Sausage Balls

This is the Sausage Ball recipe that The Harris Sisters family made growing up. If you look up "Sausage Balls Recipe" today, you'll find many different variations of this savory appetizer recipe, including ingredients like pimento cheese, cream cheese, onions, and all sorts of spices. 

But the recipe we used was made with only these three simple ingredients: Bisquick, cheddar cheese, and sausage, and those sausage balls were a hit every time.

We usually made this recipe at Christmas time, but this Southern snack food is also perfect for game day, wedding or baby showers, or breakfast or brunch potlucks.

Sausage Balls

3 scant cups Original Bisquick Pancake and Baking Mix*

1 pound pork sausage* at room temperature

16 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded* (4 cups)

1. Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl then mix by hand* until all ingredients are evenly combined.
2. Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls and place one inch apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned on the bottom.
4. Serve sausage balls warm or at room temperature.

Notes:

To measure a scant cup of flour, scoop the flour into the cup using a spoon. Scant means almost a full cup, but not quite. Do not use the cup to scoop the flour and level it as you would normally do with baking, or you will use too much flour for this recipe.

We use Jimmy Dean Hot Sausage.

Make sure to shred your own cheese for this recipe versus using bagged cheese. Bagged cheese is drier than freshly shredded cheese and will contribute to a drier sausage ball.

The dough for this recipe is very stiff, which may make mixing it difficult to do with a spoon. You may have the most success kneading the dough with your hands as you would with bread dough.

The original back-of-box recipe (shown below) also includes the addition of Parmesan cheese, milk, and herbs, as well as sauces for dipping. We have never included those in our recipe. However, if after mixing your dough, it seems dry, you may want to add a splash of milk to help incorporate the ingredients.

Recipe makes approximately 4 dozen sausage balls.