Let’s take a moment to slow clap for the (hopefully extremely compensated) marketing team that took a novelty coffee drink and created an entirely new time of year: pumpkin spice season. Where once autumn evoked the smell of apple cider donuts, fall now smells like a meticulously focus-grouped blend of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, and vibes. It’s in our lattes and cookies. It’s infiltrated candles and even kitty litter. It’s… a lot.
Still, when the weather turns crisp, pumpkin spice is hardly the only flavor waiting to punch up your palate. Autumn is full of wonderful seasonal fruits, veggies, and spices—many of which pair beautifully with chicken sausage. Some are obvious (looking at you, chicken and broccoli). Others, less so.
With fall in the air, here are a few delicious seasonal ingredients that pair shockingly well with our chicken sausage. And yes, pumpkin spice is among them. It’s the law.
Pumpkin (But Not Pumpkin Spice)
First things first: pumpkin spice does not contain pumpkin. It’s just marketing speak for all the stuff you’d put in a pumpkin pie—minus the actual pumpkin.
Now then, orange gourds and chicken sausage have plenty of ways to play together, most notably in the pumpkin-based pasta sauces that hit shelves this time of year. Whether you’re going homemade or tricking out a jarred squash sauce, adding chicken sausage is an easy upgrade.
Want to level it up? Roast your pumpkin with a miso glaze for umami depth, then turn it into a quick pumpkin miso pasta topped with crumbled chicken sausage. The sauce comes together quickly: sauté garlic and onions, add white miso and pumpkin purée, toss with pasta, and finish with crisped sausage.
Pumpkin also works in chili—just swap in chicken sausage for whatever meat you usually use. Perfect for potlucks or tailgates. You’re welcome.
Maple
Cooking down maple syrup and chicken broth in a pan makes for an incredibly versatile sweet-and-savory glaze perfect for cooking chicken sausages in to add layers of flavor. It's also the perfect excuse do do breakfast for dinner: Pancakes go splendidly alongside maple-glazed chicken sausage. They can even be used as a makeshift wrap for the sausage—a portable pancake breakfast, if you will.
If you’re looking for a more savory application, double up on the maple glaze recipe. Add even more maple and chicken broth to the pan (as well as a pat of butter if you’re feeling naughty) and pour that glaze over a whole pan of roasted vegetables, potatoes, and chicken sausage for a hearty sheet-pan dinner.
Another unexpected matchup? Mustard and maple, the two main ingredients in our easy, crowd-pleasing riff on pigs in a blanket: Chicks in a Quilt.
Apple
Apple is a perfect partner for savory foods, and not just as a component for a sausage-packed snack board. Think apples in a grilled cheese, paired with pork tenderloin, or sautéed with cabbage—it gives dishes a lift of bright acid and, when they’re cooked down, a bit of creamy sweetness.
Try pairing apples and chicken sausage in a one-pan dinner: begin by sautéing whole chicken sausages in a pat of butter until the outside is crispy. Add sliced apples and onions to the pan, and let sit until caramelized. Pour in a touch of apple cider and chicken broth to deglaze and form a sauce. The chicken sausage and apples can be served with roasted potatoes and a loaf of rustic bread on the side.
Meanwhile, if a sweet-and-savory grilled cheese is more up your alley, try toasting a roll with Gruyère and topping it with sautéed apples, onions, and chicken sausage.
Apple also adds a great crunch to creamy slaws, which are, as the name implies, clutch for creating an autumnal slaw dog. Try our version, which incorporates Granny Smith apples, broccoli, and chicken sausage.
Cinnamon
While cinnamon may be most well known in the U.S. as a spice used for sweets, across the world it’s used in savory rice- and meat-based dishes. Think Moroccan tagine or pilau from East Africa, a one-pot rice dish made by toasting whole spices like cinnamon sticks, cardamom pods, and cloves in oil and adding beef or chicken and rice. You can easily take inspiration from it at home by making a one-pot rice and chicken sausage dish in a slow cooker or Instant Pot.
For more inspiration, look to Eastern Europe and serve your chicken sausage with kugel. The sweet-and-savory noodle casserole is as fall-leaning and comforting as it comes. There are thousands of different versions (each family has their own secret recipe), but there are always egg noodles, some kind of egg custard, and spices like cinnamon to round out the flavors and give it a warming spice.
Cranberries
If you want to try pairing cranberry with chicken sausage in meal form, may we suggest taking inspiration from Thanksgiving dinner? Grab some hot dog buns (or brioche buns if you’re feeling fancy) and use cranberry sauce as you would ketchup. Load up the bun with a chicken sausage and top with fried onions.And since the sausages cook in five minutes, you can get the flavors of Thanksgiving without hours of work.
There are lighter options here, too. Make your weekday lunch seasonal by adding chicken sausage and cranberries to a spinach salad. You can always add walnuts or pecans, goat cheese, roasted pumpkin or butternut squash, or even pumpkin seeds for even more flavor and texture.
Pumpkin Spice
We’d be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge that pumpkin spice is also a solid pairing for chicken sausages, which feels surprising until you consider that popcorn, energy drinks, deodorant, and bacon have all been successfully pumpkin-spiced.
Gimmicks aside, all the spices in the blend are natural accompaniments to roasted chicken, especially when used sparingly. We recommend using a pinch—like we do in our favorite fall sheet-pan recipe—to really let the flavors dance. Or just dump a sausage in a PSL. We’re not here to judge. At least not while you’re listening.