I Tried More than 20 Frozen Breakfast Sausages — These Are the 4 I’ll Buy Again

The beauty of breakfast is that there’s something for everyone. You can start your day with a fluffy stack of flapjacks or a buttery biscuit. Opt for eggs golden and sunny-side up or soft, creamy, and scrambled. And something salty and savory is just the thing to finish the plate, but will you choose bacon or sausage?

If you go the sausage route, you have a ton of options, particularly in the freezer case. But which one should you buy? Determined to never settle for a subpar breakfast, we embarked on an extensive taste test to find the very best frozen breakfast sausages. Here’s what we found.

I visited five different grocery stores and was astounded by the abundance of options. I bought 21 different varieties of frozen breakfast sausage. At home, I separated the sausages into meat- and plant-based breakfast sausages. Next, I sorted them into patties and links. Many of the packages offered microwave, oven, and stovetop cooking instructions, and I opted to cook the sausages from frozen on an oiled cast iron griddle. I numbered the sausages and conducted a blind taste test. I judged the sausages on flavor and texture, paying special attention to the mixture of spices or flavorings.

After a side-by-side taste test, the winners from each category were clear. Here are my picks for the best frozen breakfast sausages.

This Kentucky-based brand of breakfast sausage was the uncontested winner of all the frozen sausage patties. They’re packed as raw pucks separated with parchment, and therefore require slightly longer in the skillet than heat-and-eat varieties. But the savory sausage rounds are well worth the wait. The meat-to-fat ratio is spot-on, making the sausages succulent and juicy without being overly greasy. The flavor is savory and well-seasoned. The sausage relies on pork and a mixture of a few spices for flavor, making it ideal as a breakfast side, breakfast sandwich stacker, or as a base for sausage gravy.

Buy: Purnell’s Old Folks Medium Country Sausage Patties, $11.17 for 24 patties at Walmart

These pork sausage links from Jones Dairy Farm met all my breakfast meat expectations. The links come fully cooked and frozen, so they are easy to portion and they brown quickly. They’re savory with a touch of black pepper in the seasoning, and would be especially delicious paired with sweet breakfast stuff, like waffles or cinnamon rolls.

Buy: Jones Dairy Farm All Natural Pork Sausage Links, $2.99 for 10 links at Target

Plant-based dinner sausages and burgers outnumber the A.M. options, but that’s slowly but surely changing. Beyond Meat has made a name for itself in the meatless meat space (we love their chicken tenders) and that expertise translated to their plant-based sausage patties, which were the winner for me. These sausages are soy-free, using pea and rice protein for their 100% plant-based protein. The patties sizzle in rendered fat and brown just like traditional sausage. The flavor is well-balanced without having an overpowering sage or maple flavor that can often occur with breakfast sausages. Bonus: They’re perfectly sized to serve as a side or stack onto an English muffin or biscuit.

Buy: Beyond Breakfast Sausage Plant-Based Patties, $5.69 for 6 patties at Amazon

I tried Jack & Annie’s jackfruit dinner sausages for the first time during another taste test, where the brand took the top spot for plant-based sausage links. In this breakfast sausage showdown, they’ve again shown the versatility of jackfruit. While the texture is firmer than a pork sausage link, it is neither rubbery nor crumbly. The maple sugar and apple cider vinegar highlight the natural flavor of jackfruit, artfully balancing savory and sweet.

Buy: Jack & Annie’s Maple Breakfast Jack Sausage Links, $7.69 for 12 links at Instacart

Do you have a favorite brand of frozen breakfast sausage? Share your pick in the comments below.