like your food. You can also make this with other types of hot sausage or sweet sausages, but Italian sausage links is what I’ve always used.
Just make sure that whatever type of sausage you pick is gluten free, because it can vary by brand.
Bell Peppers. This dish calls for a good amount of sweet bell peppers. Choose any color, but I like the presentation best with red, green, and yellow.
If you want a spicy version, add poblanos to the pepper mixture.
Onion. I usually use a sweet onion for this recipe, but white onion or yellow onion also work.
Olive Oil. Some extra virgin olive oil adds fat and flavor to the dish. You can also use vegetable oil or avocado oil.
Herbs and Spices. The sausage itself has a lot of flavor in it already, so we’re not going to go too crazy here. I like to add a little big of oregano, garlic powder, and black pepper. For an even better flavor, mince 1-2 garlic cloves instead of using garlic powder.
I don’t add any additional salt, because the sausage is already pretty high in sodium. You can add kosher salt to taste, if you think you need it.
For presentation and extra flavor, you can top this with some chopped fresh parsley or fresh basil. Or a few spoonfuls of parmesan cheese.
How to Make Sausage and Peppers
- Add two tablespoons of olive oil to a large skillet over medium heat. Add the whole sausage pieces and cook sausage until browned, about 10-15 minutes. Line a large plate with paper towels and transfer the cooked sausage to the plate and set aside.
- Add remaining olive oil, onions, peppers, and spices to the skillet and cook until the onions and peppers have softened, about 5 minutes.
- Cut the sausage into 1-inch pieces.
- Stir in the sausage and cook an additional 5 minutes, stirring often, until sausage is cooked through and everything is mixed together. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve over rice or mashed potatoes.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can serve this with plain rice, gluten free pasta, potatoes, or mashed potatoes. You can also serve this on toasted gluten free baguettes for a sausage and peppers sandwich!
This really depends on what else you’re serving at the party. If this is the main dish, I would make about 4 ounces of sausage per person. If it’s one out of multiple dishes, you can do less. You can always bulk it up with more peppers if you need to, too.
This is the perfect dish to make ahead of time. I usually make this in batches, and when it’s done I place it in a large tinfoil catering dish. Once it’s full, I’ll put the cover on and wrap it in plastic wrap, then freeze it.
When you want to serve it, take the dish out of the freezer the night before and place it in the refrigerator. Then when you’re ready, bake at 375°F for about 30-40 minutes. Stir half way through and make sure the center of the dish is properly heated through before serving. Because this dish has a lot of fat in it naturally from the sausage, I have never had a problem with it drying. If you use a leaner cut, you might run into that.
How to Make Sausage and Peppers in the Oven
If you don’t have the time to stand over a skillet, you can also make sheet pan sausage and peppers in the oven! It’s a great sheet pan meal with minimal dishes for cleanup.
- Preheat oven to 400°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Place sausage, peppers, and onions on the baking sheet, spread out. Sprinkle with seasoning, and lightly spray with cooking oil (this is mostly for the veggies).
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the sausage reaches an internal temperature of 165°F. Half way through the cooking process, use a spatula to stir everything around.
- If you want the sausage to brown even further, turn the broiler on for 1-2 minutes. Watch this very closely, because the broiler can burn things quickly!
More Sausage Recipes
- Slow Cooker Kale Bean & Sausage Soup
- Cream Cheese Sausage Balls
- Bacon Wrapped Sausage Stuffed Jalapeños
- Acorn Squash Stuffed With Turkey Sausage
Can you make this dish ahead of time?
This is a great recipe to make ahead of time! My family usually preps this the day before, and stores it refrigerated in disposable catering dishes. When you’re ready to serve, you can just pop the entire dish in the oven until it’s warmed through.
You can also freeze the entire catering dish, then defrost in the refrigerator the day before.
Storage
Refrigerate leftovers for 3-4 days in an airtight storage container.
Freeze in a freezer-safe container for 2-3 months. Reheat in a skillet or on a baking sheet in the oven, stirring half way through.
Recipe Variations
- If you want to lighten this up, try using a lower fat turkey or chicken sausage, but taste it after the turkey is cooked through and add some olive oil and additional seasoning to balance out the dish if needed.
- You can add a tablespoon tomato paste, can of crushed tomatoes, or some tomato sauce if you want some more Italian flavors. My family didn’t used to add the tomato base, so I don’t usually add it.
- You can make sausage and peppers and potatoes by adding some small quartered fingerling potatoes to this dish.
- Add some chili pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, or a dash of hot sauce for some heat.
Cooking Tips
- Make sure your sausage is labeled gluten free, because not all of them are!
- You want to use Italian sausage here, but it doesn’t matter if it’s hot or mild. You could even do a mix of the two. You can also add some cayenne pepper later, if you can only find the mild in the store.
- I like to use different colors of bell peppers, because it adds some nice aesthetics to the dish. But you can use all green bell pepper if that’s what you have, it will still taste good.
- If your sausage is sticking to the pan, you can use a small amount of water or white wine to deglaze. You can also add 1/4 cup of white wine to deglaze the sausage for extra flavor.
- Serve over rice, potatoes, toasted gluten free bread, or gluten free pasta.
Easy Sausage and Peppers
Ingredients
- 1 pound Italian sausage links, gluten free, hot or mild
- 3 large bell peppers, any color, sliced
- 1 large Vidalia onion, sliced
- 4 tablespoons olive oil, extra virgin, divided
- 2 teaspoons oregano
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
Equipment
- 1 skillet
Instructions
- In a large saute pan over medium-high heat, add 2 tbsp olive oil and sausage. Cook until sausage is browned, 10-15 minutes. Remove sausage from pan onto a plate and set aside.
- Add remaining olive oil, onions, peppers, and spices to the pan and cook until the onions and peppers have softened, about 5 minutes.
- Cut the sausage into 1-inch pieces and add back to the skillet. Stir everything together and cook for an additional 5 minutes, until sausage is completely cooked through.
Notes
- Make sure your sausage is labeled gluten free, because not all of them are!
- If your sausage is sticking to the pan, you can use a small amount of water or white wine to deglaze. You can also add 1/4 cup of white wine to deglaze the sausage for extra flavor.
- Serve sausage and peppers over rice, potatoes, toasted gluten free bread, or gluten free pasta.
Nutrition
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hello, can I also add a small can of Tomato sauce w/ my sauage & Pepper dish ?
Yes that would be fine. I’d also keep some tomato paste handy, just in case it’s too thin.