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Holidays are wonderful opportunities to enjoy food you wouldn’t ordinarily eat, guilt-free, and sausage balls fall into that category for me. My bonus sister makes the classic Bisquick sausage balls during the holiday season and I’ve always enjoyed sneaking an extra couple of these treats when no one was looking. In a roundabout way, this led to our new recipe for Zippy Sausage and Cheese Balls.
Sausage balls are snackable, hearty and homey, and bring an unmistakable someone’s-mother-made-these vibe. So of course I craved them when it became clear that The Grill-Meister and I were having an empty-nesters’ Christmas Day here at Gumbo Cove, our tiny little ‘bay camp’ in Mississippi. I knew a batch of these savory hand-held bites would make it feel like a party, even with just the two of us. For reasons you’ll discover when you read the entire post, I ended up creating a Glover Gardens version of sausage balls, and that’s our casual Christmas brunch feast below.
Recipe: Zippy Sausage and Cheese Balls
Savory hand-helds with spicy sausage, jalapeños, and a touch of Zippy Cajun flair
Makes: ~36 1½” sausage balls, around 8 servings; prep and cooking time: ~45 minutes
Ingredients
- 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 heaping Tbsp. baking powder
- 1 Tbsp. Zippy Cajun spice mix or your favorite Cajun-Creole seasoning
- 1 lb. ground pork sausage (hot or mild, depending on your preference)
- ½ cup mayonnaise or light mayonnaise
- 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese, jack cheese, or a mixture
- ⅓ to ½ cup minced red bell pepper
- ⅓ to ½ cup minced jalapeño pepper
- Optional dip(s) for serving
Cooking Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F, and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk together 1¾ cups flour, 1 heaping Tbsp. baking powder, and 1 Tbsp. Zippy Cajun or other Cajun-Creole seasoning mix (see Notes).
- Add 1 lb. sausage, ½ cup mayonnaise, 2 cups shredded cheese, ⅓ to ½ cup red bell pepper, and ⅓ to ½ cup jalapeño.
- Crumble sausage with your hands, then mix with your hands or a wooden spoon (or both) until fully combined.
- Using your hands, roll into 1½-inch balls, and place on prepared baking sheets.
- Bake 25–27 minutes, until golden brown and cooked through. Serve warm.
Notes
- Dip options: dips that go with these perky little hand-helds are endless. The Pioneer Woman serves them with a honey mustard sauce, we served them with homemade Glover Gardens Nutty Pesto and Tangy-Creamy Horseradish Dip, and they’re also great with chimichurri or salsa. And how about these: Confetti Pepper Jelly, bacon or onion jam, Zippy Cajun Ranch or Sriracha aioli?
- Seasoning options: I highly recommend making a quick batch of Zippy Cajun spice mix to zip up this recipe. You won’t be sorry, and you’ll have it on hand for other delicious Glover Gardens recipes that use it (archives here). But you definitely have other options: Old Bay is good, or Tony Chacherie’s Creole Seasoning. Or you can skip the seasoning mix and just add ½ tsp. of red pepper flakes and ½ tsp of garlic powder.
- Sausage and cheese options: the traditional ground sausage for sausage balls is absolutely pork, but you can substitute turkey or chicken breakfast sausage with a loss of flavor. You can also choose different pork-based options: sage, maple or even Italian. You can modify the cheeses along with the sausage; gouda or provolone would be good with maple, sage or Italian sausage. And in that case, you’d want to modify the spice mix, too – try our Zippy Sicilian!
- Size options: you can make the sausage balls smaller, rolling them to 1″ instead of 1½”, and if so, cut down the baking time to about 20 minutes. We prefer the larger size because it’s a perfect two-bite portion.
- When and where: sausage balls are great for a holiday brunch but are also a hit on any casual appetizer spread. They’re portable and great for a picnic or potluck.
- Make ahead: You can make and freeze the sausage balls, either before or after baking. If before, flash freeze the rolled balls on a baking sheet for 2–4 hours, then store in a freezer bag for up to 3 months. You can bake them straight from the freezer, but will need to add at least 5 and up to 10 minutes of cooking time. If you freeze them after baking, thaw in the refrigerator for 4 hours or overnight, and reheat in the oven at 350°F for 10–15 minutes. You can also microwave them, but the texture is better with oven heating. A hybrid approach is about 3 minutes on half power in the microwave, then 5+ minutes in the oven.
The Backstory: Gearing Up to Make the Zippy Sausage and Cheese Balls
I’ve never made sausage balls before because we have an expert in the family, but I wasn’t worried. The time-tested Bisquick recipe has only three ingredients: Bisquick, sausage and grated cheese. I was ready! I had my Jimmy Dean spicy sausage, my shredded cheese and my big box of Bisquick. I also had some jalapeños because I wanted those delectable bites to be alluringly spicy.
Everything was in order.
Except for one thing…
My big box of Bisquick, retrieved from a top shelf at around 10:00 a.m. Christmas morning, had an expiration date of … January, 2020.
2020. Almost six years past its ‘use-by’ date.
Whoops! How did THAT happen? I guess I don’t really use Bisquick all that often. On reflection, I think a friend or family member who stayed here left it behind. The only thing I use Bisquick for is our Sweet Potato Biscuits, another holiday favorite, and I always buy a small box.
Time to pivot. I was meant to make those sausage balls from scratch, baby!
Finding a Recipe to Guide Me
I did some research, found a recipe that was close to what I wanted (from The Pioneer Woman), and created a riff on it. Mine has jalapeños and bell pepper, and uses spicy sausage, along with our fab Zippy Cajun spice mix, although you can substitute a favorite Cajun spice mix.
I chose this particular recipe to model mine on because The Pioneer Woman doesn’t use Bisquick (which is good since I didn’t have any), relying instead on flour and baking powder. I used her amounts for those ingredients. I didn’t think a whole block of cream cheese was necessary, opting instead for a half cup of a secret ingredient I’ve learned about of late: mayonnaise. It adds beautiful moisture and richness. For the spice mix, I used our Zippy Cajun, which I highly recommend; find it here and throw together a quick batch:
Join Us on the Dock for Brunch with Zippy Sausage and Cheese Balls
Our little feast was very casual and homey. The wonderful sausage balls were the anchor for our empty-nest Christmas Brunch on the dock. Quoting The Grill-Meister: “they have a nice kick”, and they paired beautifully with a pineapple mimosa.
We had fruit tossed with local honey: grapes, apples and blueberries. Our savory sausage balls were served with condiments we had on hand from Christmas Eve: homemade Glover Gardens Nutty Pesto and Tangy-Creamy Horseradish Dip. We also had a tiny grazing platter with veggies, prosciutto and cheese cubes, once again repurposed from the Christmas Eve feast. (Hey, they don’t call me the Duchess of Leftover for nothing!) The pineapple mimosa was the perfect accompaniment, with golden bubbly sips making the party complete.
Join Me in the Kitchen to Make the Zippy Sausage and Cheese Balls
These sausage balls are super-easy to make! It’s as simple as gather, prep (mincing the bell pepper and jalapeños), measure, combine, roll and bake.
Make, Share, Enjoy!
Whether you’re making brunch for a crowd or just adding a little zip to a quiet morning, these Zippy Sausage and Cheese Balls bring big flavor in a small, savory package. They’ve got that perfect mix of comfort and kick—spicy, cheesy, a little sassy—and they’re just as at home at a holiday casual brunch as they are at a dockside picnic. Don’t be surprised if they disappear before you’ve had your second mimosa.
Let me know if these Zippy Sausage and Cheese Balls make it onto your table—I’d love to hear how you served them (and what dips you chose!). Tag @GloverGardens or drop a comment below to share your spin. Happy brunching, y’all.
😊 2025 Glover Gardens
Merry Christmas, Kim.
These sound fabulous! We love brunch and will have to try this fun recipe. We’ve experienced the “Bisquick situation” before too with our vitamins and just cleaned out anything that had expired. Where does the time go?! Looking forward to trying this with your zippy sauce recipe too! Cheers, 🥂