Paleo
Dairy Free
Gluten Free
Homemade breakfast sausage cooked in an air fryer is perfect for a healthy paleo and gluten free breakfast or brunch! These Cajun breakfast sausage patties are juicy on the inside and crispy golden on the outside. This air fryer recipe is perfect to make for a holiday breakfast or appetizers!
This Homemade Cajun Breakfast Sausage sponsored by the good people at Krups!. Thank you for supporting the brands that help keep the healthy recipes cranking out of the Cotter Crunch kitchen. I think you will thoroughly enjoy the recipe and will appreciate the AMAZINGNESS of their new digital Air fryer.
Easy Holiday Entertaining
First things first, is it just me, or do the months of November and December bring holiday planning panic for you, too? I can throw impromptu wine and cheese parties all year long without a worry in the world, but Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve are somehow different. It’s pressure, haha! I always feel like everything has to be perfectly on point, from the clothes I wear to the decorations, and the holiday meals and party appetizers..
The thing is, we don’t NEED to feel stressed and we DON’T HAVE to be stressed. Our bodies don’t function well under stress and besides, life is too short for that. Let’s pledge to make holiday entertaining EASY and FUN! Oh, and delicious and HEALTHY too, m’kay? Creating happy holiday memories is what we should focus on.
Which brings me to Christmas Brunch menu planning and these paleo friendly homemade sausages with a cajun kick made quick, healthy, and delicious in the …. wait for it….
KRUPS Air Fryer
Thanks to technology in the kitchen, we can use slow cookers and air fryers to make stress-free holiday foods that taste amazing and are healthy, too.
If you have never made homemade breakfast sausage, you are seriously missing out. Using a KRUPS digital air fryer, you can make paleo and gluten free Cajun breakfast sausage patties that nobody will guess are healthy. This recipe for homemade breakfast sausage creates healthy little bites of heavenly goodness!
That being said, let me discuss the whole reasoning of an air fryer, from a nutritionist standpoint, ok?
Is air fried food good for you?
If you haven’t jumped onto the air fryer cooking train yet, you need to ask Santa to bring you a KRUPS digital air fryer. This appliance is a cooking essential and my new best friend in the kitchen!
Air fried food is so much healthier than deep fried or pan fried.
The KRUPS air fryer has some great benefits that make cooking healthy meals easy, such as:
- It uses little to no oil
- There are pre-set menu functions to ensure that the foods you cook in it come out crispy and perfect. Choose from three preset menus for French fries, cutlets, shrimp, cakes, pizza, fish, grill and roast.
Convenience wise?
- Digital touch screen panel makes it’s super easy to use.
- There’s a preheat mode! If needed, yea!
- Removable parts that are dishwasher-safe. But I was able to easily wash by hand. See video proof HERE after I made overnight french toast. Oh and on more to come on IG stories this week. 🙂
Okay, let’s bring it back to the food yo!! I’m going to use this cajun homemade breakfast sausage recipe as an example. And don’t worry, you can always ask for other cooking instructions, but you gotta see the way the new air fryer works first! And the comparison between the two methods.
Homemade Breakfast Sausage – Air Fried vs. Pan Fried
In addition to cooking the Cajun homemade breakfast sausage patties in an air fryer, I made them a skillet with oil as well. The pan fried sausage patties turned out less crispy, even with all the extra oil. It also made more of a mess on my stove. Sheesh, just when I was trying to be perfect. Kidding!
In all seriousness, the air fryer gives these cajun sausages a light and crispy coating without adding extra fat or calories. YAY! So delicious, too.
To make homemade breakfast sausage patties, you’ll need ….
Cajun spices and of course, sausage meat, that’s about it!
- ground sausage (chicken sausage or lean pork)
- chili flakes
- fresh thyme
- onion powder and garlic
- paprika and cayenne
- Sea salt and black pepper
- Raw sugar, date sugar, or maple syrup for paleo option
- Spicy cajun sauce or Tabasco
Homemade Cajun Breakfast Sausage (Air Fryer Recipe)
- Prep Time: 5
- Cook Time: 40
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 12-14 1x
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Sausage is a healthy paleo friendly breakfast. This air fryer recipe is perfect for a holiday brunch!
Ingredients
- 1.5 lbs ground sausage (chicken sausage or lean pork). Pre seasoned country sausage works fine too.
- 1 tsp chili flakes
- Fresh thyme 2 tsp fresh leaves only or 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp each paprika and cayenne
- 1/4 tsp or to taste Sea Salt: black pepper each
- Chopped sage (optional)
- 2 tsp brown sugar, coconut palm sugar, or maple syrup for paleo option
- 3 tsp minced garlic
- Tabasco 2 tsp plus extra for serving
- Herbs to garnish optional
Instructions
- Place ground sausage in large bowl. Make sure it’s chilled. Add your additional spices and herbs. Mix together with hands. Add Tabasco sauce or omit for less spicy option.
- Shape into patties about 3 to 3 1/2 in width and 1 to 1.5 inch thick. They will shrink when cooked or air fried .
- Place patties on baking tray lined with parchment paper to keep from sticking.
- Place 4-5 patties in air fryer at at time.
- Air fryer 20 min on manual or chicken setting at 370F. Pull out the tray half way through cooking to flip the patties. Once you place the tray back in, the cooking will continue.
- Remove sausage from air fryers once the timer goes off. Place on clean plate and cover.
- Repeat for additional patties.
- Serve with extra tabasco sauce or sauce of choice.
Notes
- Stove top – heat skillet with oil over medium high heat. Fry patties 20 min medium to medium high flipping half ever so often. (not as crispy and healthy as air fryer, but same flavor).
- To make this whole 30 friendly, omit the sugar.
- Category: breakfast
- Method: air fry
- Cuisine: american
Keywords: air fryer, paleo, sausage, gluten free, healthy breakfast, brunch, chicken
Hi, I’m Lindsay! Gluten Free Nutrition Specialist, food photographer and author of 
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Yes! Air fryers are genius. Great recipe, as always.
thank you friend! Wish I could deliver. 🙂
Love air fryer recipes! Can’t wait to try your breakfast sausage 🙂
Aren’t they the best?
I want to dive head first into this!
Greatest breakfast ever!!
Homemade sausage is the best! But now I must get an air fryer!!
★★★★★
I keep hearing about air fryers. I need to get my hands on one and try it!
Just come over for the holidays and I’ll show ya and tell santa. Haha!
Ok, I’m making my list for Santa right now! 🙂
These look SO tasty!!
These would make for an awesome breakfast!
Yum! Such a good idea for breakfast!
★★★★★
If Santa doesn’t bring me an airfryer this year, she’s fired. LOL!
I have two. Want me to tell santa to steal one of mine for you? 😉
Normally I hear cajun and I automatically think hot / spicy. I like that you’ve left room for less spicy options because these look so delicious! I think my hubby and sons will really appreciate this one!
★★★★★
The air fryer is probably the coolest kitchen invention I’ve seen besides the Instant Pot. It’s just so incredible to me how crispy those are without any oil. 🙂 YUMM!
That’s it. An air fryer is now officially on my Christmas wish list!
Oh good! YOu need, you will love!
I needs me an air fryer!!
I mean I don’t really want another appliance, but I DO want to get my hands on an air fryer! 🙂
yep… you must!
Air fryer was totally worth the investment for this recipe!!
★★★★★
Oh absolutely! the crispiness of that sausage was sooo worth it
I could eat this ANY time of day! 🙂
★★★★★
You and me both 😉
This is the best brekky ever.
★★★★★
This is the best brekky ever.
★★★★★
Thank you, friend! You’d so love this one-smells amazing 🙂
I want an air fryer for Christmas, but I don’t think my boyfriend got the memo. 🙁
Want me to email him? Haha