The Best Pan Fried Cabbage with Sausage Recipe

I love to cook cabbage and sausages when we’re in a pinch and need something quick for dinner – or as a swap for heavier, greasier comfort foods since it still tastes nice and indulgent!

At Ajpal, I add lots of tips in all of my recipes – because I am a home cook without any formal training, and I find I am more confident making dishes when I understand why it works, and what each ingredient means to the flavor of a recipe. My goal is for even the most beginner home cook to feel empowered in the kitchen.

How to Make Fried Cabbage and Sausage

The Best Pan Fried Cabbage and Sausage Recipe is super easy and can go from your fridge to the dinner table in just one pot and under 30 minutes – making it a delicious, hearty, and family friendly dinner that you’ll want to eat long after Saint Patrick’s Day when you’re thinking of easy Irish Recipes.

Fried Cabbage with Sausage Ingredients

To make this recipe, you’ll need:

• Sausage
  • Beef, Chicken, Turkey, or Vegan Polska Kielbasa style smoked sausages, sliced into thin rounds
  • Cheddar Stuffed Bratwurst, sliced thin, for a cheesy twist on this dish.
  • German Breakfast sausages, cooked in the pan before frying the onions and cabbage (simply brown before adding the onions in the pan, don’t cook all the way through since they will continue to cook with onions and cabbage, but you want to give them a good nice sear before adding in the veggies. Reduce butter to 1 tbsp if cooking raw sausage or your dish will be too greasy.)
  • Andouille Sausage, sliced into thin rounds, for a slightly spicy twist!
• Onion – I love the earthy, hot, sweet, pungent flavor onion brings to dishes when it is caramelized. It is fabulous with smoked sausage.
• Butter – butter helps add fat to the cabbage, so it won’t stick to your pan, or burn as we pan fry, as well as adding a creamy salty richness to the dish.
• Cabbage – while we’re making this recipe with green cabbage for the best color (in my opinion), if you can only get red cabbage, it works just fine.

Steps to Make Fried Sausage and Cabbage

Once you have assembled the ingredients, use this method.

Prep. Heat butter in large pan on medium-high heat until melted and foamy.

Cook Veg. Add diced onions to pan, cook until soft and transparent, about 4 minutes. Stir to prevent sticking or burning. Add garlic to pan, cook until fragrant and soft, about 3 minutes. Add cabbage to pan and toss well to coat in butter. Generously season with salt.

Reduce. Let cabbage reduce by half, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally as it cooks down to prevent burning and allow it to cook evenly.

Add Sausage. Slice smoked polska kielbasa into thin rounds and add to pan with cabbage and onions.

Serve. When cabbage has lost much of it’s volume and started to turn shiny, slightly translucent, and has lovely browned bits – and polska kielbasa has browned slightly (smoked kielbasa has been cooked already, so you’re just adding some browning and flavor to it), it is ready to serve. Remove from heat and plate with your favorite meat, casserole, fish, or other main dish!

Tips and Tricks to Perfect Pan Fried Sausage and Cabbage

Try other sausages. If you’re worried about the nutritional profile of adding smoked Polska Kielbasa (my personal pick for this dish), you can easily swap for chicken, turkey, and even meat-free sausages!

Skip the onions. I personally LOVE the flavor onions give to this dish, but you can sub them out for garlic if you’d like.

Use red cabbage. If you can’t find any green cabbage, you can use red for this dish too. It will look different, but taste very similar.

Other Irish Inspired Meals You’ll Love

If you love this deliciously easy cabbage and sausage skillet, you’re going to love some of my other favorite Irish inspired meals!

Irish Colcannon (Buttery Potatoes and Cabbage)

Skillet Irish Potato Bread

Irish Whiskey Glazed Salmon Recipe

Roasted Corned Beef

Fried Cabbage with Bacon Recipe

Baked Honey Mustard Corned Beef and Potatoes

Ground Beef Shepherd’s Pie

Potato Pancake

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Fried Cabbage and Sausage Recipe FAQs

Cabbage is extremely good for you, and something I try to incorporate more into our diets. I really love the rich and buttery flavor of cabbage when it’s cooked – and it is a great vegetable to get kids into, since when cooked it has a subtle flavor kids love

If you’re watching fat and calories, and worried about adding butter, this recipe works great with olive oil as well – so it can work in any diet or healthy eating plan!

This recipe can be kept in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to four days, or frozen for up to four months.