Best Ground Turkey Breakfast Sausage Patties

These are by far the Best Ground Turkey Breakfast Sausage Patties I’ve ever made! Super easy to prepare ahead and reheat during busy weekday mornings. Bonus: These patties stay juicy thanks to a tiny bit of applesauce!

Who here has subbed ground turkey in when a recipe called for ground beef?🙋‍♀️ Me! I’m that person, every time. I don’t eat much red meat, so I’m constantly making things with ground turkey instead of ground beef.

Taco meat, meatballs, meatloaf (this is my all-time favorite turkey meatloaf recipe), stuff like that. But I’d never tried turning ground turkey into breakfast sausage.

Expanding my selection of morning breakfast meal prep options means also expanding my breakfast meat options, and like I said, I try to refrain from eating much red meat. So, Ground Turkey Breakfast Sausage Patties it is!

How do you keep ground turkey sausage patties moist?

Or juicy, or whatever word you like best here.

Ground turkey is pretty lean, which is why some people consider it healthier than other ground meats with more fat, like ground beef. But that lack of fat makes it especially prone to drying out during cooking, which is a common complaint I hear about ground turkey.

Solution? Add another ingredient to keep it juicy. My favorite turkey meatloaf recipe uses finely chopped mushrooms. In this recipe, I use 2 tablespoons of unsweetened applesauce for one pound of ground turkey meat. Adding a moistening ingredient is the best way to use lean ground meat and keep it super juicy.

During some poking around on the Internet, I found a recipe for turkey burgers with applesauce to keep the burgers juicy. I’ve definitely used applesauce to keep baked goods moist with great results, so I thought the same could apply to ground turkey.

Lots of breakfast sausage recipes also call for brown sugar. I’m not really trying to add sugar to things that don’t need it. But, I thought maybe the applesauce could provide a tiny bit of sweetness to contrast with the savory breakfast sausage flavors. Applesauce to the rescue!

And, success! Literally my favorite homemade turkey sausage happened after I added applesauce to the recipe. You’ll just have to try it to believe it.

YES, I made the patties with AND without applesauce, and there’s the definite difference in the juicy factor. It’s just not as good without applesauce. TLDR: Applesauce is a must!

How do you make ground turkey taste like breakfast sausage?

I didn’t check them all, but virtually every breakfast sausage recipe ever uses sage (or rubbed sage). The ingredients in the pork breakfast sausage we get in our Butcher Box (the only pork I’ll eat) are ground pork, sage, and salt. Pretty sure it’s the universal breakfast meat seasoning.

So I went on that route to achieve ground turkey breakfast sausage. I also added some staples like garlic powder, onion powder, and thyme (and salt because duh). The result worked perfectly well with the ground turkey and had me feeling 100% ready for breakfast at 2:30pm. More sage = more breakfast sausage-y taste.

How to store Ground Turkey Breakfast Sausage Patties:

To store in the fridge, put all the patties in an airtight container and enjoy them within 4 days. Since there are about 4 servings of meat, that’s perfect for breakfast meal prep!

How to freeze Ground Turkey Breakfast Sausage Patties:

To freeze, make sure the patties are completely cooled before you put them into a freezer-safe container, silicone bag, or vacuum sealed bag. Use them up within 3 months of freezing!

How to reheat Ground Turkey Breakfast Sausage Patties:

From the fridge: Put 3-4 on a plate, cover with a paper towel, and microwave (on high) for 60 seconds.

From the freezer: Put 3-4 on a plate, cover with a paper towel, and microwave (on high) for 90 seconds or until completely heated through.