Savory Glazed Mini Sausages

Why This Savory Glazed Mini Sausages Works

During the long, low cook, the sausages sit in the sauce and slowly warm all the way through. Because the slow cooker never gets too hot, the mini sausages stay juicy instead of drying out or splitting. As they heat, some of their fat and salt mix into the sauce, so the outside of each sausage starts to taste like the sauce, and the sauce starts to taste like the sausages.

As it bubbles gently, the mix of BBQ sauce, grape jelly, mustard, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce thickens and turns sticky. The sugar in the jelly and brown sugar melts and then tightens up again as water cooks off, so the sauce clings to the sausages instead of sliding off. Over time, the garlic powder and onion powder spread through the whole pot, so every sausage ends up coated in the same sweet, tangy, slightly smoky glaze. By the time it is done, the sausages are hot inside and covered in a thick, shiny sauce that sticks to each piece.

Mistakes To Avoid

Letting the sausages cook on high heat instead of low often makes them split and wrinkle. The outside skin tightens and can even get tough while the sauce burns around the edges of the slow cooker. The final dish ends up with chewy sausages sitting in a scorched, bitter-tasting glaze instead of a smooth, sticky one.

Skipping the step of mixing the sauce ingredients before adding the sausages leaves clumps of jelly, sugar, and dry spices. Those lumps melt unevenly, so some sausages sit in plain BBQ while others get hit with sharp pockets of mustard or sugar. The glaze never turns into one even, glossy coating.

Cooking for too short a time keeps the sauce thin and runny. The jelly and sugar don’t have enough time to melt and tighten up, so the sausages feel like they are sitting in a loose soup. Instead of a sticky glaze that clings to each piece, the liquid just slides off.