Sausage Skillet Bake: A Fall Recipe Makeover
This week in North Carolina, the weather has finally gotten cooler and it feels like fall! We are starting to get into some of our favorite fall traditions: going to the North Carolina State Fair, making Halloween costumes, and cooking fall-weather dishes. While this weather certainly makes me crave mugs of hot beverages and cinnamon-spiced treats, I also want to just turn on the oven and make some comfort food. This Sausage Skillet Bake is just that for our family.
This recipe is actually twice made over from the original.
I first discovered the recipe while watching an episode of Martha Stewart Living. I had just graduated from law school and was studying for the bar exam. At lunch, I would sometimes turn on the show just to take a break from all the legal concepts I was cramming that summer. One episode featured ideas for new moms, including a version of this recipe that had a biscuit topping and a gravy thickened with flour. It sounded so good, so I printed it off and set it aside for when I was done studying and had time to make more complicated meals.
Fast forward a couple of months and my husband was diagnosed with Celiac disease. Back then, the condition was relatively rare and we were overwhelmed by how few foods we felt he could eat. After I got over the shock, I decided that there had to be a way to make recipes that were safe for him, and I began converting gluten-filled recipes to gluten-free ones. This recipe was one of the first I converted. To make it gluten-free, I made some simple changes. I replaced the cheesy biscuit topping with a cheese mashed potato topping, similar to a Shepherd’s pie. Rather than a fat and flour roux to create a gravy, I made a thickening slurry using gluten-free chicken broth and corn starch. And with that, Sausage Skillet Bake was born and my work was done . . .
That is, it was done until gluten-free was not good enough to deal with my own health conditions. After my daughter was born, I started experiencing migraine headaches. Over the next several years, they became more frequent. At the end of 2017, I also started experiencing this bizarre neuropathy or nerve pain that I talked about in a prior post. I went to a new doctor who put me on a paleo/Whole30 diet, and I began to have far fewer headaches and less nerve pain. It seems that stress along with inflammation due to certain foods were wreaking havoc on my body. While I was able to add in a little bit of dairy, some rice and quinoa, and the occasional non-paleo sweetenter, I began to eat a mostly paleo/Whole30 compliant diet. A new diet meant that I was now in need of additional recipe makeovers if I wanted to feed my family foods they’ve grown to like.
Here is my latest version of our beloved Sausage Skillet Bake.
I would not exactly call it truly paleo or Whole30, but rather paleo or Whole30-friendly. My mashed potatoes are now made with organic Yukon gold potatoes and made creamy with some reserved starchy cooking water and clarified butter or ghee. This is our favorite brand- 4th & Heart. I also substituted chicken bone broth for the regular gluten-free broth as it is better for your digestive system. Finally, I swapped arrowroot starch for the corn starch in my first makeover.
The best part about this recipe is that, unlike the original, you do not have to bake it for a long time because everything is pretty much cooked before it goes in the oven. The most you do is place the whole thing under the broiler for a few minutes to brown the potato topping. I also take a shortcut by prepping the filling in my Lodge cast-iron skillet while the potatoes cook and using that in place of transferring the dish to another casserole. Iron skillets are so affordable and versatile. They also withstand a lot of heat, so the broiler is no problem. Although you do cook the potatoes in another pot, you also mash them in that same pot, so cleanup is limited to just one pot and one pan, which is not bad for a fall family supper.
The recipe itself has classic fall flavors.
This is the one thing I made sure to preserve when changing up the ingredients. Although it sounds a bit odd to add apples to what looks like a Shepherd’s pie, an apple like a honeycrisp or other sweet yet firm variety, when paired with the sausage and thyme, creates the perfect slightly sweet and savory casserole. My kids rarely notice the apples are in there because they soften to the point of melding in with the vegetables in the dish and become almost potato-like. Also, the apples work well if you are trying a more paleo-compliant version like one with a sweet-potato topping. I think the flavor is so unique and delicious, this is why my family likes it better than a traditional Shepherd’s pie!
Table of Contents
Sausage Skillet Bake
Notes
Feel free to substitute real butter for the ghee, warm milk for the reserved water, and increase the cheese if dairy is not an issue for you.
To make it more paleo-compliant, substitute sweet potatoes for the yukon golds.
Ingredients
- Mashed Potato Topping
- 3 Lbs Yukon Gold Potatoes (or sweet potatoes for paleo), cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 Tbsp Ghee (clarified butter)
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- ½ cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese (for non-paleo/Whole30)
- Filling
- 1 tsp avocado or olive oil
- 1 Lb mild bulk sausage (if making this paleo or Whole30, make sure it is compliant- no sugar or preservatives)
- 2 large carrots, peeled and chopped into ¼ inch dice
- 2-3 celery stalks, chopped into ¼ inch dice
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 large apple (honey crisps work well but fuji and gala do too), chopped into ¼ inch dice
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 cup chicken bone broth, divided (¼ cup reserved for thickening with the starch)
- 1 heaping Tbsp arrowroot starch
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Instructions
- For the potato topping:
- In a medium saucepan, add potatoes and cover with cold water. The water level should be about an inch above the potatoes. Boil for 15-20 minutes or until they are fork tender. Reserve 1 cup of cooking water before draining.
- After draining the potatoes in a colander, return them to the pot and add the ghee. Use a potato masher and add the reserved cooking water until the potatoes are creamy but not too loose. If using cheese, sprinkle in at this time and season with salt and pepper. Keep the potatoes covered in the warm pot until ready to spread on over the filling.
- Preheat the broiler to high.
- For the filling:
- While the potatoes are cooking, add oil to a broiler-safe pan set over medium high heat on the stove. Once the oil is hot, add the sausage, browning the meat and breaking it up into smaller pieces. Once cooked through, remove the sausage to a paper-towel lined shallow bowl. Remove all but 1-2 Tbsp of oil from the pan.
- Sauté the carrots in the oil for 5 minutes before adding the celery and the onion. Cook until 5 minutes or until all the vegetables are softened. Add the apple, thyme, salt and pepper, and cook until the apple and the vegetables are cooked through, about 8-10 minutes.
- Once the vegetables and apples are cooked through, mix in the browned sausage. Add ¾ cup of chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add the arrowroot starch to the reserved ¼ cup of stock and mix thoroughly to create a slurry. Once the liquid in the pan is bubbling, add the arrowroot starch slurry and gently stir through to combine. You will see the mixture thicken as you stir. This only takes a minute or so.
- Once the filling mixture is thickened, turn off the stove burner and add the mashed potatoes, dolloping a spoonful at a time to cover the mixture. Once all of the potatoes have covered the top of the pan, use a spoon to create indentations and peaks all over the potato topping.
- Before setting the pan in the oven, place a cookie sheet on a rack set just a level or two below the broiler, and place the broiler-safe pan on the cookie sheet. Broil for 2-5 minutes, checking constantly, until the peaks of the topping are browned and the liquid begins to bubble along (and over) the sides.
- Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes before serving.
If you try this recipe or have a version to share, please comment below!
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2 Comments
Venessa
One of my all-time favorite recipes! Can’t wait to try out this makeover! <3
VP
Let me know how it works for you when you do!