9 Easy Sausage One Pot Dinners For Weeknights

These easy sausage one pot dinners for weeknights are built on the one ingredient that comes out of the package already seasoned and already cooked, or nearly so.

From a sausage and peppers pasta to a cajun sausage and rice, a smoked sausage and potato skillet, a creamy tortellini with sausage, and a zuppa toscana, they need less help from me than any chicken dinner I own.

Here are the nine on my regular rotation!

Smoked sausage like kielbasa only needs to brown and heat through, so it goes into the pan sliced and comes out ten minutes later with crisp edges, and raw Italian sausage gets crumbled and browned first, which takes about the same time.

Either way the fat it leaves in the pan is the base of the whole dinner, so don’t wipe it out.

1. One Pot Sausage Pasta

Crumbled Italian sausage browns, then peppers, onion, garlic, crushed tomatoes, broth, and dry pasta go in and simmer with the lid on until the pasta is done.

The pasta soaks up the sausage flavor as it cooks, and the starch it gives off thickens the sauce on its own.

Spinach wilted in at the end and parmesan on top.

It’s the sausage dinner I make when I have nothing planned!

2. Cajun Sausage and Rice Skillet

Sliced smoked sausage browns in the skillet, then onion, bell pepper, rice, broth, and cajun seasoning go in and cook under a lid until the rice is tender.

The rice picks up the smoky fat and the spice, and it’s a jambalaya for people who don’t have all afternoon.

Andouille if you can find it, and kielbasa if you can’t.

Green onions on top and hot sauce on the table.

3. Smoked Sausage and Potato Skillet

Diced potatoes fry in the skillet until crisp, then sliced kielbasa, onion, and peppers go in and cook until the sausage is browned and the potatoes are soft in the middle.

It’s a dinner my grandmother would recognize, and it costs about as much as a bag of potatoes and a ring of sausage.

Cut the potatoes small so they cook through in the time it takes the sausage to brown.

A fried egg on top turns it into breakfast for dinner.

4. Creamy Tortellini with Sausage

Italian sausage browns in the pan, and then cheese tortellini, broth, cream, tomatoes, and spinach cook together in the same pan until the tortellini is tender and the sauce coats it.

Refrigerated tortellini cooks in a few minutes right in the sauce, so this one is on the table in twenty.

My kids call it the dumpling pasta and have never once left any.

Parmesan and cracked pepper on top!

5. Cheesy Kielbasa, Rice, and Broccoli Skillet

Sliced kielbasa browns first, then rice and broth simmer underneath it, broccoli florets steam on top near the finish, and a handful of sharp cheddar gets folded through once the rice is tender.

The smoky sausage fat flavors the rice, and the cheddar turns the whole skillet creamy without any cream.

Frozen florets are fine here and go in straight from the bag.

It’s dinner, starch, and vegetable in a single skillet, and my kids eat the broccoli because it’s under the cheese.

6. Skillet Beans and Rice with Kielbasa

Kielbasa, canned beans, rice, tomatoes, and onion cook together in a skillet, and it’s red beans and rice on a weeknight schedule.

Canned beans go in near the end so they hold their shape.

It costs very little, feeds a crowd, and reheats well for lunch.

A little hot sauce and a wedge of cornbread from the freezer.

7. Creamy Tuscan Sausage Gnocchi

Sausage browns in the pan, then shelf-stable gnocchi, cream, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, and spinach cook together until the gnocchi is soft and the sauce is thick.

The gnocchi cooks right in the cream, so there’s no boiling and no draining.

It’s rich enough that a salad next to it is a good idea.

A fifteen minute dinner that tastes like a restaurant made it.

8. Zuppa Toscana

Italian sausage, potatoes, kale, garlic, and a creamy broth, and it’s the Olive Garden soup made in one pot on the stove in about forty minutes.

Brown the sausage, cook the onion in the fat, add broth and potatoes, and stir in the cream and kale at the end.

Spicy sausage is the right call, since the cream softens it.

Crusty bread for the table, and the leftovers are better the next day.

9. One Pot Penne with Sausage

Sausage, penne, marinara, broth, and a handful of mozzarella, and the pasta cooks in the sauce until the cheese melts on top under the lid.

It’s the baked ziti idea without the oven, and it’s on the table in half an hour.

A little ricotta dolloped on each plate makes it taste more like the baked version.

Garlic bread if there’s any, and there usually isn’t by the time this is done.

Notes on Sausage in One Pot

Smoked sausage is already cooked, so it only needs a few minutes in a hot pan to brown the edges, and it goes in sliced into coins or half moons.

Raw Italian sausage gets squeezed out of the casing and crumbled into the pan, and it needs to be browned through before anything else goes in.

The fat the sausage leaves behind is the cooking fat for the onion and peppers, and it’s where most of the flavor in these dinners comes from.

Sausage is salty, so go easy on the salt until the end and taste before you add any.

A 12-inch skillet with a lid handles the rice and pasta ones, and a Dutch oven is better for the soup.

Cut kielbasa into coins at an angle on a large cutting board, which gives every slice a wider face to crisp.

A flat wooden spoon breaks up the raw sausage as it browns and scrapes the bottom of the pan when the liquid goes in.

I keep a ring of kielbasa and a pound of Italian sausage in the freezer at all times, along with a jar of bouillon base for the broth, and that’s every one of these dinners covered.

More Sausage Dinners on the Site

The quick crockpot dinners with ten minutes of prep post has a slow cooker kielbasa dinner for the days the stove is off limits.

My hearty crockpot beef stew with root vegetables is what the same potatoes and onions become on a Sunday.

And the crockpot chicken alfredo pasta is the one pot pasta I make when the stove isn’t an option.