Looking for a delicious, easy, and protein-filled breakfast or appetizer that fits your keto lifestyle? These keto sausage balls with eggs are the answer! They're incredibly simple to make, requiring only a few ingredients and minimal time in the kitchen. These hearty and addictive keto sausage balls are perfect for a quick breakfast on the go, a classy appetizer, or a last-minute dish.
Why You'll Love This Keto Sausage Ball Recipe
- Protein-Packed: Start your day with a hearty, protein-filled breakfast that keeps you energized. This recipe boasts a generous amount of sausage and eggs, ensuring you get your protein fix.
- Easy to Make: With just a handful of ingredients and a straightforward process, these sausage balls are incredibly easy to cook. You can throw together a batch in just 30 minutes.
- Make-Ahead Friendly: These keto sausage balls are best right out of the oven but are also great for meal prepping. Make a big batch and store them in the fridge or freezer for a quick and convenient breakfast or snack.
- Versatile: This recipe is perfect as is, but feel free to experiment with different meats, cheeses, and seasonings to customize it to your liking.
- Low Carb: With only 0.6 net carbs per ball, these are a guilt-free indulgence.
Ingredients You'll Need
This recipe uses just a few simple ingredients:
- Ground Sausage: Italian pork sausage works great, but you can also use chicken or turkey sausage. Just check for added sugar. You can also swap the sausage for ground beef, chicken, or turkey.
- Cream Cheese: Full-fat cream cheese is recommended for more energy, but lower-fat versions may also work. For best results use cream cheese at room temperature.
- Cheddar Cheese: Adds a delicious cheesy flavor. To make them taste even better, try shredding your own cheese. It’s fast and really enhances the way it tastes.
- Eggs: Provide protein and help bind the ingredients. For best results, use eggs that are at room temperature.
- Coconut Flour: This is the key to keeping the sausage balls keto-friendly and creates a fluffy, light texture. Don't worry, you won't taste the coconut! Yes, using coconut flour allows the keto sausage balls to be fluffy and have a light and delicious flavor. I love the texture that using coconut flour provides. I promise that you cannot taste the coconut flour at all.
- Baking Powder: Helps the sausage balls rise and become light and airy.
- Optional Seasonings: Salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and other basic herbs and spices can be added to taste.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Preheat the oven: Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
- Cook the sausage: Fully cook the breakfast sausage in a pan, drain off any excess fat, and set it aside to cool slightly. Let the sausage cool completely. It’s important to make sure that you let the sausage cool fully before adding the rest of the ingredients. Otherwise, you might melt the cream cheese and cook the eggs.
- Combine ingredients: When the sausage has cooled, add it to a mixing bowl and combine with the cream cheese until there are no cream cheese clumps left. (It is important to make sure the sausage is not too hot before continuing, as it will cook the egg when you add it in the next step).
- Add remaining ingredients: Stir in the cheddar cheese, eggs, coconut flour, and baking powder.
- Chill the mixture: When the mixture is well incorporated, cover and chill in the fridge for 5-10 minutes. Coconut flour continues to absorb moisture, so if the dough feels too runny, this step will help.
- Form the sausage balls: Use a cookie scoop to form the mixture into evenly sized balls. Evenly Size - Keep the sausage balls the same size, so they are able to cook more evenly.
- Bake: Place the sausage balls on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat to prevent sticking. Use Parchment Paper - Add some parchment paper or a silicone mat to the baking sheet to prevent them from sticking to the pan. Cleanup is a breeze this way! Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through. Don’t Overbake - Never bake the sausage too long.
Tips and Tricks for Perfect Keto Sausage Balls
- Cool the sausage: It's crucial to let the sausage cool completely before adding the cream cheese and eggs to prevent them from melting or cooking.
- Use room temperature ingredients: For best results, use cream cheese and eggs that are at room temperature. When these ingredients are at room temperature, they’ll better mix with the other ingredients.
- Don't overbake: Overbaking can result in dry sausage balls.
- Get creative with flavors: Explore different types of sausage, cheese, and seasonings to create your own unique flavor combinations.
Variations and Substitutions
I love everything about these easy keto sausage balls the way they are, but if you are in the mood to add extra ingredients and change the flavor go for it.
- Cheese: If you are in the mood for a little bit of spice, swap out the cheddar for shredded Pepper Jack.
- Meat: Try different meat. You could use crumbled chicken sausage, turkey sausage, even Italian sausage for a big flavor boost! Check the recipe recommendations at the bottom of the page-I’ve made these bites with ham and bacon, too!
- Spice it up: Jalapenos - Add in some chopped jalapenos.
- Add herbs: Green Onions - Toss some diced green onions into the mixture before cooking.
- Substitute the meat: Ground sausage - I use Italian pork sausage but chicken or turkey sausage both work well in keto sausage balls. Just check for added sugar.
Serving Suggestions
Well, you can totally eat them without any kind of sauce if you want. The way they taste allows them to be dipped in a variety of dipping sauces and taste great. Ranch dressing, spicy mustard, sugar-free honey mustard, or sugar-free ketchup are all great options. You can also dip them in some sour cream.
Storage and Reheating Instructions
- Refrigerate: Part of why I love this recipe is because it will last in the fridge for up to 5 days. Just store any leftover keto bites in an airtight container. You can eat them cold, or reheat them. To Reheat: place the sausage balls on a microwave-safe plate, cover with a paper towel, and heat up for 1 minute or so until hot in the microwave. To reheat, warm them in the microwave at 80% power in 15-second increments.
- Freeze: Absolutely! These breakfast bites will last for 3 months in the freezer if stored in an airtight container. Additionally, you can freeze the sausage balls too. This will make them last longer and are wonderful for meal planning. To Freeze: layer them on a baking sheet and flash freeze and after they are frozen, put in a freezer container for up to 3 months. Flash-freeze them, then put them in a freezer bag. Always label the container, so you remember what’s in there.
Air Fryer Instructions
Yup, you can make this keto sausage ball recipe in an air fryer at 375 for 8 minutes. Make sure they are in a single layer and not touching.
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