Hooray for quick skillet dinners! This one is so fantastically easy that it kind of feels like cheating. Between the Italian sausage and marinara sauce, the dish has all of the seasoning built in, so you don’t even have to measure out any extra herbs or spices. You’re pretty much just heating it all together and then it’s ready to eat!
You can bulk this recipe out further and probably make about 6 decent sized servings by stirring in some cooked pasta (I’d use 1/2 lb. dry), or by spooning this mixture over a bed of rice. It’s a pretty filling mix of ingredients, so I just skipped both and ate it plain. Not a fan of chickpeas? White beans would probably be pretty awesome in this, too.
Want to try a vegetarian version? I think sautéed eggplant or mushrooms would be a great replacement for the sausage, but you’ll want to add a teaspoon or so of Italian seasoning blend to make up for the lost spices. You’ll also need a little olive oil to sauté them in. I really can’t wait to try it with eggplant!
Sausage & Kale Skillet
Sausage and Kale Skillet
Servings 4Ingredients
- 1/2 19oz. package Italian Sausage ($2.25)
- 1 bunch kale ($0.99)
- 1 15oz. can chickpeas ($1.00)
- 1 cup marinara sauce ($0.88)
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella ($0.90)
Instructions
- Squeeze the sausage from the casings into a large skillet (freeze the remaining links for later use). Cook the sausage over medium heat until fully brown. Break the sausage up into pieces as it cooks. It’s okay if it sticks to the bottom of the skillet a little as it cooks.
- While the sausage is cooking, remove the woody stems from the kale, then slice it crosswise into thin strips. Rinse the kale well, then add it to the skillet. Stir it into the sausage and continue to cook until it is fully wilted (this happens within a few minutes).
- Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Add the chickpeas to the skillet and stir to combine. Pour the marinara sauce over the skillet, then top with the shredded cheese. Place a lid on the skillet and let it simmer until the cheese is melted (about 5-10 minutes).
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Nutrition
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Step by Step Photos
This is all you need for this super quick skillet! I used only half of the sausage (the rest went in the freezer), half of the cheese, and about half of the jar of marinara. I used Lacinato kale (or dinosaur kale) because that’s what I had on hand. You can definitely use curly kale in its place with no modifications.
Squeeze half of the sausage into a large skillet and cook it over medium heat until fully browned. I didn’t add any extra oil to the skillet because sausage has quite a bit on its own. It’s okay if some of it sticks to the bottom of the skillet, it will dissolve off later.
For most kale, the stem is super tough and woody, so you’ll want to remove them (especially for curly kale). Just take a sharp knife and run it along the stem to cut it out. Then, stack the leaves and cut across into thin strips.
This particular bunch of kale had really soft stems, so I didn’t even bother removing them. Stack the leaves and cut across into strips. This will be slightly more difficult with curly kale because it’s so fluffy, but you can still do it. It’s easiest if you cut each leave into two long pieces when removing the stem. After chopping the kale, make sure to rinse it really, really well.
After the sausage has browned, stir in the kale. Continue to cook and stir until the kale has wilted. This happens pretty fast. It’s okay if the kale is still a little wet from rinsing. The water will turn into steam and help it wilt, plus it will help dissolve the browned bits of sausage off the bottom of the skillet.
Drain and rinse the chickpeas, then add them to the skillet.
Pour the marinara over top… (you can stir it in, if you want).
Lastly, sprinkle the shredded cheese over top, cover it with a lid, and let it simmer until the cheese has melted.
And now it’s ready to eat! It may not be the prettiest dish in the world, but OMG is it ever flavorful and filling!
I just made this and it was sooo delicious! I made a few variations: I used frozen spinach instead of kale, because it’s what I had on hand. I just had to cook it a little longer. I also added orechiette pasta to bulk it up a little bit, and it worked great!
Tried a wonderful (if not a little obvious) leftovers twist:
Thinly sliced artisan bread (sesame, ciabatta, even french–anything but sandwich bread) with the sausage/kale mixture on top, extra cheese to top it off.
I accidentally left them in the toaster oven too long, the cheese was golden brown and the bread was half crunchy–I’m so glad I did because it was amazing like this! The kale got so crunchy and flavorful as a result, as if all the flavors it stewed in got squeezed out and concentrated.
Never had kale before, but I made this for dinner tonight and ADORED IT! :D Thank you for not only the wonderful recipe, but also for introducing me to a new ingredient! I subbed Italian cheese mix instead of the mozzerella since I forgot to shred the mozzerella before cooking, but it was really yummy with the different cheese too.
I’ve always been a fan of this website (I gifted your book as a present to my roommate recently!) and immediately fell in love with this recipe as soon as I saw it on your website. Just made it, and am currently eating the dish. It is SO tasty and hearty and CHEAP! :)
I made this last night but substituted ground beef for the crumbled sausage (it was majorly on sale). To compensate, I added tons of seasoning (garlic, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, more garlic, worcestershire, etc). It was pretty good (and cheap), but I am left with the feeling the FENNEL SEED is the key seasoning from the italian sausage that pulls together all of the flavors in this dish. (Some anisette flavored liquor like Sambuca would have done the job, too). Just my two cents.
Tried this the first night saw the recipe. For some reason right now I am on a MAJOR Kale kick (hmmm, come to think of it, it was because of ANOTHER Recipe I found on this site, the Kale, Tortellini and Cranberry Salad!! (MAJOR YUM!!). This was actually pretty good … although I ignored the suggestion about the extra oil when browning the sauage – big boo-boo, was too oily, had to drain everything before I added the sauce and cheese. This is now my new go-to when starved and wanting to eat 5 minutes ago. Love it, love this site. Thanks!!
I am preparing this meal tonight but have recently started a new “DIET” and need nutritional breakdown for Sausage and Kale meal off of budgetbytes……please email nutritional information per serving and how much is actually in one serving…Thanks in advance.
I’m sorry, I don’t have the nutritional information.
Lori,
There are sites that can help you estimate. I use MyFitnessPal. It lets you input recipes. Based on the ingredients, it gives you a full nutritional breakdown per serving size. I did this one out of curiosity (and because it looks amazing!) and these are the stats per serving (recipe serves 4):
Calories 380
Fat 22g
Sat Fat 8.5g
Choles 57mg
Sodium 1186mg
Potassium 347mg
Carbs 29g
Fiber 5.3g
Sugars 7g
Protein 23g
Comments like this drive me INSANE!
Recipe looks delicious! Trying it out this weekend :)
Just tried this and it was delicious! Thanks so much for the tip, I never would have thought if this myself!
Do you think another green such as spinach or chard would work? The store I went to didn’t have kale….I know, bad store. Thanks.
Yes, actually, I think just about any other hearty green would work. Chard would be awesome.
I love quick, easy, pantry meals like this one. Thanks for idea!!
Any suggestions for subbing out the chickpeas? Shell pasta? Or would white beans be better?
Shell pasta would be awesome, as would white beans. You could even do them both together! :)
Sounds awesome! Not sure if my crew would agree, we shall see.
Genius! By the way, I’ll be out shopping for your book today! Yay!
I have almost everything on this list! So making this for dinner tonight! :)
2 questions/comments from a Northshore girl who tends to shop at the same grocery chain you do:
Do you like the Best Choice cheese? I bought a bag of cheddar because the price was so much lower, but it had a lot of starch in it, to the point that the cheese was gritty. I’ve been afraid to try another bag because the first one was so unpleasant.
Have you tried the Italian sausage made in-store? The flavor is so much better and sometimes they package it in bulk without the casings.
I haven’t tried their sausage, but I will! Thanks for the suggestion! Yes, the Best Choice cheese does have a lot of starch. Their block cheese is usually the same price as the shredded, though, so sometimes I’ll get that instead.