Follow our complete, step-by-step, photo illustrated recipe to make these super easy Sausage Ball Appetizers. You only need three ingredients, sausage, cheese and Bisquick. A real crowd pleaser for your next party or family get together. Printable recipe included.
Sausage Balls Recipe
If you’re looking for a quick and easy appetizer recipe for your next party, game day, or any type of family get together, I think you’ve found it. With just three ingredients, it probably doesn’t get much simpler to make.
This recipe is pulled from a collection of recipes compiled by members of my family and published back in 1999. The “Stewart Family Favorites” is a small cookbook, shared with the family, at what use to be our annual family reunions. These were relatives from my mothers side of the family, but sadly we no longer have the reunions any more.
My cousin Aleane submitted this recipe for the cookbook as one of her favorites.
Aleane was the daughter of my Aunt Lucille, one of my moms sisters. She was older than me, and in the age group of my older brother and sister. I think I look at my cousins as the ones I played with (my age group), and the ones that were older than we were.
Thank you Aleane, for sharing this as a family favorite. We miss you.
You can make these with Mild Sausage, or you could use your favorite Hot Sausage. The choice is yours, or maybe make a batch of each.
Ready to make some Sausage Balls? Then let’s get in the kitchen, and… Let’s Get Cooking.
Sausage Balls Recipe: You’ll need these three ingredients.
Grate your block of cheese.
Please avoid buying pre-shredded cheese for this recipe. You’ve probably noticed that white powder stuff on the pre-shredded cheeses. It’s some kind of potato starch that keeps the grated or shredded cheese from sticking together. I think you’ll find that buying a block of cheese and grating it yourself will give much better results and a much better taste.
Keep your cheese cold until you’re ready to grate it, and it will be much easier to handle. Grating the cheese yourself will only take an extra minute or two, but will be well worth the effort.
Place your sausage in a large mixing bowl.
Use your hands to crumble up the sausage.
Add the grated cheese to the crumbled up sausage.
Add the Bisquick.
Mix well.
Take your time with this step. Just slowly work all the ingredients around in the bowl, scooping up from the bottom as you go. After a minute or two of mixing, everything will seem to suddenly come together as pictured above.
You can use a spoon, but I have a small scoop so I used that. I think this one measures out about a Tablespoon or so.
Place it in your hand.
No, I don’t always wear gloves while cooking at home. Just sometimes.
Roll the mixture around in your hands.
Shape the mixture into balls. You’ll want to pack it together firmly.
Place the sausage balls on a foil lined baking sheet, leaving a small amount of space between each one.
You will also want to lightly spray the foil with cooking spray or rub it lightly with oil before you add the rolled sausage balls.
I ended up with a total of 36 sausage balls.
Place the sausage balls in your oven, pre-heated to 325F degrees.
Let them bake for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until done. After about 10 minutes, rotate the pan in your oven so they can bake more evenly. You might have to sacrifice one by breaking it open to be sure it’s done. Baking them too long could cause them to dry out and be hard, so try not to overcook them.
Remove the pan when the sausage balls are done.
I tried two ways to see which would be the best way to get them out of the pan. Using two spoons, one to hold down the foil and one to move the sausage ball, I managed to get them off the foil without a lot of sticking or breaking.
I think it will be best to let them cool before trying to remove them though. The few I left on the foil until they cooled were much easier to remove. Just do what seems to work best for you.
I did place them on some paper towels to let them drain a bit once I removed them.
Enjoy!
I was very pleased with how easy these were to make, and how well they turned out.
I watched them closely during the last few minutes of baking and thankfully, they were moist and not all hard and dried out.
Sausage Balls are generally served at room temperature. Keep them covered and refrigerated until you’re ready to set them out on your party table. Frilly toothpicks will make them easy to pick up and use as finger food. As you can see, I didn’t have those, so use whatever you might have on hand.
This is one of those recipes that can be made a day or two ahead of time. You could cook them, and then cover and refrigerate them for several days before you needed them. Or, shape them and bake them shortly before you plan to serve them.
I’ve had some in the refrigerator for a week now and they are still moist and tasty after just a few seconds in the microwave. I didn’t try to freeze any, but I understand they do freeze well also.
Ingredients
1 ¼ cup of shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 lb. ground sausage 1 cup Bisquick Biscuit Mix
