Instant Pot Italian Sausages Recipe (With Fresh or Frozen Sausage)
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Once you try cooking Italian sausages in your Instant Pot, you’ll never make them any other way! So moist and juicy and ready in under 20 minutes!
Baked Italian Sausage is my go-to easy dinner. Before the Instant Pot, I would always bake it in the oven (see my oven baked Italian sausage recipe and BBQ baked sausage). Once I got the Instant Pot, I can now cook Italian sausages in half the time of the oven method!
You can cook Italian sausages in the Instant Pot from fresh or frozen! So go ahead and stash that package of Italian sausage in a freezer – this way you’ll always have a meal on hand for those busy weeknights!
How To Cook Italian Sausage In The Instant Pot
Cooking Italian sausage in the Instant Pot is very simple. All you need is sausage and water!
Pour 1/2 cup of water in the Instant Pot and add sausage links in a single layer. Close the lid, turn the valve to a Sealing position, press the “Pressure Cook” or “Manual” button and set the time for 15 minutes. When it’s done cooking, quick release (QR) the steam. Perfectly cooked and tender Italian sausages are ready to be eaten!
If you want a more “browned” look, you can either saute the sausage in the Instant Pot on a “Saute” setting or put it in the oven under the broiler for a few minutes. I just eat it as is, as I’m lazy and don’t like any extra steps :)
What happens if you want to make more than one package of sausage at once? Yes, you can! You can put as much sausage in the Instant Pot as you can fit under the “Max Fill” line. The quantity of water remains the same (1/2 cup). Just be aware that when the sausages overlap, they stick together, and when you separate them, they have weird marks on them :) They taste just as good, but that’s something to be aware of if presentation is important. The way to get around the sticking issue is to separate the layers of sausages by sheets of foil.
How do you cook Italian sausages from frozen? Simply add 5 minutes to the cooking time (making a total cooking time 20 minutes). So if you have a package of frozen sausage in your freezer, you are less than 30 minutes away from a delicious hot meal!
What’s on the plate on the picture above with the sausages? Like what you see? The salad recipe is here: Tomato and Fresh Mozzarella Salad. And believe it or not, these roasted sweet potatoes were also made in the Instant Pot! Check out my recipe for Instant Pot roasted sweet potatoes. Enjoy!
If you liked Instant Pot Italian Sausages, you will also love these easy recipes:
Instant Pot Chili – so easy you won’t believe it! Just dump all ingredients in the Instant Pot and enjoy a hot bowl of epic chili in 20 minutes!
Instant Pot Corn On The Cob – the juiciest moistest corn ever, made in minutes! Once you try making corn in the Instant Pot, you’ll never make it any other way!
Instant Pot Salsa Chicken – this amazing recipe is using just 2 ingredients – chicken and salsa! So easy and yummy!
Instant Pot Pasta – say goodbye to watching a boiling pot of water on the stove! Instant Pot pasta is truly effortless!
Instant Pot Baked Apples – stuffed with cinnamon and raisins, these apples are mouthwatering!
Instant Pot Italian Sausage
Ingredients
- 1 lb Italian sausage
- 1/2 cup water
Instructions
- Pour water in the Instant Pot, then put sausages in the Instant Pot in a single layer.
- Close the lid on the Instant Pot and turn the valve to Sealing position.
- Press the "Pressure Cook" or "Manual" button and set the time for 15 minutes.
- When the Instant Pot is done cooking, quick release (QR) the steam.
- Remove the Italian sausages from the Instant Pot using tongs and serve.
Notes
Thank you so much! Frozen sausage is all I have in the house, so I Googled this (just bought an Instant Pot). Thank you Melanie!
I googled this because I forget to take out the frozen sausage. This happens to me allot. :)
Worked perfectly, I bookmarked the method. Thank you!
Do you need to pierce or remove the sausage casings before cooking them in the Instant Pot?
I don’t pierce or remove sausage casings.
Replace the water with some beer and watch the flavor explode!
I like that idea… are you saying you’ve done it and the results were excellent?
Low pressure or high pressure for the Italian sausage?
High pressure
I loved these I let naturally release then browned in the juices perfection thank you
Would the directions be the same for all fresh sausage? I want to do Polish sausage.
Yes!
To brown them, sauté function before pressure cook them then add water and cook?
Thanks.
Yes, that would work!
Can I add cabbage or sauerkraut to pot with frozen raw sausage?
Yes, I even have a recipe for this: Instant Pot Cabbage And Sausage
I want to brown the sausages, then could I put them on the trivet to keep them out of the water so they maintain that crisp exterior?
Of course! You can cook them on the trivet or directly in water.
I live alone can I add a potato in at the same time or stop it and add later
You can add potato at the same time.
Can you use turkey Italian sausage Would it be the same cook time
Yes I use turkey sausage a lot, same cooking time.
I followed exactly, 20 min for frozen and it came out exactly as promised. Thank you! I am always afraid of the burn notice, thought that would happen without the trivet, this was my first step in overcoming that ‘burn’ fear. Thank you.
Do I increase the cook time for more than one package? I see it says water amount stays the same.
Cooking time is the same for 2 packages. If more that 2, increase cooking time by 5 minutes.
This was so easy! I’m never cooking sausages in the oven again. Thank you!!!
It’s the hottest day of the year and we didn’t dare use the oven. You saved the day!
I cook frozen bratwurst, polish sausage for nine minutes on the trivet, they are perfect.
I used my Presto 6 qt. 10 mins at pressure did the trick for frozen sausages. Quick and so easy. Thank you.
Can I use this recipe for Bratwurst?
Yes it will work for Bratwurst
Great recipe, thanks! I have an 8 quart Instant Pot and the manual specifies that 2 cups is the minimum liquid to safely operate the pressure cook modes. Would this still work with 2 cups of liquid but keeping the cooking time/pressure at 15min/high?
Yes, it will still work with 2 cups of liquid, same time/pressure
Having read all the comments might I suggest your comment about browning before or after could be added to the recipe at the beginning. I could not imagine serving them straight from the IP without browning! I decided to brown them myself and realised later that everyone else did the same thing.
Anyone add peppers and onions in with the sausage? If so….how’d it turn out.
Love this recipe. This is so easy and they are very flavorful. They taste just as good as leftovers with the same flavor and juiciness. Thanks!
I sauteed some onion peppers garlic ? with some Italian seasoning. Then I took them out of the Ip and cooked the sausages in ½ cup of beer. After that I assembled everything together on a Hero roll. It was FANTASTIC!!!
This recipe works great with “Beyond Sausage” brand veggie sausages. The steam inside the cooker pulls out a lot of the extra salt and fat from the veggie meat. This is one of my “Keeper” recipes that I use at least once a week. Thanks for your cooking help.
Does the sausage come out super tender? I’ve had to resort to boiling it and then adding it to spaghetti sauce for an additional soak. I’d love to do it all in the instant pot. (Sounds like I’m lazy?)
Yes, it’s very tender!
I’ve been buying Mozzarella & Monterey Jack Italian Sausage, but the cheese explodes all over the inside of my air fryer. This cleans up so much better.
This was so easy – tried with apple chicken sausage. May need to cook for slightly less time, as they burst open, but they were moist and tender.
So easy and delicious! Browned sausage (used same pan to sauté peppers and onions). Placed sausage on trivet. Juicy and perfectly cooked!!
Cooked from frozen. I added an extra 1/4 cup of water, but I really didn’t need it. Browned them in the frying pan after. These came out great! Thanks!
Melanie, thank you so much for this idea! We were craving Italian sausage but they were frozen so found your recipe! I used the trivet and a steamer basket, afraid they’d be too soft since we like them firm. Also mistakenly used 1C water out of habit. 25 minutes, then sautéed them. Browned nicely but how do you keep them from sticking to bottom of pot? Maybe I tossed out too much water? Regardless they were fantastic and my whole Italian family loved them best prepared your way!! So delizioso!
Thanks for the recipe! I added rice and extra water and the sausage flavored the rice deliciously.
This recipe is so delicious! I just tried it today almost exactly as you said. The only think I did different was to add some mushrooms that needed to be used up and a half of onion that was sitting there. Not saying the onion and mushrooms made much difference, but the sausage was so juicy and perfectly done. Will definitely be making this again, with or without left over produce. Thank you so much for such an easy and delicious meal.