Early Bird Turkey Sausage Breakfast Hash

Steadfast Farms’ Early Bird Turkey Sausage is our savory breakfast turkey sausage. All of our sausages are already seasoned, so it carries the whole dish saving you from reaching for the spice rack.

Turkey is lean, and you notice it twice in this pan. It breaks into crumbles that brown rather than steam, and it does not flood the pan with rendered fat the way a pork sausage does.

• Serves: 4 to 6
• Early Bird Turkey Sausage: 2 packages, 8 patties, 1 lb total
• Prep time: about 20 to 25 minutes
• Cook time: about 45 to 55 minutes
• Total time: about 1 hour 10 minutes, plus overnight thawing
• Equipment: a 12 inch skillet with a lid, cast iron or heavy stainless, and a second pan for the eggs

• 2 packages Early Bird Turkey Sausage, 8 patties, 1 lb total, thawed
• 1 1/2 lb russet potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch dice
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 1 medium green bell pepper, deseeded and diced
• 1 medium red bell pepper, deseeded and diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, divided: 1/2 tablespoon for the sausage, 1/2 tablespoon for the onion and peppers, 1 1/2 tablespoons for the potatoes
• Salt and black pepper, to taste
• 4 to 6 eggs, one per serving

You can substitute any potato you'd like.

Prep the vegetables

1. Wash and peel the potatoes and cut them into even 1/2 inch dice.
2. Rinse the diced potatoes in cold water to wash off the loose starch, then dry them thoroughly in a towel.
3. Dice the onion. Deseed and dice both bell peppers. Mince the garlic and set it aside on its own.

Cook the turkey sausage

1. Pat the patties dry. Heat a 12 inch skillet over medium-high heat and add 1/2 tablespoon of the olive oil.
2. Lay the patties in a single layer and leave them alone for 3 minutes, until the undersides are browned. Flip them and give them 2 minutes more.
3. Break them apart with a spatula into bite-sized crumbles. Cook 3 to 4 minutes more, stirring, until the thickest piece reads 165°F on an instant-read thermometer. Probe into the side of a thick piece rather than down through it.
4. Turn off the heat and move the sausage to a bowl, juices and all.
5. Add 3 tablespoons of water to the hot skillet and scrape the browned bits loose with a wooden spoon, or a metal spatula if your pan is cast iron or stainless. Pour it over the sausage in the bowl. Wipe the pan only if anything has burned on.

Cook the onion and peppers

1. Set the skillet back over medium heat, let any water cook off, then add 1/2 tablespoon of the olive oil. Add the onion and cook about 4 minutes, until it turns translucent.
2. Add both bell peppers and cook about 5 minutes more, until they soften and lose their raw edge. Tip the vegetables into the bowl with the sausage.

Brown the potatoes

1. Add the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil to the pan over medium heat, adding a little more if it looks dry. Add the potatoes, season lightly with salt and pepper, and spread them out in as close to a single layer as the pan allows.
2. Cover and cook 10 minutes, stirring once halfway through.
3. Take the lid off, tipping it away from the pan so the collected water does not drip back in. Raise the heat to medium-high and cook 10 to 15 minutes more, turning the potatoes with a spatula every 3 to 4 minutes.
4. They are done when a piece crushes easily against the side of the pan with no firmness left in the middle, and most pieces have at least one deep golden face.

Bring it all together

1. Push the potatoes to one side, add the garlic to the bare spot, and stir it constantly in that spot for 30 seconds, until you can smell it. Then stir it through the potatoes.
2. Tip the bowl back in, sausage, vegetables, juices and all, around the edge of the pan. Keep the heat at medium-high and stir 1 to 2 minutes, until the liquid has cooked away and the pan sounds like frying again rather than simmering.
3. Taste, and season with salt and pepper. The sausage is already seasoned, so it needs less salt than you would expect.

Serve

1. Keep the finished hash covered over the lowest heat while you cook your eggs in a second pan, fried, over easy, poached or scrambled.
2. Spoon the hash onto plates, top each serving with egg, and serve.
3. The sausage is already seasoned, so go easy on anything else you add, but a pinch of cayenne with the potatoes gives it heat, and shredded cheddar, salsa, sour cream or sliced green onions all work on top.

Want to elevate the dish even more? Substitute quail eggs in place of chicken eggs, two or three per serving, cooked in about half the time. A pack of Jumbo Quail Eggs goes a long way, and it is a great nutrient-dense option.

Recipe by Bonnie Hughes.

From the Steadfast Table

Cook turkey sausage to 165°F, checked with an instant-read thermometer in the thickest crumble.

Poultry can sometimes remain pink even after reaching a safe internal temperature, so temperature, rather than color, should determine doneness.

Keep raw sausage at 40°F or below and separate from ready-to-eat foods. Refrigerate leftovers within two hours. Do not rinse raw poultry.

Early Bird Turkey Sausage, made from turkey raised and processed right here in Bethlehem, Connecticut. The Farmers Market Menu lists which markets we are at each week and what we are bringing. If a market is not close, Find Our Products lists the shops and farm stores that carry us.