Irish Banger Skillet

a skillet of Irish bangers and potato/cabbage sauté.

This easy Irish sausage recipe will be one of your favorites because it’s got all the flavor of a traditional bangers and mash without all the work. It’s essentially a sausage skillet using store-bought Irish bangers, potatoes, cabbage, onion and carrots for an Irish dinner recipe that’s easy enough for a weeknight and tasty enough for your St. Patrick’s Day dinner celebrations.

carrots, onions, potatoes and cabbage on a cutting board.
This simple skillet dinner uses inexpensive, everyday vegetables for an amazing homemade meal.

What are Irish bangers?

Irish bangers (a.k.a. Irish sausage) is also known as British sausage or English sausage, are usually made with pork (but can use beef or even lamb), raw egg and breadcrumbs (also known as rusk). These sausages are meaty and flavorful, seasoned with herbs like thyme, rosemary, marjoram and garlic.

Commonly used to make bangers and mash (sausages and mashed potatoes), these versatile sausages are great for other Irish recipes too.

I use them in this Irish banger skillet with traditional ingredients that you’d normally find in a classic Colcannon.

Why you’ll love this Irish banger skillet:

  • It doesn’t make a mess of your kitchen, because you only use one skillet for cooking.
  • It’s quick and easy to make in about 30 minutes.
  • The recipe uses everyday ingredients.
  • It’s a hearty, tasty Irish recipe that feeds the whole family.
  • Irish banger skillet is the perfect dinner idea when St. Patrick’s Day is on a weeknight.
  • If you need to make more, double the recipe and use a larger 12″ skillet.
Newsletter Signup
Join our community of food lovers!

Get my latest recipes, helpful kitchen tips and more good things each week in your inbox.

Ingredients:

  • Irish Bangers – depending on where you live this may be a seasonal item.
  • Olive Oil – no need to use extra virgin olive oil.
  • Red Skinned Potatoes – look for small or medium-sized potatoes.
  • Onion – I use plain yellow onions, but you can also use white onions.
  • Green Cabbage – you won’t need a whole head of cabbage, about half of a small head is fine.
  • Carrots – to add a soft sweetness to the skillet dinner.
  • Chicken Stock or Vegetable Stock (low sodium) – try my Easy Leftover Rotisserie Chicken Stock or this Homemade Vegetable Broth From Scraps
  • Fresh Thyme – you could also use ½ teaspoon of dried thyme.
  • Kosher Salt – I recommend Diamond Crystal Kosher salt. If you use Morton’s know that it’s saltier by volume and you may need to use slightly less in this recipe.
  • Black Pepper – freshly ground will give you the best flavor.
Irish banger sausages and how to cook them.

Depending on where you live and the time of year, Irish banger sausages are available at your local butcher, or supermarket. I found mine at Trader Joe’s, but I’ve also seen them at Whole Foods and Fresh Market.

If you can’t find Irish bangers, you can substitute a mild, unsmoked pork sausage (not Italian), like a bratwurst (It’s not quite the same, because the bangers have a definitive porky quality to them, but I think brats are as close as you can get).

adding the vegetables to the skillet and cooking them down, then adding the Irish sausages.

How to make this skillet dinner:

  1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet and add the Irish sausages.
  2. Cook the bangers until they’re browned all over, turning occasionally. Transfer the sausages to a plate.
  3. Add more olive oil and layer in half of the sliced potatoes, onions and cabbage then layer with the other half of the vegetables.
  4. Toss in the carrots and thyme, season with salt and pepper and add 3/4 cup of the stock or broth.
  5. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes.
  6. Transfer the bangers and any juices back to the skillet, cover and simmer for 10 more minutes until the Irish sausages are cooked through.
  7. Remove the sausages from the pan and cut crosswise into large chunks. Return the sausages to the skillet and serve.
The Irish Banger Skillet after cooking.

What’s the best skillet for making this recipe?

Use a large, heavy wide skillet with 2-3″ high sides and a tight fitting lid.

For this recipe a 10″ skillet is about right, but if you’re doubling it, use a pan that’s at least 12″ wide and with 3″ sides.

You don’t have to use a nonstick pan for this recipe, although you can.

A serving of the sausage skillet dinner on a plate.

How does it taste?

Unlike Italian sausage or smoked sausages, Irish pork sausage has a deeply porky flavor that isn’t masked by other seasonings. It’s truly the fatty, unctuous pork that shines through — and frankly, the combination with the simple potatoes and cabbage, make this peasant dish a flavor-dynamo.

The sausages are juicy, meaty and perfectly seasoned to go with the simple vegetables. The flavors of potato onion and cabbage remind me of Colcannon but with less effort and healthier than that traditional recipe (no cream and butter).

This tasty Irish recipe is a complete meal in one pan. What could be better than that? The flavors are simple and straightforward but very satisfying.

My husband and daughter went back three times for more, so if that’s any indication, this sausage skillet is a crowd pleaser.


It’s so good and so simple, you won’t want to save it for St. Patty’s Day – this will become one of your weekly standards.

I love how this recipe uses simple ingredients, but you can certainly make some swaps and variations to it. Here’s a few ideas.

Variations and swaps

  • Instead of green cabbage, try Napa cabbage, curly kale, shaved brussels sprouts or chopped escarole lettuce.
  • Swap larger red skinned potatoes with baby dutch potatoes (they’re small enough to cook completely when simmering in the covered skillet.)
  • Add crumbled cooked bacon to the skillet.
  • Add frozen peas just before serving.
  • Sprinkle with fresh herbs like marjoram or parsley.
closeup photo of the skillet dinner.

What to serve with it?

Tried this recipe? Leave a rating and review.

Your comments and shares are invaluable to me and the thousands of readers who use this site daily. If you've made the recipe, leave a star rating and review. We want to hear how you liked it.

We'd love it if you shared the recipe with your friends on social media!

Irish sausage skillet dinner on a plate.
Print Pin
4.03 from 44 votes

Irish Banger Skillet

This quick and easy all-in-one Irish Sausage Skillet dinner is made with everyday ingredients and is ready to eat in 30 minutes. Use traditional Irish bangers for an authentic flavor.
Author: Lisa Lotts
Course Main Course
Cuisine Irish
Keyword bangers, cabbage, sausage, st. patrick’s day
Dietary Restrictions Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 4

SPECIAL EQUIPMENT:

  • 1 large 10″ skillet with a lid

INGREDIENTS:

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 pound Irish banger sausage
  • ½ pound red skinned potatoes sliced thinly crosswise
  • 1 medium onion sliced thinly crosswise
  • ½ head green cabbage cored and thinly sliced
  • 3 carrots peeled and sliced on a diagonal into 1/2″ pieces
  • cups chicken broth or vegetable broth, divided
  • 2 teaspoons fresh thyme divided
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  • ¼ teaspoon black pepper freshly ground

DIRECTIONS:

  • In a 10-inch skillet with a tight fitting lid, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. When the oil starts to glisten and moire, carefully add the sausages and cook, turning occasionally until browned. Transfer the sausages to a plate.
  • Into the pan, over a medium heat, layer in half of the onion, potatoes and cabbage.
  • Layer the remaining onions, potatoes and cabbage. Sprinkle with carrots and add 1 teaspoon of the thyme.
  • Pour ¾ cup of broth over the vegetables, sprinkle with salt and pepper and cover tightly. Simmer for 10 minutes.
  • After the vegetables have cooked for 10 minutes, nestle the sausages into the potato mixture, along with any accumulated juices.
  • Add the remaining broth and thyme, cover and cook for an additional 10 minutes, or until potatoes and carrots are very tender.
  • Remove the sausages and cut them into chunks. Return the sausages to the pan and serve.

RECIPE VIDEO:

YouTube video

NOTES:

Can be doubled – use a 12″ skillet.

NUTRITION:

Calories: 519kcal | Carbohydrates: 23g | Protein: 22g | Fat: 37g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Cholesterol: 81mg | Sodium: 1102mg | Potassium: 994mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 7885IU | Vitamin C: 53.5mg | Calcium: 90mg | Iron: 2.8mg

“Pin It” For Later!

a pin to save for later.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

59 Comments

  1. Looks like a totally satisfying meal – I love that you just used a skillet!

    1. A skillet is all you need for this one! Don’t you just love that?

  2. Michelle @ Vitamin Sunshine says:

    This looks amazing– I am definitely making this next week! Pinning 🙂

  3. Luci {Luci's Morsels} says:

    I love a good one skillet meal and this is perfect for St. Patrick’s Day. It looks delicious!

    1. Thanks, Luci — it’s a favorite in our house!

  4. Thanks for this really great looking and sounding recipe. I will be happy to try this on March 14!

    1. St. Patrick’s Day is March 17 — but this skillet is delicious anytime!

  5. This is some real heat fare! Like you I am super lazy so one pot dishes like this are ny absolute favourite! Great post

    1. I’m so glad you like it. Sometimes you can have quick and easy with warm and satisfying! That’s a good day!

  6. This is a perfect meal to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day with! Love how everything comes together in one skillet. I’m all for keeping clean-up minimal!

    1. I know – we do enough dishes, don’t we?

  7. Yep. Totally get you there on the dishes thing. And, yum! We tried something very similar in Edinburgh actually, which one of our friends made. He added cream to make it a lovely smooth creamy dish, but I think it would be just as good either way.

    1. Cream would amp up the indulgence quotient! I like it!

  8. oh yum!! this looks like the most amazing way to have a taste of ireland at home 🙂 thanks for sharing!!

  9. Sonya Matejko (@SingleStrides) says:

    I’m on a detox this week but I am absolutely marking this recipe as a celebratory dish for when I’m through 😛

    1. I think I’m in need of a detox too — you’ll have to let me know what kind you do!

  10. A perfect St. Patrick’s Day feast for those of us (ME!) who love simple weeknight meals and no-fuss clean-up. 🙂

    1. I know, love a quick cleanup! And Scott practically licked his plate!

  11. Betty Burdick says:

    This WILL be our St. Patty dinner! Thank you Lisa…going to start checking local meat/butchers to see if I can find some authentic banger sausage! Did a search and found I could order online through Amazon and North Country Smokehouse….but would prefer to pick up fresh, so I’ve got some phone calls to make. Thanks for sharing – anxious to make this recipe!

    1. Enjoy it, Betty! And Happy St. Patty’s Day!

  12. Who wouldn’t love this any night of the week. Not sure if I can find “bangers” but any great sausage would work. Nice and tasty for sure.

    1. Use whatever sausage you can find — Italian would work, or maybe a smoky kielbasa!

      1. Brooke Lisow says:

        5 stars
        Being both Irish and Polish I LOVE the idea of trying it with kielbasa. yum!!!

  13. I wish I could get good bangers here. Miss this type of food from my childhood.

    1. Believe it or not, I found Irish Bangers at the Fresh Market — and I’ll bet they have them at Whole Foods. It not, pick your favorite sausage from the market!

  14. A lovely take on Colcannon. We totally love quick easy recipes like this on week nights. Really looking forward to trying this!

  15. Oh this looks yum!! I feel you on the 100 pans to use hahaha… This just needs a little toast to soak up the juices.

    1. Sometimes, I’m lazy when it comes to doing a mound of dishes!