Curried Sausages
An old school, classic Aussie, UK and NZ dish of sausages with a fragrant curry sauce. This simple yet flavourful curried sausages recipe is a family favourite that combines the perfect balance of savoury and spice. Quick to prepare and always satisfying, curried sausages are ideal for busy weeknights or when you’re in need of a warm and comforting meal on a cool day.
I’ve spent a lot of time watching food videos on Instagram and TikTok and I feel that so many people are divided on curried sausages, it’s a very polarising dish, some love it, some hate it. To some people, it’s on the same level of hate as apricot chicken and I for one don’t get it. I didn’t have curried sausages growing up so when I started living on my own and cooking for myself, I saw the recipe for curried sausages and I loved the idea; warm, savoury and slightly spicy. It’s the same with apricot chicken, salty, sweet and tangy sauce over some seared chicken and served with rice or potato mash; sounds good to me.
Despite what some people say, I think curried snags is a very tasty dish, it’s just bangers and mash, sausages with an onion gravy that has curry powder with some veg added to it. Newbies to making curried sausages, don’t be daunted by the addition of the curry powder. While it doesn’t have the same boldness and complexity of a traditional Indian or Asian curry, it’s still a great curry based meal in its own way, just quicker and budget friendly.
While I try not to take a dig at people who use supermarket recipe bases – I get it, sometimes we need something easy to get on the table for dinner. I truly believe that you can make curried sausages without it; it’ll taste so much better than what came out of that packet, and it’s just as easy using some kitchen staples.
Ingredients
Sausages, brown onion, garlic, carrots, peas, flour, Keens curry powder, beef/chicken/vegetable stock and salt + pepper. Cream is optional.
Alternatives to using chicken stock
Usual recipes for curried sausages call for a stock to make a roux for the sauce, however I’ve seen people use french onion soup mix as a substitute for stock. I’ve not done it this way before and I’m not sure how much I’d like it since I feel like it would be a different taste. If you want to give it a go, let me know how it turns out.
What type of sausages can I use?
Anything you want. I usually use beef sausages, but you can use pork, lamb, turkey, chicken, flavoured sausages, even vegetarian sausages or paneer. Use firm tofu is you’re vegan, swap to a vegan stock like Massel, leave out the cream at the end or swap to plant based cream. Use a little oil, especially when using vegetarian/vegan options, as they’re likely to stick to the pan since they contain less fat or be stickier.
What can I serve with curried sausages?
I like to serve it with something starchy. Mashed potatoes, rice, flatbreads, tortillas, pasta, 2 minute noodles, over some hot chips or even the humble sliced white bread.
My Best Tips
Freezer friendly – if you have leftovers, let it cool down and place into an airtight container. It’ll last up to 2 days in the fridge, and 3 months in the freezer.
This recipe will still work if you have some leftover cooked sausages from a BBQ, just slice them into smaller pieces and put them into the sauce. I’ll go into detail in the recipe for cooked left over sausages.
If you want the sausages sliced into smaller pieces, cook the sausages first, they’ll be easier to cut rather than doing it when they’re raw. If you do slice the sausages raw, don’t put them in the sauce raw, make sure to cook them first as you would for a whole sausage. They will probably not cook all the way through in the sauce.
Curried Sausages
Ingredients
- 8 thick sausages Note 1
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 tbsp Keen's curry powder
- 1 brown onion halved and sliced into half moon slices
- 3 cloves garlic core removed, minced
- 1 carrot peeled and sliced into half moon slices
- 1 cup peas
- 2 tbsp plain flour sub for gluten free option
- 2.5 cups chicken stock
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp sugar optional, Note 2
- 40 ml thickened cream optional for creaminess, Note 3
- 1/4 tsp chilli powder optional if you want it spicier
Instructions
- Heat up a large pan to a medium to high heat with oil.
- Cook the sausages, turning them regularly until they're brown on most sides, remove and cut into smaller pieces.
- In the same pan, add the onions and cook until they're soft and have gained some colour.
- Add the carrots and cook for 5 minutes, stirring every so often.
- Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute – garlic doesn't need long to cook.
- Add the flour and mix until there isn't many white flour bits in the pan.
- Pour in the chicken stock into the pan and continuously stir until the flour has combined with the stock to thicken up.
- Add in the sugar, salt, pepper, peas and sliced up sausages into the pan and stir to combine.
- Simmer for a few minutes until the sauce thickens to your liking; at least simmer until the peas warm through.
- Once thickened to your liking, add in the thickened cream. Note 4
- Serve with mash potato or rice.
Video
Notes
Sausages: cook them before you do the sauce. If you’d like, you can slice them raw then cook them but I find cooking the whole sausage first makes it easier to slice into. Just don’t skip cooking them whether you cook them whole or sliced into pieces first. I don’t believe they’ll cook all the way through if you skip cooking them first, you’ll also miss out on adding some beautiful flavour to your dish and I’m very unsure of the taste and texture of what is basically a boiled sausage. Cooked sausages – no need to pan fry them again. Skip to step 3 and make sure to add some oil to pan as a fat source since in the following steps we will be essentially making a roux to make the curry sauce and we need some kind of fat to mix with the flour and chicken stock. Slice up the sausages and add as per step 8 and as the sauce thickens, the sausages will warm through. Note 2
Sugar – sugar is optional too. It adds some sweetness and can cut down on any of the acidity. Note 3
Cream – I like creamy dishes but this is completely optional. If the curry powder is too much for you, add in some cream, it should help tone down some of the spiciness. Note 4
If the sauce isn’t thickening up: add a little bit of flour into a bowl, around a teaspoon or so, pour some of the hot curry sauce and whisk into the flour until smooth and add back into the pan and allow sauce to thicken. Only do this in small batches to see how it thickens up before adding more. For thinning out a thicker sauce, mix in some chicken stock, a little bit at a time, allow to cook through before adding more stock.Â
