Tremendous Sausage Balls
Prep
10m
Cook
22m
Total
32m
Bigly says
Folks. Sausage balls. TREMENDOUS sausage balls. The greatest sausage balls in the history of sausage balls — and sausage balls have a HISTORY, a deep history, a beautiful history, they came out of the South, the South knows what they're doing with breakfast meat, it's not even a contest, the South is undefeated in the breakfast meat division. End of discussion. People don't talk about it enough. Sad.
My grandmother made these. Believe me, she was a tough woman. She had a wooden spoon she kept by the stove and she used it for stirring AND for justice. Her sausage balls — and this is the truth, ask anyone in the family — were the social currency of an entire small town. People would show up. Strangers. Distant cousins nobody had heard from in years. The classic sausage ball is three ingredients: sausage, Bisquick, cheese. That's it. And most chefs will try to convince you to add 14 ingredients and turn it into a 'modern reinvention' and call it 'sausage ball but make it elevated.' NO. Stop it. The sausage ball does not need to be elevated. The sausage ball is already on the mountaintop. The sausage ball IS the mountaintop.
We are going to respect the classic and we are going to make it better than anybody has ever made it, by doing one thing: using REAL ingredients. Sharp cheddar, freshly grated. Hot sausage, the good kind. And a splash of buttermilk to keep them moist, because dry sausage balls are a TRAGEDY, dry sausage balls have ended marriages, I've seen it personally, in person, with my own eyes. Scientists — I've talked to scientists, very smart people, the smartest — would tell you the buttermilk introduces moisture and acidity that tenderizes the proteins. I don't need them to tell me. I already know. The buttermilk transforms the sausage ball from a hockey puck into a CLOUD. A meat cloud. A cheesy, savory, slightly-spicy meat cloud that floats off the tray into your mouth and changes your life. Tremendous. Truly tremendous.
Ingredients
- 1 lbhot breakfast sausage, uncooked(Jimmy Dean Hot or Tennessee Pride, room temperature)
- 3 cups (about 10 oz)sharp cheddar, freshly grated(grate your own, the bagged stuff is sad)
- 2 cupsBisquick or other baking mix
- 4 ozcream cheese, softened(the secret to not-dry sausage balls)
- 1/4 cupbuttermilk
- 1 tspgarlic powder
- 1 tsponion powder
- 1/2 tspsmoked paprika
- 1/2 tspblack pepper
- as neededhoney mustard or ranch (for dipping)
Steps
- 1
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper.
- 2
In a large bowl, combine the room-temperature sausage and softened cream cheese. Mix with your hands or a sturdy spoon until smooth.
- 3
Add the grated cheddar, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, and black pepper. Mix until incorporated.
- 4
Sprinkle the Bisquick over the top, then drizzle in the buttermilk. Mix gently with your hands just until the dough comes together — do not overwork it.
- 5
Scoop into 1-inch balls (a small cookie scoop works great) and arrange on the prepared sheet pans, about 1 inch apart. You'll get roughly 40 balls.
- 6
Bake 20-22 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through, until deeply golden brown on the bottoms and cooked through (internal temp 165°F).
- 7
Let rest on the pan for 3 minutes to firm up, then transfer to a serving platter.
- 8
Serve warm with honey mustard or ranch for dipping.
One more thing
Put a platter of these on the counter at a holiday party and watch the room rearrange itself. Everybody migrates. Everybody. The wallflowers come out. The shy uncle starts telling stories. The teenagers look up from their phones. The sausage ball is a SOCIAL FORCE. Statisticians have run the numbers on this — they haven't, but they should — and the conclusion is unanimous. Make a double batch. You'll need it. Save me a piece.
★ QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS ONE? ★
Ask Bigly about Tremendous Sausage Balls.
Substitutions, what to serve it with, why other chefs are wrong about it. He's got opinions.
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