Cooking smoked sausage in air fryer is as quick as can be! Whether you serve the kielbasa aka air fryer Polish sausage as an appetizer or part of your dinner, you won’t believe it cooks in less than 10 minutes!
This recipe works great whether you’re air frying pre-cooked beef and pork kielbasa or cooking air fryer turkey kielbasa.
Air Fryer Smoked Sausage
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Since my grandma was part Polish, I have fond memories of eating quite a bit of kielbasa (Polish sausage) when I was a kiddo. We typically mixed it with sauerkraut and cooked onions, but as an adult, we’re more likely to serve it as an appetizer cut into slices and dipped in mustard as we did with this smoked sausage in air fryer recipe.
Whether you’re serving it as the main dish alongside air fryer frozen Brussels sprouts and air fryer whole potatoes for a whole air fryer meal, or as part of an appetizer smorgasbord, it’s a terrific meal idea that’ll add variety to your meal plan. People also love to serve air fryer smoked sausage with pirogies and cabbage too.
What Makes This Recipe So Good!
- Air fryer smoked sausage is cooks even faster than in a skillet, plus you can turn on the air fryer and walk away! There’s no fussing over the stove and splattering grease.
- The Polish sausage gets perfectly crisp without frying it in it’s grease.
- Kielbasa sausage is a versatile piece of sausage and can be served as an appetizer, as a main dish, or as a topper to
- Cooking doesn’t get much easier than a 1 ingredient main dish recipe that cooks in less than 8 minutes!
- The air fryer smoked kielbasa recipe works great for ALL kinds of kielbasa, whether it’s pork, turkey, low carb, or something else.
Cooked Smoked Sausage in Air Fryer Ingredients
Air fryer smoked sausage is such an easy one ingredient dish since it’s preseasoned and presmoked.
- 1 package precooked kielbasa (10 oz-12 oz), depending on the brand, beef and pork kielbasa or turkey kielbasa
Any brand of kielbasa Polish sausage will work for the air fryer smoked sausage recipe, Hillshire Farms is at common brand in grocery stores but all brands will cook for the same amout of time. We used Hempler’s, which is a local kielbasa brand in our state.
Cooking Johnsonville smoked sausage in the air fryer is another popular choice! You could use this same recipe and slice up Johnsonville Beddar Cheddar sausages too. Or perhaps another brand of sausage closer to you is Eckrich.
Equipment
- An Air Fryer- We have a Cosori XL basket style air fryer, an Instant Pot Omni Plus oven style air fryer, and a Ninja Foodi air fryer grill. The Cosori air fryer was used in this recipe.
- Rubber Tip Tongs
How to Cook Smoked Sausage in Air Fryer
Preheat the air fryer for 5 minutes at 380 degrees Fahrenheit.
While the air fryer is heating, prep the Polish sausage by cutting it into 1-1 ½″ sections.
Add the sausage to the air fryer basket in a single layer. Don’t crowd the pieces or stack them as it’ll be harder to get them crispy. We used our smaller air fryer and were still able to fit an entire package of sausage in there!
How long to air fry smoked sausage?
You’ll be cooking the sausage for a total of 8 minutes, flipping after halfway. The sausage is technically cooked through after 4 minutes, but if you want it brown and crispy, keep air frying it for longer!
As you can see above, after 4 minutes of cooking time the air fryer smoked sausage is already turning brown. Polish sausage comes precooked so all you need to do is basically heat it up and brown it a bit on both sides.
Serve the air fryer Polish sausage with mustard if you’re serving the sausage as an appetizer, or serve them as the main dish alongside your family’s favorite sides.
Substitutions
- Turkey– feel free to lighten things up and use a turkey smoked kielbasa sausage brand instead!
Tips for Polish Sausage Air Fryer
- Feel free to add sliced onions and peppers to the air fryer to make this a one dish meal.
- The recipe cuts the kielbasa in 1- ½″ pieces, if you make yours larger it could take the air fryer smoked sausage longer to cook.
- Spacing the sausage out will help every piece to brown evenly.
- You don’t need to add any oil or seasoning since kielbasa is pre-seasoned,
- If you just need to cook kielbasa to be used in another recipe and don’t really need it brown and crispy, feel free to add more than one pack and just shake the basket every few minutes until heated through to at least 160 F.
Air Fryer Polish Sausage FAQ’s
What to Serve with Kielbasa?
Want to serve the air fryer Polish sausage for dinner but don’t know what to serve it with? Here’s a list of some popular ideas.
- Fried cabbage
- Pierogies
- Mustard or sour cream
- Potatoes- cooked in all sorts of ways
- Sauerkraut
- Sausage and peppers
- BBQ sauce
- With grilled onions
Are smoked kielbasa and Polish sausage the same thing?
Have you wondered what the difference is between kielbasa sausage and Polish sausage? Well, there actually isn’t one! Smoked kielbasa and Polish sausage are the same thing! When you hear someone referring to Polish sausage, they’re referring to kielbasa, which is just the Polish word for sausage.
What is Polska Kielbasa?
Polska Kielbasa is the Polish way of saying kielbasa smoked sausage. It’s used here interchangeably for making air fryer Polka kielbasa, fully cooked smoked sausage, or kielbasa sausages.
How do you store the smoked sausage air fryer recipe?
Air fryer smoked sausage can be kept in the fridge for up to 4 days after cooking or it can be frozen for up to 3 months.
How to Serve Polish Sausage
Here are some easy ideas on how to use your air fryer kielbasa in recipes:
- As an appetizer in slices served with mustard
- For breakfast alongside eggs and toast
- As a sandwich– Serve the kielbasa on a sandwich roll or with bread with sauerkraut and mustard.
- As a stir fry with sauteed cabbage and onions
- In a soup with white beans and veggies
- Mixed into macaroni and cheese
- As a kielbasa and sauerkraut casserole topped with melted cheese
How to reheat smoked sausage in an air fryer
Here’s how to reheat kielbasa smoked sausage in the air fryer:
Preheat an air fryer for 5 minutes at 380F.
Add the smoked sausage slices and air fry for a total of 6-8 minutes until heated to at least 165F. Be sure to shake the basket every couple of minutes for even browning. Enjoy!
More Air Fryer Sausage Recipes
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📖 Recipe
Smoked Sausage in Air Fryer (Kielbasa)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 12 oz kielbasa sausage precooked Polish sausage
Instructions
- Preheat the air fryer for 5 minutes at 380 degrees Fahrenheit.
- While the air fryer is heating, prep the Polish sausage by cutting it into 1-1 ½" sections.
- Add the sausage to the air fryer basket in a single layer. Don't crowd the pieces or stack them as it'll be harder to get them crispy. We used our smaller air fryer and were still able to fit an entire package of sausage in there!
- You'll be cooking the sausage for a total of 8 minutes, flipping after halfway. The sausage is technically cooked through after 4 minutes, but if you want it brown and crispy, keep air frying it for longer!
Notes
- Feel free to add sliced onions and peppers to the air fryer to make this a one-dish meal.
- The recipe cuts the kielbasa in 1- ½″ pieces, if you make yours larger it could take the air fryer smoked sausage longer to cook.
- Spacing the sausage out will help every piece to brown evenly.
- You don’t need to add any oil or seasoning since kielbasa is pre-seasoned.
- Any brand of kielbasa will work, or you can try turkey kielbasa for a lighter cut of meat.
- If you just need to cook kielbasa to be used in another recipe and don’t really need it brown and crispy, feel free to add more than one pack and just shake the basket every few minutes until heated through to at least 160 F.
© 2023 Whole Lotta Air Frying
Annie Ruth Rankins says
Sausage was delicious 😋