Best Italian Sausage According to Our Taste Test

In my search for the best Italian sausage, I discovered that many of the top Italian sausage brands out there were not pork but chicken. I don’t know what your nonna would say about that, but I think you should accept it as fact. Italian chicken sausage can be just as juicy and fatty and delicious as Italian pork sausage. Capeesh? 

To conduct this very serious taste test, I gathered together ten top-selling brands of Italian sausages—both spicy Italian sausage and mild Italian sausage, made with chicken or pork or even plant-based ingredients. I cooked them all in our toaster oven (because I work in an office, not a fancy test kitchen). And I ate them plain with a fork. I judged them on flavor (Italian sausage should be filled with tasty spices like fennel, it shouldn’t just taste like meat), juiciness (we want juices to pour out when the sausages are pieced!), snap (I love a snappy casing), and usefulness (the best Italian sausage should be good for both pasta and sandwiches). 

With all the criteria out of the way, let’s get started. We have a lot of meaty reviews to pack into an internet article casing (not my best work, I’ll admit it). Here’s the best Italian sausage you can buy at the grocery store. 

Best Vegan

You won’t mistake this vegan Italian sausage for the real meaty deal. It’s dark and craggy. It’s very dry and crumbly. But the seasoning is right on. It sort of tastes like rye bread and sun-dried tomatoes with Italian sausage spices. But I’m a meat eater, so what do I know? According to our resident fake meat freak, Jordan Myrick, it is good. They suggest sauteeing it for pasta (maybe the best spaghetti, according to our taste test) or topping it with marinara and real or vegan mozzarella cheese before popping it under the broiler. Just be careful not to over cook it.

Credit: Merc / Walmart

Rating:

5.5/10

Sporks

Best Crumbles

While some of the Italian chicken sausage on this list tastes like it could be pork, this one very much tastes like chicken. It has a looser texture than classic sausage, which makes it less than ideal for sausage sandwiches, but good to crumble into a sauce for pasta. It’s seasoned with a ton of herbs and it is HUGE. It’s girthy. So, whatever you think of it, you sure get a lot of it. Note: Even though this is a chicken sausage it’s made with a pork casing.

Credit: Merc / Kroger

Rating:

6.5/10

Sporks

Best All Chicken

When a sausage tells you who it is, listen. This Italian chicken sausage says it is made with bell peppers and it really, really is. It is heavy on the bell peppers. And that’s a very good thing if you like to pair your sausage with bell peppers (I do). They give the sausage texture and flavor and there’s just the tiniest hint of heat. You can slice this savory sausage up and toss with pasta for a fast and tasty weeknight dinner—no sauce required. Unlike Boar’s Head (or any other Italian chicken sausage on this list), this chicken sausage is made without a casing so you don’t have to worry about accidentally ingesting any pork products if that is a concern.

Credit: Merc / Instacart

Rating:

7.5/10

Sporks

Best Spicy Italian

This was the best spicy Italian sausage we tried. It has a zesty pepper flavor along with the heat that comes on immediately—no slow burn here. Still, it’s not scorchingly hot. So, unless you’re super sensitive to heat, you can handle this hot Italian sausage. Like Johnsonville’s sweet Italian sausage (more on that later), it has a good balance of salt and fat. And the heat just keeps you coming back for more. It’s my pick for a sausage to put on a sandwich. Toast up a hot dog bun, saute up some peppers and onions. And skip the hassle of actually going to a baseball game.

Credit: Merc / Walmart

Rating:

8.5/10

Sporks

Best Juicy

This fat, juicy Italian chicken sausage is made with smoked chicken, which gives it more of a meaty, porky flavor than some of the other chicken sausages. (It’s also made with pork casings, so it’s not all chicken.) Though it advertises mozzarella, there isn’t a ton of obvious cheese. It doesn’t ooze out when you slice into it. But the flavor and the juiciness is too good to ignore. And it has great texture—not too loose, not too tight. I think it’s perfect to slice and mix into marinara sauce for pasta or use it as the centerpiece of a sheet pan bake with some seasonal veg. 

Credit: Merc / Target

Rating:

9/10

Sporks

Best Hot Dog Substitute

First of all, I love the packaging. It shows a little boy in a suit holding a package of sausages featuring himself holding a package of sausages—and on and on to infinity. The sausages are long and lean like hot dogs and they have a nice, snappy casing. The meat (pork) is rich and juicy and filled with cooked fennel flavor. Even though it’s labeled as mild it still has a bit of heat to it, but it’s black pepper heat. It’s the best sweet Italian sausage when you still want a kick. And it’d be great to use wherever you usually use hot dogs.

Credit: Merc / Instacart

Rating:

9/10

Sporks

Best for Pizza

These sweet Italian chicken sausages cook up big and fat and juicy. I love the blend of seasonings—a mix of fennel and anise, according to Trader Joe’s website. And there’s a hint of red pepper flakes too. The sausage is fatty and flavorful and perfect for pizza. You can cook the links whole and then slice them or remove the casings (which are pork casings) and cook up the loose Italian sausage meat. Then top homemade pizza (or frozen cheese pizza). It’d even be good with a pesto pizza.

Credit: Merc / Trader Joe’s

Rating:

9.5/10

Sporks

Best of the Best

This sweet Italian pork sausage is juicy! It’s rich and fatty without being oily. It has a great, snappy casing and it’s packed with lots of tasty fennel seeds. It’s good for whatever Italian sausage recipe you’re making—sandwiches, pasta, sausage parm, pizza, or just roasting up with some squash or broccoli or whatever else piques your interest in the produce section. Johnsonville impressed us with their breakfast sausage and now they’ve proved it wasn’t a fluke.

Credit: Merc / Target

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

Other Italian sausages we tried: Great Value Mild Italian Sausage, Applegate Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage

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