Sweet, tart, and filling. Served over rice, the chicken is stir-fried rather than battered and deep-fried and comes with a delicious sauce, bell pepper, carrot, onion, and pineapple.
| Prep Time: | 10 mins |
| Cook Time: | 15 mins |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 25 mins |
| Servings: | 2 |
| Yield: | 2 grilled sausages |
Ingredients
- 2 (3.5 ounce) links Italian sausage
- 1 ½ cups water
- 1 pinch salt
- 2 metal skewers
- 1 tablespoon barbeque sauce, or to taste
Instructions
- Place sausages into a skillet over medium heat and pour in water. Add a large pinch of salt to the water and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook for about 3 minutes per side.
- Remove sausages from pan and let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate until cold, at least 1 hour. Insert a metal skewer the long way through each cooled sausage.
- Preheat an outdoor grill for medium-high heat and lightly oil the grate. Pour barbeque sauce into a small bowl.
- Place a sausage on a work surface and start making a knife cut about 3/4 inch from the end, holding the knife blade at a slight angle and cutting down to the skewer. Slowly rotate the sausage and continue cutting in a spiral until sausage is cut to about 1 inch from the other end. Gently spread the sausage apart on the skewer to create about 1/2 inch of space between the curls.
- Place sausages onto the preheated grill and cook until browned and meat is no longer pink inside, about 6 minutes; turn occasionally.
- Brush sausages with barbeque sauce using a pastry brush when sausages are nearly done. Cook, continuing to turn sausages, until sauce has caramelized onto the meat, about 1 minute per side. Transfer to a plate and let sausages cool for about 30 seconds before removing skewers for serving.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 227 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 6 g |
| Cholesterol | 36 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Protein | 12 g |
| Saturated Fat | 6 g |
| Sodium | 847 mg |
| Sugars | 3 g |
| Fat | 17 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
These were awesome!! Watched the video, followed exact and made my own homemade garlic basil Mayo. Sautéd onions to top if desired. Italian sausage with BBQ sounds like an odd pairing but it’s works in a wonderful way! Will make again! Thanks Chef John. Yet again, a winner!
Wonderful. Followed the directions exactly, the result was delis
I need a bit more practice cutting the sausage but it was not a fail by any means. I was easy, took a little more time but the results are worth it with more of the sausage getting that great grilled flavor!
These were absolutely delicious! I was skeptical to add the BBQ sauce and even got creative and also made the garlic basil mayo (but I did it the cheater’s way by adding basil and garlic to already made mayo since I was in a rush) and everyone LOVED the sausage sandwiches! Huge hit! Will definitely make these again!
Watch the video! My knife skill are questionable at times so I had hubby watch the video and cut these for me. I really didn’t think we would like the barbeque sauce and to be honest, I only picked the recipe for the fun factor of it. Turns out I was wrong because we very much enjoyed the combination of the sausage and barbeque sauce. These were super fun and I plan on making them often in the summer.
Loved this idea makes a nice fancy twist on sausage. Easy to do and make cooking sausage on the grill faster.
By the time I cooked for the third time, I managed to get the knack of the spiral cutting.
These were really cool and would be awesome for a cookout get-together because they are whimsical. The BBQ flavor went better than expected with the italian sausages. I used plain spicy sausage but am really wanting to try them with some “gourmet” flavors, such as habanero, Louisiana hot, etc. I served topped with sauteed onions.
excellent. Followed recipe and worked out perfectly. The entire family says this recipe is a keeper.
Cutting the spirals was much easier and quicker than I expected. Well worth the effort, because the sausages tasted so much better done this way! We cooked the spirals over the fire, which added extra crispness and smokey flavor.
Worked well, tasted great.
I made this recipe exactly as it was posted and we loved it. This time we did it even better. We actually got the BBQ sauce to carmelize, toasted the buns and had warmed saurkraut on the side with fresh green beans. I could have eaten two of these!!!!!
Just made this for father’s day dinner. We used Bratwurst. AWESOME! But curious as to why you have to put it in the fridge and cool the sausage?
I used chicken sausage and this was awesome! I also did not get my cuts close enough.
Very good. Only thing we changed was that we cooked the sausages in beer. Thought the prep was a lot of work for little additional flavor.
Wanting to use up a package of Italian sausages, I came across this recipe. I too, didn’t get my cuts close enough to get the true spiral appearance. But, that didn’t change the taste of the sausages. I had sautéed some onions that we enjoyed with these. Also with dinner, we had ‘Grilled Corn with Cilantro Lime Butter’ and ‘Napa Cabbage Salad with Lemon-Pistachio Vinaigrette’, both AR recipes. Dinner was quite good tonight. Thanks, Chef John.
Excellent! Cooked on our indoor grill because it’s still winter here despite the fact that it’s officially spring. Can’t wait to try it on the outdoor bbq. I used Bulls-Eye Grilled Onion & Garlic BBQ sauce, and topped with caramelized onions and green peppers and a swoosh of mayo. Fun and delicious.
Like Deb C, I didn’t cut the spirals close enough. However, that did not matter! These were amazing. I fixed 10 using Mild & 4 Cheese Johnsonville Italian Sausage. Between 3 adults and 2 kids, there were gone in a few minutes (I am not ashamed that I ate two and my six year old declared they were better than hotdogs!) Had my first with mustard but realized they are perfect even without toppings. My husband said we’d definitely make them again and I’d like to experiment with various sauces on them while cooking. Thank you for another no fail recipe Chef John!
Takes some practice cutting, but it is worth it. Don’t let BBQ sauce fool you; it works well. You’ll put it on ribs right? Going to make it a part of all cookouts.
Unfortunately, I didn’t cut the spirals close enough, however I still got the delicious smoky, caramelized flavors from the grill so aptly described by Chef John. I never cared for sausage until I used Johnsonville sausage so that is what I used. I added grilled onions, grilled red peppers, and provolone. Yummy!
Chef John, I am going to eat my words. This technique is awesome but when I saw bbq sauce and italian sausage, I cringed. (I am not a fan of BBQ sauce) Never the less I pressed on and did a package of Johnsonville Brats and one of Italian sausage. They were a HUGE hit. This a fun technique and the BBQ sauce glaze is really great! Thank you for a fun dinner! (Tip – watch the video!)