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A white plate with cooked air fryer Italian sausage on it. Some whole and some cut.
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How to Air Fry Italian Sausage

Making Italian Sausage in the Air Fryer is a quick and easy way to cook sausage without heating up the whole house or dirtying a bunch of pots and pans. Sausages come out perfectly cooked and juicy - ready to add to a pasta dish, peppers & onions, pizza, or a salad.
Course Dinner
Cuisine Italian
Keyword air fryer italian sausage
Prep Time 3 minutes
Cook Time 14 minutes
Total Time 17 minutes
Servings 4
Calories 388kcal
Author Kari

Ingredients

  • 2-4 links Italian Sausage

Optional

  • 1 red bell pepper sliced
  • 1 green bell pepper sliced
  • 1 onion sliced

Instructions

  • Preheat the Air Fryer to 360°F. (If your air-fryer does not have a preheat function built into its cooking time, try to preheat for about 3 minutes.)
  • Set the Air Fryer to cook at 360°F for 10-12 minutes, with the turn alarm on if your air fryer has one. (Otherwise, set an alarm on your phone for five and a half minutes.)
  • Arrange the sausages in a single layer in the basket of the air fryer, spacing them about an inch apart so that heat can circulate around them. Do NOT poke holes in the sausages, or all the juices will leak out.
    2-4 links Italian Sausage
  • Air Fry for 5 and half minutes and then flip the sausages over and cook for another 5 and a half minutes until the internal temperature of the sausages is 160°F.
  • If adding onions and peppers, toss them in the basket when there is about 3 minutes left to cook.
    1 red bell pepper, 1 green bell pepper, 1 onion
  • Let the sausages rest & cool for about 5 minutes, then slice them up and enjoy!

Notes

*Thicker sausages might take a little longer to cook.
I've found that in my air fryer oven, I don't need to turn the sausages, but in my basket-style air fryer, the sausages do need to be flipped.

Recipe Tips

  • Do NOT poke holes in the sausages - the casing keeps the juices inside, and poking holes will make it all leak out.
  • Be sure to let your sausages rest for 5 minutes before slicing them, or all the juices will leak out.
  • Make sure your air fryer is clean before cooking sausage - anything that is in the air fryer can burn and change the flavor of the sausages. If you use a toaster oven-style air fryer, juices can leak out of the sausage and burn on the heating element, so be aware of that.
  • Cook extra sausages so that you can have leftovers for lunch the next day!
  • You can freeze cooked sausages once cooled to use at another time. I like to slice Italian sausage and freeze it to throw into spaghetti sauce as it is heating up for an easy weeknight din

Nutrition

Serving: 1link | Calories: 388kcal | Carbohydrates: 1g | Protein: 16g | Fat: 35g | Saturated Fat: 13g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 16g | Cholesterol: 85mg | Sodium: 819mg | Potassium: 283mg | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 20mg | Iron: 1mg