These Sausage, Pepper and Onion Burgers with sauce and cheese are easy, incredibly delicious, and ready to eat in under 30 minutes!
An awesome burger doesn’t have to be made with beef. For these, we take Italian sausage, top it with melted provolone cheese, warm marinara sauce and sautéed bell peppers and onions, and put it all on a buttery, garlicky toasted bun!
We are BIG fans of burgers in our house, and we enjoy them all year long…especially in the summer!
And although we love a classic beef burger and never really get tired of them, we definitely like to change it up now and then to keep things interesting.
You can make a burger out of any other meat like turkey, chicken or pork – heck, you could even make one out of veggies or even fish and seafood – but my favorite is Italian sausage because it comes already packed with lots of flavor.
I also love a good classic sausage and pepper sandwich – you know the one: sausage links, peppers and onions in a tomato-y sauce on a hoagie bun – and so I decided to turn it into a burger instead.
An excellent choice, if I do say so myself!
In fact, we think they’re even better than the original, and it’s the only way I’ve made sausage, pepper and onion sandwiches for years now.
These sausage and pepper burgers taste like you might have been working in the kitchen all day, but they’re actually super quick and easy. About 30 minutes from start to finish is all you need!
Ingredients you need:
Note: Ingredient amounts are in the recipe card below.
- Brioche burger buns (or potato burger buns)
- Butter
- Garlic powder
- Olive oil
- Bell peppers (any color; I do a combination of green and red)
- Onions
- Salt
- Black pepper
- Bulk Italian sausage (sweet or hot; or use links with the casings removed)
- Provolone cheese
- Marinara sauce (or your favorite spaghetti sauce or pizza sauce, homemade or store-bought)
Here’s a look at how to make Sausage, Pepper and Onion Burgers:
Note: This is just a brief overview of the steps. Scroll down to the recipe card for the full recipe with detailed instructions.
Tips & Tidbits:
- Get a good-quality bun for this recipe that will hold up to the burgers, sauce, peppers, and onions. I use brioche or potato buns. I’ve also used kaiser rolls. You don’t want a flimsy bun with this burger!
- Make the burger patties slightly larger than the buns to account for shrinkage so you don’t end up with burgers that are too small for your buns.
- My brioche buns were 4 inches wide, and I made my patties 5 inches wide. After cooking, they were the perfect size to fit the buns.
- To easily form the patties, I loosely roll the meat into 4 balls and place them on a piece of wax paper. Then I place another piece of wax paper on top of them and use the bottom of a pot or a pan to gently press them down into the size patty I want (and they always end up nice and round!).
- You can save a few minutes of prep time by purchasing pre-shaped sausage patties.
- Mozzarella cheese can be substituted for provolone, or you can use a combination of the two. You could also add a sprinkle of parmesan cheese for extra flavor.
- If you won’t be eating all 4 burgers in one sitting, only toast as many buns as you will need and then wait to toast the others when you eat them again.
- Store leftover cooked sausage patties topped with cheese and the pepper/onion mixture separately in airtight containers in the refrigerator for up to 3 to 4 days. Reheat in the microwave, the oven, or in a skillet, toast the buns, assemble the burgers, and enjoy them again!
And if you feel like cooking outside… yes, you can also make these on the grill!
You’ll just need to cook the peppers and onions in a grill basket so they don’t fall through the grates (toss them with the olive oil and some salt and pepper before putting them in the basket). The burgers can go right on the grill, and you could even toast your buns on there too.
I hope you try this Sausage, Pepper and Onion Burger recipe and love it as much as I do. Thanks for visiting today!
More Burger and Sandwich Recipes You Might Like…
- Double Smashed Burgers With Cheese
- Black Bean Burgers With Chipotle-Lime Mayo
- Big Mac Salad
- Homemade Cheesesteaks With Mushrooms, Onions and Peppers
- Turkey Sloppy Joes
If you make this recipe, I’d love to know how it went! Please leave a star rating and comment below. Thanks!
Sausage, Pepper and Onion Burgers
Ingredients
- 4 brioche burger buns, or potato burger buns
- 4 teaspoons softened butter, divided
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder, divided
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cups thinly sliced bell pepper strips , any color (I use half green and half red), about ⅛ to ¼ inch thick
- 2 cups thinly sliced onion strips, about ⅛ to ¼ inch thick
- salt, to taste
- black pepper, to taste
- 1 pound bulk Italian sausage, sweet or hot (links can also be used; just remove the meat from the casings)
- 8 slices provolone cheese
- 8 tablespoons marinara sauce, warmed, divided (or your favorite spaghetti sauce or pizza sauce)
Instructions
- Preheat the broiler.
- Place the bun halves, cut side up, on a baking sheet. Spread ½ teaspoon of butter on each of the 8 halves and then sprinkle each with ⅛ teaspoon of the garlic powder.
- Place the buns under the broiler for 1 to 2 minutes (watch carefully; they can burn quickly) until they are lightly golden brown; remove from the oven and set aside.
- Form the sausage into 4 equally sized patties, making them slightly larger than the size of your buns to account for shrinkage during cooking; set aside.My buns were 4 inches wide, and I made my patties 5 inches wide (which made them a little less than ½ inch thick), and they ended up being the perfect size to fit my buns.To easily make patties, I loosely roll the meat into 4 balls and put them on a sheet of wax paper. Then I take another piece of wax paper, put it over the top, and gently press them down with the bottom of a pot or a pan until they are the size I want (and they end up in nice round circles!).
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat (I use a 12-inch skillet). Add the peppers and onions and season them lightly with salt and pepper; sauté, stirring occasionally, until softened and lightly browned in spots, about 6 to 8 minutes.
- Remove the peppers and onions from the skillet to a plate or bowl; keep warm.
- In the same large skillet over medium heat, add the sausage patties; cook for 3 to 4 minutes on each side just until they are cooked through (minimum internal temperature of 165°F); top each patty with 2 slices of provolone during the last 2 minutes of cooking and cover the pan with a lid to help the cheese melt.
- Assemble the burgers: For each one, place one sausage patty on a bottom bun half, top with 2 tablespoons of marinara sauce and ¼ of the pepper and onion mixture. Top with the top bun half and enjoy!
Notes
- Get a good-quality bun for this recipe that will hold up to the burgers, sauce, peppers, and onions. You don’t want a flimsy bun with this burger!
- Mozzarella cheese can be substituted for provolone, or you can use a combination of the two. You could also add a sprinkle of parmesan cheese for extra flavor.
- If you won’t be eating all 4 burgers in one sitting, only toast as many buns as you will need and then wait to toast the others when you eat them again.
- Store leftover cooked sausage patties topped with cheese and the pepper/onion mixture separately in airtight containers in the refrigerator for up to 3 to 4 days. Reheat in the microwave, the oven, or in a skillet, toast the buns, assemble the burgers, and enjoy them again!
- You can also make these on the grill. You’ll just need to cook the peppers and onions in a grill basket so they don’t fall through the grates (toss them with the olive oil and some salt and pepper before adding to the basket). The burgers can go right on the grill, and you could even toast your buns on there too.
Leave a Reply