Slow cooked sausage sandwiches with peppers and onions

The best slow cooked sausage sandwiches are juicy, a little chewy, and have tasty toppings. They’re served on thick hoagie style rolls. And they keep hungry friends and family coming back for seconds. This slow cooked sausage peppers and onions recipe is an easy way to make sausage sandwiches. It’s one of my go-to slow cooker recipes for a crowd.

Slow cooking sausages with beer

This slow cooker sausage sandwich recipe is made with beer and has no sauce added. The slow cooked sausage marinated in beer creates tender, juicy sausages. The beer adds a ton of flavor to caramelized peppers and onions. Another option, instead of beer, is to slow cook the sausages in cider.

Browning sausages for the crock pot

As with any crock pot meat recipe, for best results, brown the sausages with olive oil in a medium-hot skillet. Before adding them to the skillet, poke holes in the raw sausages to help release steam. 

Searing sausages locks in a ton of flavor and gives them a nice crunch in the hoagie roll. Once the sausages are browned on the stove, add them to the crock pot with 1 inch of beer (about 1 cup). 

Prepping the onions and peppers

Diced onions and peppers can go directly into the slow cooker. In my house, we LOVE caramelized onions (like these red wine caramelized red onions), so we sauté them on the stove first.

If you haven’t seen it yet, I have a trick to cutting the peppers. Or, should I say, my husband has a trick I stole and put on the internet. See how to cut bell peppers into strips.

Slow cooked sausage meal ideas

Once you learn how to slow cook sausage in the crock pot with peppers and onions, you’ll have this slow cooker recipe in your back pocket to use all year.

Here are a few easy slow cooked sausage meals:

• Whip up slow cooker sausage sandwiches.
• Skip the hoagie rolls and serve the sausages over rice or potatoes for easy weeknight crockpot meals.
• For parties, dice up the sausages before adding them to the crock pot and serve them with a stash of toothpicks to eat as finger foods.
• Make ahead slow cooker sausages, peppers and onions to use in breakfast sandwiches, served with eggs.

The best rolls for slow cooker sausage sandwiches

Slow cooker sausage peppers and onions need a hearty, thick roll. Serve slow cooker sausage on a hoagie roll, baguette, ciabatta roll, or hotdog bun.

Toppings for slow cooked sausage sandwiches

There are so many versions of sausage sandwiches to make. When making this slow cooker main dish for a party, I like to set out a variety of toppings for guests to build their own sausage sandwiches.

Here are some of my favorite toppings for sausage sandwiches:

• Slow cooked peppers and onions
• Mustard – stone ground mustard or dijon mustard are great choices
• Sauerkraut – tasty with german sausage or other pork sausages
• Marinara sauce or tomato sauce – great for pairing with a sweet Italian sausage or mild Italian sausage
• Bleu cheese crumbles
• Bacon crumbles
• Chili
• Salsa
• Fried onions
• Eggs for breakfast
• Baked beans

Mustards for sausage sandwiches

Any mustard can be used to bring out the flavor of these juicy sausage sandwiches. A classic yellow mustard, Dijon or spicy brown mustard will taste delicious. For a sweet flavor, mix honey and mustard to create a homemade honey mustard sauce for the sausages.

How to cook sausages from frozen

If you’re working with frozen sausages, defrost them in the microwave before searing them in the skillet.

Leftover sausage meal ideas

Slow cooked sausages made in large quantities can feed a family for days. Add leftover sausages to homemade pizza, sausage rolls (made in puff pastry), pasta dishes or enjoy them for breakfast in a scramble with eggs.

For game days, Super Bowl parties, and cool winter months, I believe you can never have too many easy slow cooker dinner recipes! If you’re looking for another easy crock pot sandwich, check out these Hawaiian pineapple BBQ meatballs. They’re sweet and sour, and in my crock pot right now as I type this!

Your low-and-slow cooking companion, Jenna.