These biscuit mix cheesy sausage balls are a holiday staple as an appetizer and also grace many a table for holiday breakfasts as well! Only three ingredients and you have a delicious snack or side dish. Can you tell that I have a box of Bisquick to use up? These Bisquick Sausage Balls are a classic recipe and are so easy and delicious to make! If you are looking for another recipe, try my Bisquick Quiche Recipe, it’s another classic!
Quick & Easy Sausage Balls Recipe
Ok, I’m not grown up at all, I keep snickering over the name of this recipe, I admit it. I have the mind of a 14 year old boy – my son is probably more mature than I am, let’s face it. That said, while I may snort over the name of this recipe, sausage balls are delicious.
After that last sentence I give up, I can’t even write seriously about this recipe. Mike and I have spent the whole day making dirty jokes while I was making these sausage balls.That’s what happens when you are stuck together working as a team, you feed off each other, even when it means you’re acting immature.
Let’s get serious about those sausage balls now.
This is a classic Bisquick recipe that is extremely popular around the holidays and with the holidays coming up I thought it was high time I gave these a try, not to mention I have a box of Bisquick that I was supposed to take out to the trailer at the lake – and I need to use it up before it goes stale. We totally were screwed out of a decent August here in Alberta, between the fires in BC smoking up the air Calgary and Edmonton and the weather generally being weirdly hot and cold, we made it out to the lake ONCE – and we stayed inside the trailer the entire time. It was so smoky we couldn’t see the lake.
This is also my backyard this recent September 13th. I am NOT making this up, my friends. I feel totally ripped off this summer between the smoke and the SNOW (it’s actually still summer until September 22nd).
I live where it snows in the summer. I’m moving to Vancouver Island, I swear. I can’t take this anymore.
Onward to the baking that I did when it was snowing in summer. These sausage balls are the kind of food that one should start baking in the winter, rich, decadent comforting carb loaded goodness. The recipe makes a perfect 24 golf ball sized sausage balls and they will fit on a large baking sheet together perfectly, as you can see below. I like a good recipe that a) uses only one bowl and b) fits onto one baking sheet. That’s my kinda recipe!
What kind of pork sausage do I use?
You are going to need the raw, ground pork sausage for the traditional sausage balls recipe however the sky is really the limit. You can use a mild Italian sausage, a maple syrup sweet breakfast sausage or even a hot spiced sausage, the only caveat is that it HAS to be ground sausage. It cannot be a cooked smoked sausage.
My kitchen hack?
Use your stand mixer with the paddle attachment.
Using your mixer to make these sausage balls made this recipe SO EASY that I can see this recipe being doubled and you having 4 dozen sausage ball snacks in no time at all! I also think it does a better job of working the ingredients together than mixing them by hand would. You then simply get a tablespoon and get your golf ball sized dough balls ready to rock! The other secret to these is not dropping them onto the sheet, you can roll them into nice uniform shaped balls. I don’t guarantee that they are going to stay that shape as the pork fat and cheese fat will melt and change the shape of these, but mine came out pretty darn uniform.
Karlynn’s Tips & Tricks for Making Sausage Balls
- Don’t use bagged shredded cheese in these. You need the moisture that comes with freshly shredded block cheese. The cheese shreds in the bag are dry and you will end up with a dry product.
- You can definitely change up the type of cheese to whatever flavour you prefer, but a sharp old cheddar is delicious!
- If the batter seems dry, add in a 1/4 cup of milk.
- If your sausage isn’t that greasy, you also might have to add in milk.
- Here in Canada we don’t usually get the 1lb packs of spiced ground pork sausage (if we do, please let me know where, I have been looking!) and I simply took breakfast sausages out of their casings and used that instead. That seemed to be a little dryer than it should be, so I added in 2 tbsp of milk to help. I would add in the 1/4 cup next time for sure.
- Add in some spices like cayenne if you want – I LOVED mine with the chives! I would use fresh minced green onion in my next batch for sure.These are easy to customize.
And that dip? It’s my new Creamy Sweet Chili Sauce and it is my new favourite dip! You can literally use that on anything, chicken wings, salad, veggies and more. It was awesome with these sausage balls!
Stay tuned for more Bisquick recipes in the next week or two, I still have a ton left that I need to use up! And that’s before the one at the trailer comes home this weekend, since we have to pack up the trailer at the lake way early this year. Sigh. Maybe we will get an early nice spring?
Happy Baking!
Love,
Karlynn
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These biscuit mix (Bisquick ) cheesy sausage balls are a holiday staple as an appetizer and also grace many a table for holiday breakfasts as well! Only three ingredients and you have a delicious snack or side.
- 1 pound sharp Cheddar cheese shredded
- 1 pound ground pork sausage
- 2 cups biscuit baking mix
- 1 tbsp freeze dried chives ( optional)
- 1/4 cup milk (if needed)
- Preheat your oven to 350 °F.
- In a large bowl, combine the ground sausage, biscuit baking mix and shredded cheese.
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Form into 24 golf ball sized balls and place on baking sheets.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown and the sausage is cooked through entirely.
- Remove and serve hot!
Shred your cheese fresh, don't use pre-shredded as the cheese doesn't have the same moisture content. Pre-shredded cheese is DRY! You need the block of cheddar cheese.
20 Comments
Oh it’s been years since I made these. Making for New Years eve. Quick and easy. Using sage sausage and feta for the sharpness with mozzarella for the creamy-ness. I’ll let you know. Also adding g some Savory. Need something green in them. Suggestions?
If I wanted to add frozen spinach into the batter, how much thawed & squeezed should I add?
I just made these and I added a package of dry ranch and a pinch of red pepper flakes and OMG! they are delicious too! thanks for the hint of adding milk, mine are not dried out!
OH that sounds amazing! I am so glad that they worked out!
If I mix up my ingredients for the sausage balls, can I cook some now and refrigerate the rest until later tonight?
Thank you
Cooked sausage balls freeze well. Also, shredded cheese is fine, just add more milk. Add the 1/4 cup first, mix, then add an extra half cup and finish mixing.
You are absolutely hilarious. I thought I was just looking for a recipe that I wanted to cook on a Saturday morning. I read your facts about yourself and literally laughed to myself when I read ” I would rather burn my house down than have to clean it”. And I too have never met a cocktail that I didn’t like.
Haha I am glad that you liked the facts! Cheers and Merry Christmas!
Thank you very much Karlynne and for your excellent suggestions using fresh grated cheese and little more milk. I will make these tomorrow for Friday gathering. I am going to try feta cheese in a batch for fun… although Feta is more dry….. Love your idea to move to Vancouver Island! We lived there and loved it. We now live in Salmon Arm and experienced the same summer~
Woke up in the middle of the night, thinking I need one more item to serve at our Christmas get together. Sausage balls made with Bisquick and cheese popped into my head. Being years since I made them, I wasn’t sure if I still had the recipe. Thanks to your site, l found the recipe!
Your first paragraph had me cracking up! I’m glad I’m not the only one who giggles a bit on the inside when this recipe is mentioned. Thank you!
Haha thanks!!
I have always done mine with cheeze whiz. It will help with the dryness. It had been to many years since I made mine that I had to look for a recipe to remember how much of everything. I came across yours, which now I remember mine, it is the same but with the cheese whiz. I use one jar of the cheese. Thank you.
First time making these with Cheese Whiz… I think we have a winner! Thanks again for the suggestion. I also chop some fresh chives into the mixture before rolling up the balls.
These look delicious. I’ve been looking for a Christmas Day appetizer. Thanks!
Hi. Read your recipe here few weeks ago and it made me remember eating these long ago. I decided to buy some bisquick and make some. I looked up the original bisquick recipe and thought I’d let you know that it calls for 1/2c of milk. I thought this may be why you are having ‘dryness’ issues. But it also calls for 3c of bisquick where you use 2. They also claim they should be 1” balls which is kind of small. Anyway I thought you may want to consider adding more milk it would be justified.
Love your recipes. Will try these sausage balls next time friends come over. BTW, don’t move to Vancouver. Or Victoria. It snows there too seriously.
Thanks Earlyne! I’d love to move by the ocean one day, snow or not….. I love the ocean!
Here in NC it’s going to be in the 70s tomorrow (December 2nd). Doesn’t feel wintery at all! I loved being up north but I know snow can be a hassle. XOXO STAY WARM! : )
Great timing. Have almost a whole box of Bisquick to use up from the trailer too. These sound delicious. I make my own ground pork sausage (different varieties but all variations on pizza style Italian sausage) so will likely use that. The creamy Thai chili dip sounds great as well. Will give it a try.