Chicken Sausage Sheet Pan Meal
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When you need a dinner that’s easy, filling, and delicious, with almost zero cleanup, this chicken sausage sheet pan meal is it. Best of all, it’s a great chicken recipe for meal prep dinners all week long!
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Why This Recipe is a Family Favorite
Sheet pan meals are my secret weapon for busy weeknights. Minimal cleanup, mostly hands-off cooking, and everything comes out of the oven at the same time – what could be better than that?
This chicken sausage sheet pan recipe only needs five ingredients and most of the cook time is just the oven doing the work.
It’s a dinner the whole family will actually get excited about, and one of the best ways I’ve found to get my boys to eat their vegetables. The roasted sausage adds so much savory flavor that it gets into everything on the pan, and suddenly kale and butternut squash are not a hard sell.
Everything stores and reheats perfectly, and because you can swap in different vegetables each time, it never feels repetitive.
Healthy, protein-packed, and genuinely flexible – it checks a lot of boxes for a busy mom who still wants to put a real dinner on the table!
Happy Kitchen Secrets
Here are my important mom-tested cooking tips for making this chicken sausage sheet pan recipe! I’ve made this countless times to save you from a failed attempt.
- This recipe is written for fully cooked chicken sausage. If you use raw sausage links instead, check the notes in the FAQs or the recipe card for a few small adjustments.
- Don’t crowd the pan! Spread everything out in a single layer so the vegetables roast instead of steam. Overlapping pieces will turn out soggy rather than caramelized.
- Make sure every piece of vegetable gets coated in oil before it goes in the oven. This is what gives you that perfect roasted texture and keeps things from drying out.
Ingredients
For the sausage, I use Aidells Chicken and Apple Sausage. It’s fully cooked and easy to find at most grocery stores.
When picking a butternut squash, look for one that feels heavy for its size and has a matte, deep tan skin. Green streaks and shiny patches mean it’s not fully ripe, so avoid those.
A squash with a longer neck and smaller bulb is actually the best choice because it has a smaller seed cavity and more usable flesh.
Substitutions and Variations
If you don’t like butternut squash, feel free to substitute sweet potatoes instead. There are a variety of vegetables you can add to this meal, too. Some baby carrots, bell peppers, brussels sprouts, broccoli florets, cherry tomatoes, red potatoes, and other root vegetables would all be tasty.
Don’t have extra virgin olive oil on hand? Just use some avocado oil instead!
Feel free to add some extra seasoning to the mix, too. Add some kick with red pepper flakes, or elevate the flavor with a bit of onion powder.
How to Make This Chicken Sausage Sheet Pan Meal
This is only a summary of the steps. For the full instructions, see the recipe card! ⬇️
Jump to Recipe
- Tear the kale into pieces and remove any thick stems, then chop the onion and peel and dice the butternut squash. Slice the sausage into rounds.
- Toss the squash and onion with half the oil and a light sprinkle of salt and pepper, then spread them out in a single layer on your sheet pan. Pop it in the oven for 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes, pull the pan out and give everything a flip. Add the sausage and kale, toss with the remaining oil and seasonings, and spread everything back out on the pan.
- Cook for another 8-10 minutes, flipping halfway through, until the kale is crispy and the sausage is heated through.
Make it kid friendly: For the kale, look for Lacinato (also called Dinosaur or Tuscan kale), which tends to be less bitter and more tender than curly kale. This is a great option if your kids are new to eating kale and a little skeptical.
Serving Suggestions
The beauty of this dish is that the entire meal is all there on the baking sheet! But you could make some jasmine rice or creamy vegetable soup if you feel like you want a little something extra.
Chicken Meal Prep Tips
This dish is one of my favorite chicken recipes for meal prep. Cook the whole batch on Sunday, let it cool, and divide it into individual airtight containers.
It keeps in the refrigerator for up to 4 days, so you've got lunch or dinner ready to go for most of the week with zero extra effort.
FAQ
Yes! Uncooked sausage links work great. Just poke each one a few times with a fork before adding them to the pan with the squash and onions in Step 2. Use a meat thermometer to make sure they reach the correct internal temperature before serving (160°F for beef and pork, 165°F for chicken and turkey).
Yes, leftovers freeze well in a freezer-safe container for up to a few months. The kale will lose some texture after freezing, so consider leaving it out of the portions you plan to freeze and adding fresh kale when you reheat.
After you make it, please leave a comment and star rating below to let me know how it went!
Chicken Sausage Sheet Pan Meal
Video
Ingredients
- 24 oz. chicken sausage or pork sausage
- 1 small bunch kale
- 1 medium butternut squash about 2-3 lbs.
- 1 medium red onion
- 4 tablespoons avocado oil divided
- 1 teaspoon sea salt divided
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper divided
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F (204°C).
- Wash and tear the 1 small bunch kale into 3-4 inch long pieces, removing any large stems. Peel and chop 1 medium red onion into 2-inch pieces. Peel, de-seed, and dice 1 medium butternut squash. Slice the 24 oz. chicken sausage into 1 inch wide rounds.
- Toss the squash cubes and onions with 2 tablespoons avocado oil and season lightly with ½ teaspoon sea salt and ⅛ teaspoon black pepper. Spread the veggies out in a single layer on a large baking sheet.
- Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, stopping halfway to turn the pieces over with a spatula.
- Toss the sliced sausage and kale with the remaining 2 tablespoons avocado oil. Season with the remaining ½ teaspoon sea salt, ⅛ teaspoon black pepper and ½ teaspoon garlic powder. Spread the chicken sausage and kale into a single layer on the baking sheet with the squash and onions. Return to the oven and cook for 8-10 more minutes.
- When the kale is crispy and the sausage is heated through, remove the sheet pan meal from the oven, and serve immediately.
Notes
- Poke each sausage with a fork or knife a few times (this keeps them from popping open in the oven while they cook).
- Set the sausages on the sheet pan with the butternut squash and onions in Step 2. When you turn the vegetables halfway through cooking, flip the sausages over.
- Use a meat thermometer to test the internal temperature of the sausage links. For beef and pork sausages should be cooked to 160°, and chicken and turkey sausages should be cooked to 165°F, per USDA.
Nutrition
2026 Update: This recipe is still a favorite of ours! It's been updated to simplify the cooking instructions and include extra cooking tips. We hope you love it as much as we do!
