8 Ways To Upgrade Store-Bought Chicken Sausage

I've always enjoyed the challenge of trying to be resourceful and make the best meal possible with only a handful of ingredients. As it turns out, what started during my college years out of humble necessity grew into a valuable skill as I honed my prowess in professional kitchens. With plenty of different meats in stock like chicken sausage, I've had to come up with various meal ideas to plate up for diners.

The benefit of working with chicken sausage is that it's typically just about as flavorful as pork sausage, but just a little leaner since it usually has less fat. The flavor of chicken is also incredibly versatile, making this type of sausage compatible with a wide range of ingredients. Whether you're in the mood for a hearty breakfast, delicious sandwiches, something smoky off the grill, pasta recipes, and plenty more, there's no shortage of tasty meals that you can turn some store-bought chicken sausage into. Read on for some cool, approachable ideas to switch up your usual menu.

For the uninitiated, gochujang is fermented Korean chili pepper paste. It can be mild or spicy and adds its distinctive flavor to countless stews and meat marinades in Korean cuisine. Its thick and viscous consistency makes it great for glazes, so I often like to mix it with some maple syrup. The sweetness of the maple syrup helps balance out the intensity of the fermented chili pepper paste, and the sugars in the maple syrup also ensure that whatever's being grilled will nicely caramelize.

Maple gochujang is a simple yet tasty glaze to add extra flavor to everything from Korean-style beef stir-fry to grilled salmon. With chicken sausage, try brushing this glaze on the sausages over the grill during the last five minutes of cooking. If you're working with ground chicken sausage instead of links, try adding a few spoons of this sauce to the chicken before it gets cooked, so that the glaze soaks into the meat to give it a big boost of flavor.

If you have chicken sausage links and want to keep it extra simple, you can't go wrong making some sausage subs. Growing up, we often had Italian-style sausage subs for dinner made with grilled onions, roasted peppers, and cheese. We'd toast up some hoagie rolls (sometimes with garlic butter so that they taste like garlic bread), layer on the sausage, onions, and peppers, top it with a couple slices of provolone cheese, and then bake it in the oven until the cheese was melted and bubbly. The end result is a baked sub that's easy to make, filling, and extra delicious.

If you don't have provolone on hand, you can also try mozzarella. In fact, sometimes I actually prefer mozzarella's flavor and buttery texture over provolone. You can also prepare all of this on the grill instead of the oven — just make sure that you turn the heat down towards the end of cooking while the cheese is melting and don't over-toast the buns. To go the extra mile, top your cheesy chicken sausage subs with some chopped parsley and fresh basil.

Another easy way to upgrade chicken sausage is to let it smoke on the grill. Sure, this method takes more time than frying the sausage up on the stovetop, but the rich and smoky flavor is worth it when you're not in a rush. To smoke your sausage, add wood chips to the direct heat on one side of your grill, then place the sausage on the cooler side of the grates over indirect heat. Make sure to cover the grill so that the smoke can surround and permeate the sausage. If you're working with charcoal, make sure that the grill vents are properly adjusted so that the coals have enough oxygen to stay lit.

Cook the sausage until the outside is golden brown from the grill and the internal temperature has reached at least 165 Fahrenheit. The flavor of smoke elevates chicken sausage to a whole new level of deliciousness. Smoked sausage pairs well with other popular barbecue side dishes like baked macaroni and cheese and coleslaw. 

Chicken sausage presents a great opportunity to make some hearty jambalaya. Jambalaya typically consists of chicken, sausage, and shrimp. Because chicken sausage essentially combines two of these ingredients, you could pair some shrimp with this and have a simplified, shortcut version of this dish that's still big on flavor.

Make sure to caramelize the sausage first by searing it at a high temperature that causes the edges to brown. The browning of the sausage will add an extra depth of flavor to the jambalaya. Once the sausage is seared, set it aside to cool and add diced celery, onions, peppers, and garlic with some butter to the pan. Sauté until fragrant and translucent, then deglaze the pan with chicken stock, crushed tomatoes, and Creole seasoning. Add uncooked rice, stir, cover, and simmer until the rice is soft and fluffy. If you want your jambalaya to have a little heat, add some crushed red chili pepper flakes or a few splashes of your favorite hot sauce, like the Yellowbird Foods Habanero Hot Sauce.

A plateful of fluffy biscuits smothered in sausage gravy is just about as good as it gets when you're in the mood for an extra comforting and hearty breakfast. Although pork sausage is traditionally used in Southern-style biscuits and gravy recipes, the truth is that other types of sausage — such as turkey or chicken — are perfectly acceptable. In fact, I would argue that when seasoned and cooked properly, poultry sausage is equally delicious and at times even superior in this dish. Because biscuit gravy tends to be so rich and creamy, sometimes the additional fattiness of ground pork can be a bit overkill. A leaner sausage, like chicken sausage, can actually provide more textural balance, and its inherent leanness is easily counteracted by the fat provided from the creamy biscuit gravy.

To make the gravy, cook the sausage in a pan. Then add some butter and flour to the pan with the sausage once the sausage is fully cooked. When the butter is melted and bubbling, combine with the flour to form a smooth roux. Add chicken stock and dried herbs, then stir to combine, and whisk in whole milk. Simmer until thickened. Season to taste with salt and black pepper, and serve with freshly-baked buttermilk biscuits.

Adding spice is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to take plain chicken sausage to the next level. The quickest and simplest way to make ground chicken sausage spicy is to add crushed red pepper flakes to the meat and thoroughly mix it in. These days, there are all kinds of interesting dried chili flake iterations available that use bolder flavors like dried chipotle peppers or more floral chili peppers like dried habaneros.

Adding a few squirts of sriracha to chicken sausage is another way to make it spicy without having to add several ingredients. Because so many different ingredients are condensed into sriracha — such as jalapeño peppers, sugar, salt, vinegar, and garlic — even just a small drop of sriracha makes a big impression. If you enjoy the heat of extra spicy food, then feel free to add a few extra drizzles of sriracha or try a Carolina Reaper hot sauce to really bring the heat.

One of my favorite ways to enjoy chicken sausage is with noodles bathed in some kind of delicious sauce. On most days, I prefer a simple and bright marinara. But there are other times when I like pairing sausage with something a little richer, like a creamy penne alla vodka or maybe some sausage and spinach tortellini soup. You can crumble your chicken sausage into the pasta sauce, or you could slice and sauté the sausage, depending on your preference. 

Another good way to use chicken sausage is to swap it for the beef and pork mix that's typically used in lasagna recipes. The texture and flavor of chicken sausage works just as well with the added benefits of being high in protein and low in fat. This can work in just about any recipe that normally uses a mix of beef and pork — you can also try making chicken sausage spaghetti and meatballs or chicken sausage baked ziti with garlic bread.

The beauty of stromboli is how easy it is to make. While pizzas need to be stretched to more precise proportions, stromboli dough can be rolled out into a simple square, layered with fillings like shredded mozzarella cheese, crumbled chicken sausage, and pepperoni, then wrapped tightly like a burrito before getting scored and baked until golden brown.

To make this meal even better, be sure to pair your stromboli with some marinara dipping sauce. Start by sautéing diced onions with a whole crushed clove of fresh garlic in salt and olive oil. When the onions are cooked through, add a can of crushed tomatoes, a pinch of salt and sugar, and some dried oregano. Simmer on low heat for only about five minutes; keeping the cooking time to a minimum will help the tomatoes retain a freshness in the marinara sauce. The addition of fresh marinara sauce to chicken sausage stromboli helps balance the sausage's savory flavor with the bright and robust taste of garlicky tomato sauce.