Sausage Green Beans and Potatoes - Recipes That Crock! (2024)

FAQs

Why brown sausages before slow cooking? ›

Technically you don't need to brown the sausages before placing in the crock pot, but the caramelization gives the dish a delicious depth of flavor. Plus Aunt Mary always did it so we should too.

Browning Is Better

And if you dredge the meat in flour before you brown it, your sauce will thicken up to make a gravy. You should always brown ground beef or any ground meat in a skillet before adding it to your slow cooker to prevent the meat from clumping up or from adding excess grease to your cooked dish.

Cover the saucepan with a lid and let the sausages cook slowly for around 10 to 30 minutes depending on their size. Remove and dry them off with a paper towel. They should be cooked all the way through. However, they won't have a brown, crispy crust, so you may want to pop them on the grill or stove for a few minutes.

Add green beans to pan and sauté over medium heat for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add boiling water to pan and cover. Cook for about 15 minutes, just until beans are tender. Add vinegar, butter and salt and pepper and stir.

Soy sauce is one of the easiest answers to how to flavor green beans. You can throw in some of this soy sauce, sesame oil, olive oil, ginger, and garlic and pan fry until glassy and green and you may never want to eat green beans any other way again.

Keep cooking for 15-20 mins, moving them around in the pan and turning them over regularly so they all cook evenly. The sausages are ready when the outside is a deep golden brown and the inside is pale, with no pink meat. Any meat juices running off should be clear.

Nothing wrong with that if it fits your recipe. But I love browning both the sausage and other meats in the cast iron frying pan, they really brown and taste better. So if you are going to cook it in the oven, I would still brown it in the frying pan first then add it to the oven dish.

Yes, if you prefer a softer texture, you can also cook Italian sausage directly in the sauce without browning it first.

Why? While it may be easier to cut the sausage into coins without the angled cut, doing so this way gives you more surface area for a better sear and helps boost presentation. It also gives more opportunity for a delicious caramelized exterior and a juicy interior. Cha-ching!