Crockpot Sausage and Peppers
Easy slow cooker sausage and peppers recipe, homemade with simple ingredient, lots of Italian herbs, marinara sauce. Great in pasta, sandwiches, wraps and hoagie rolls.
Today’s recipe is delicious and hearty just like this Slow Cooker Mississippi Pot Roast. It’s one of those comfort dishes that’s easy to toss together, but tastes like it took a lot more effort.
How to make slow cooker sausage and peppers?
- Add ingredients in slow cooker – This includes sausage, veggies, seasonings, marinara sauce. Mix.
- Cover and cook – Until veggies are tender and sausage is cooked through.
- Slice sausages – Remove sausages from the crockpot and slice them. Then, stir them back into the mixture.
- Enjoy – Garnish with parsley and dig in!
Whats sides to serve with Italian sausage and peppers recipe?
This hearty dish can be enjoyed on its own but you can also enjoy it with a salad. A simple green salad without an overpowering dressing is best. Coleslaw also pairs very well.
You can also serve it alongside bread like breadsticks, dinner rolls, crusty artisan bread, pita bread, garlic bread or hot dog buns. Use it as a filling in sandwiches, tortilla rolls and wraps.
Enjoy it with vegetables like mashed potatoes or mashed sweet potatoes or mashed cauliflower.
You can even use it in stuffed peppers or stuffed potatoes.
My family really likes it with pasta. Any type will work fine. A healthier alternatives to that would zoodles (zucchini noddles) and spaghetti squash.
Try it with soup. It tastes delicious with creamy soups.
Some other filling sides are quinoa and rice.
Variations for sausage peppers and onions
Sausage and peppers pasta – Mix in boiled pasta at the end.
Sausage peppers and potatoes – Potatoes pair well with just about every dish. If you want to add in some potatoes, simply slice up about a pound of waxy potatoes and add them in with the rest of the ingredients.
Add chicken – Simply slice up 1 pound boneless chicken breast cubes and add it along with the other ingredients.
Make it spicy – Add some jalapenos or other hotter peppers or red chili flakes for a nice spicy kick. You can also drizzle the finished dish with hot sauce.
Add more veggies – Add other vegetables you like such as eggplant, squash, zucchini, potatoes, mushrooms etc.
Mix up the seasoning – Instead of Italian seasoning, you could use Mexican or even Cajun seasoning for a different flavor profile.
Storage
Refrigerate– In an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Freeze – In a sealed container for up to 1 month.
Reheat – In the microwave or stovetop until heated through.
Tips and Techniques
Store-bought vs. Homemade Italian Seasoning – Either can be used. It does not affect the overall flavor whichever one you use.
Mix up the peppers – I like using a combination of colored peppers, but you can use any pepper of your choice.
Use fresh peppers – Avoid using frozen peppers or veggies as they release a lot water when they go through the cooking process. Plus, they lack the flavor needed for this dish.
How to thicken sauce/ gravy? The best way to thicken this dish is to let it cook longer. Sometimes, letting it cool will also thicken it. If you want it very thick, just cook off excess liquid on stovetop.
How to thin out the sauce/ gravy? Simply add some extra broth or water until the desired consistency has been reached.
Cut the peppers and onions thick – If you cut the onions and peppers too thin, they will simply dissolve into the sauce and not be a very prominent part of the dish like they should be.
Adjust quantity of Italian seasoning– Use more or less, based on your preference.
More Slow Cooker Meals
Crockpot Sausage and Peppers
Ingredients
- 2 pounds Italian sausage links, About 8-10 sausages
- 1 Green pepper, Thinly sliced
- 1 Red pepper, Thinly sliced
- 1 Yellow pepper, Thinly sliced
- 1 Onion, Large, Thinly sliced
- 2 cloves Garlic, Finely minced
- Salt, To taste
- Pepper, To taste
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1/4 tsp Red chili flakes, Optional
- 2 cups Marinara sauce
- 1 tbsp Parsley , Fresh, Roughly chopped
Instructions
- Add the Sausage, peppers, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, red chili flakes (optional), marinara sauce in a slow cooker.
- Mix until combined.
- Cover and cook on High heat for 3-4 hours or or on Low heat for 6-8 hours.
- Remove sausages, cut them into thick slices and mix them back in the crockpot.
- Garnish with parsley and enjoy!
Notes
- Read all my tips above.
- Leftovers can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 days and reheated in the microwave.
Can I pre slice the sausage before adding to crock pot?
Yes, you can do that.
Just made this for dinner and rushed straight here to give it 5 stars! Could not be easier and SO delicious!!!
Yay! It’s so good to hear you loved it as much as my family.
I only had polka kielbasa! Should still be good right?
Yes, absolutely.
If I would rather do with chicken can I eliminate the sausage or still use it but only do half the amount
You can replace with chicken cubes or even use chicken sausages.
Just made this last night – it was a WINNER!! One of the best meals I’ve made from the slow cooker!!
Made this dish last night… DELICIOUS!! I’d been looking for a good sausage pepper recipe and this was perfect! Definitely going into my menu list.
That’s fantastic! It makes me so happy that you enjoyed it.
Forgot to rate it..sorry..it’s 4:30 am..lol
Do you think it would be beneficial to sear the sausages first for flavor and to cook out a little grease ?
Some people have done that and enjoyed it.
Precooked sausage links I assume?
Yes.
Precooked sausages, correct?
Yes.
Making this for the third or fourth time! Huge hit in my house! My 3 year old loves it as much and my husband and I do!!
This is delicious and sooo easy. Made a smaller version for the 2 of us, 3 Italian sausages, 2 big green peppers and a big cup of pasta sauce, ready in 3 hours, definitely a keeper.
2 cups of marinara doesn’t seem like enough. I’m following instructions to the t but afraid for it to burn in the crock pot.
Trust me… it’s enough. I have made it multiple times and so have others and it works perfectly.
Do you use flavored marinara or plain?
I used plain but you can use flavored too.
Thank you! This was so easy and it came out excellent.
Hello I’ve not made it yet but have prepared everything for tomorrow. I have decided to brown the sausage and deglaze the frying pan with just a little water as I didn’t want to loose the juices. Can’t wait to try it …yummm
I browned the sausages before adding them to the crockpot. I like the color it added. The sausages were not done. I also used a good quality marinara sauce. I also spread garlic butter on the rolls and toasted them. The hoagies were great!!
I’m about to make this for the first time and can’t wait. But what side dish would you do or have done with this?
Hi Emiliy! If you scroll up, I have included a whole section on sides you can serve with this meal. I have that section, variations and tips in all of my posts.
I literally just turned my crockpot off and scooped some out. The flavor is delicious, however I cooked mine on low for 6 hours and 15 minutes and I feel like that was way too long. Again I will say the flavor of everything is so tasty, but it is also much too soft for my liking. I’ll make it again on low for 3-4 hours.
This is the best dinner I’ve made in a long time! Thank you for putting it out there. My husband said he gives it 100 thumbs up!
Awww! That makes my heart so happy!
This might be a stupid question but is the nutrition facts per serving? Or for the whole crockpot meal?
It’s per serving.
Can you freeze this if you make it ahead?
Yes, you can.
Can you put over rice?
Yes, you can serve over rice.
Great loved dipping french breadin sauce i used 3 bouillon cubes and 2 TB tomatoe paste (had to improvise) for sauce
Do you think smoked sausage would work too?
Yes. It would add a lovely flavor.
This might be a dumb question, but the sausages I bought are Beeler’s precooked kind. That’s what this recipe calls for right? Not raw sausages?
Yes, use cooked sausages. And not a dumb question at all.
I have raw sausages for this. I thought they would cook in the slow cooker. Did I buy the wrong kind? Thanks!
They should be the cooked sausages.
You can use raw italian sausage I do it all the time on low 6-8 hours or high 3-4…You get the same result.
Thanks for asking Gracie. I had the same question.
I made this for the first time last night and it smelled so delicious we had a hard time keeping out of it. I’m one to add a little bit of this or that to my cooking but didn’t add a thing to this. Cooked on low for 5 hours and turned off so the peppers and onion didn’t get mushy! Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful recipe.
Yay for no mushy sausages. Can’t stand that myself either…lol.
Mushy peppers and onions not sausage.
Just had polish sausage on hand would that working okay with this recipe..???
That should work fine.
This dish I made tonight for date night with my fiancé. And it was a huge hit, had some garlic bread on the side really complimented the dish, only thing I would of done differently was fry the sausages instead of adding it to the crockpot. But other then that absolutely delicious dish will totally make again.
I made these last week, but marinara is a little too thin for me. I am trying a thick Prego spaghetti sauce the next time.
does the sausage need to be cooked before hand?
I used cooked sausages.
Can I incorporate chicken thighs on the bone with the sausage and green peppers?
I haven’t tried that to know how that would affect the recipe.
Why do directions say cook till sausage is cooked thru if sausage is precooked? Haven’t made it yet. Asking i n advance.
I think I didn’t word it right. If someone is using uncooked sausages, they need to lightly brown it first on stovetop but it won’t be completely cooked through and allow the remainder of the cooking to happen in the crockpot.
That being said, I highly recommend using precooked sausages for convenience.
Trying this now….however, I scrolled down a little too late to see that the sausages should be the precooked kind. Just fished my raw sausages out to precook them. Maybe it would be helpful to other to mention up front in the ingredients list that the “precooked” links are preferred. Looking forward to the finished product….Thanks!