In this easy and delicious recipe, Italian sausage is baked on a sheet pan with seasoned potatoes and onions. Sheet pan dinners are so convenient it’s no wonder they’re such a popular weeknight dinner option.
I love Italian sausage recipes. The sausage brings a ton of flavor to the party so you can cut down on the number of ingredients needed, saving both time and money. It’s an affordable ingredient that doesn’t disappoint. Italian sausage sandwiches, baked ziti or lentil soup, are just some examples of ways to use this versatile ingredient.
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How to cook Italian sausage in the oven?
Cooking Italian sausage in the oven is very easy. It cuts down on grease splatters making clean up a snap. The sausages turn out juicy with a beautiful golden color. Just a few things to remember for the best baked Italian sausages:
- Oil a sheet pan to prevent sticking and ripping the sausage links.
- Leave space between them so that they brown evenly.
- Turn them halfway through the cooking time to brown on both sides.
- If your oven has a hotspot, rotate the pan 180 degrees halfway through the cooking time.
- Bake them until the internal temperature reaches at least 160°F in the center of the thickest sausage. To ensure they are all up to temperature use an instant read thermometer to test a couple, specifically one in the center of the pan and one towards the outer edges of the sheet pan.
How long to cook sausage in the oven?
How long to cook the sausage in the oven is going to depend on the oven temperature, the size (thickness) of the sausage and how many (how close together) they are on the pan. Here we’re using a quarter sheet pan (13 inch x 9 inch), which isn’t very big, and it’s loaded up with onions and potatoes so that affects the cooking time too. The magic number for us to get the sausages over 160°F and achieve a nice golden-brown color was 35 – 40 minutes at 400°F.
Ingredients for baked Italian sausage
- Sausage – Use fresh Italian sausage in its casing. Choose mild, hot or sweet sausage depending on your taste.
- Vegetables – Yellow or white onion and small red potatoes.
- Oil – Oil is used to grease the sheet pan and to season the potatoes. Use olive oil or choose your favorite.
- Herbs and spices – the potatoes get a ton of flavor from garlic powder, salt, rosemary, thyme and black pepper. For the rosemary and thyme use fresh if you have it on hand, if not dried herbs will do just fine, just cut down on the amount.
- You will also need: Sheet pan (at least 13 inch x 9 inch), Meat thermometer
Prep Work
- Preheat the oven to 400°F
- Brush a sheet pan with 1 tablespoon of oil.
- Wash the potatoes and pat dry. Cut them into halves or quarters depending on their size. Try to get them all roughly the same size so that they cook at the same rate. Place the potatoes in a large bowl.
- Cut the onion into 8 wedges and add them to the bowl.
- Mince the rosemary and thyme if using fresh.
- Measure out the remaining ingredients.
Add 2 tablespoons olive oil, garlic powder, salt, rosemary, thyme and black pepper to the potatoes and onions. Stir gently using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon to combine and coat the potatoes with the seasonings.
Prepare the sheet pan
- Arrange sausages on the greased sheet pan leaving space between them for the vegetables. We use a quarter sheet pan so everything fits snuggly.
- Arrange the potatoes and onion mixture around the sausages.
- Place the pan in the preheated oven.
- Bake the sausage and potatoes for 20 minutes.
- Flip the sausages and return the sheet pan to the oven.
- Cook them for an additional 15-20 minutes or until the Italian sausage has a golden-brown color.
Test if the sausage is done with an instant read thermometer. Take the temperature of at least two links, one from the center of the pan and one from along the edge of the pan. Make sure the internal temperature is at least 160°F. If it’s not, continue baking for 5-10 minutes and test again.
You may also like these sausage recipes:
- Sausage Potato Soup
- Italian Sausage Spaghetti
- Sausage White Bean and Kale Soup
- Italian Sausage Meatballs
- Sausage Tortellini Soup
- Spaghetti Aglio e Olio with Italian Sausage
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Baked Italian Sausage and Potatoes
Ingredients
- 1 – 1¼ pound Italian Sausage in their casings (about 4-5 links) use mild, hot or sweet Italian sausage depending on taste
- 1 pound Small Red Potatoes washed, patted dry and cut in halves or quarters (about 8 small potatoes)
- 1 Medium Onion cut into 8 pieces
- 3 tablespoons Olive Oil divided (1 tablespoon to brush the sheet pan and 2 tablespoons for the potatoes)
- ½ teaspoon Fresh Rosemary woody stems removed and minced (or ¼ teaspoon dried rosemary)
- ½ teaspoon Fresh Thyme woody stems removed and minced (or ¼ teaspoon dried thyme)
- ½ teaspoon Garlic Powder
- ½ teaspoon Salt we use kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon Black Pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F
- Add the cut potatoes and onions to a large bowl. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil, garlic powder, salt, rosemary, thyme and black pepper to the potatoes and onions. Stir gently using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon to combine and coat with the seasonings.
- Brush a sheet pan with 1 tablespoon of oil.
- Arrange sausages on the sheet pan.
- Arrange the potatoes and onion mixture around the sausages.
- Bake the Italian sausages for 20 minutes.
- Turn each sausage so that the paler side is now up.
- Bake for another 15-20 minutes or until the sausages are a golden-brown color.
- Test if the sausage is done with an instant read thermometer. Take the temperature of a couple of links, specifically, one in the middle of the pan and one that’s along the edge. Make sure the internal temperature is at least 160°F; if it’s not, continue cooking for 5-10 minutes and check again.
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