Fennel and Maple Breakfast Sausage

Breakfast for dinner. It’s a great thing, right up there with Sunday brunch and unexpected snow days. When I was younger and my mom used to tell me that we were having breakfast for dinner, it was like Christmas in July. Pancakes, eggs, and bacon for dinner? I felt like I was breaking some kind of rule. Admittedly, breakfast for dinner was probably the most rebellious thing I ever did as a child. Others were throwing temper tantrums or building forts, I was eating massive amounts of pancakes.

Breakfast for dinner is something that I continue to do today, really as often as is socially acceptable. I would eat French toast and bacon for dinner every night if that weren’t a little disgusting and/or severely clogging my arteries. Last night was scrambled eggs and this Fennel and Maple Breakfast Sausage. Fennel seeds aren’t something that I use a lot, but they work beautifully in these sausage patties. I sweeten up a mild pork sausage with maple syrup and a touch of sweet brown sugar. Crushed red pepper flakes add some heat.

Fennel and Maple Breakfast Sausage

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Yield	4
Prep time	10 minutes
Cook time	15 minutes
Total time	25 minutes
Meal type	Breakfast, Meat & Poultry

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground pork sausage
• 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, toasted and ground
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil, for cooking

Directions

1.	Combine the sausage, maple syrup, sugar, salt, fennel, black pepper, and red pepper flakes in a medium bowl, mixing just until combined. Form the mixture into 2-inch patties.
2.	Heat half of the vegetable oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Cook the sausage patties for 3 to 4 minutes per side, until cooked through. Continue cooking the patties, adding more oil as needed.

Tagged as: breakfast, brown sugar, fennel seeds, maple syrup, pork sausage, poultry, recipe, red pepper flakes, sausage patties