This is one of the best kielbasa and potato crock pot recipes! What was created from a night of, I have no idea what's for dinner and we don't have much to choose from, has turned into one of our favorite weeknight crockpot meals. Made with simple ingredients you likely already have in your pantry, this crockpot meal is great on a busy weeknight or a lazy weekend. There's not much prep work that goes into it either.
This is such an easy dump and go dinner. Full of tender potatoes, the rich flavor of Polish sausage and wholesome peppers, tomatoes and onions, it makes a complete meal that the whole family will love. Even my picky eater asked for seconds! And it's perfect for meal prepping, as it's hearty and well-balanced, making a great lunch or dinner for work.
My slow cooker pepper steak is also great for the above reasons too! And make sure to also check out my list of 37 high-protein crockpot recipes next.
Table Of Contents
Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Uses a few pantry staple ingredients
- It's a 2-step recipe
- True dump and go recipe
- The sauces cook the potatoes til their tender
- The seasonings pair perfectly together
Ingredients
- Sausage: kielbasa sausage is what I like best in this recipe, but use your favorite sausage link variety if you prefer.
- Potatoes: I use baby potatoes, but you can use your favorite potatoes, such as peeled and diced russet potatoes, red potatoes or golden potatoes. Sweet potatoes will work too, but will get softer more quickly than white potatoes.
- Green peppers: instead of green bell peppers, you can use red, yellow or orange, or a combination of colorful peppers.
- Tomatoes: canned diced tomatoes, either petite or regular.
- Onions: sweet onions are my favorite, but yellow onions and red onions work too.
- Garlic: either fresh minced garlic or roasted garlic for extra flavor.
- Beef broth or chicken broth
- Seasonings: garlic powder, thyme, parsley, salt and black pepper
How To Make Slow Cooker Kielbasa and Potatoes
This dinner can be made in any size slow cooker, just make sure not to double or triple it if you have a small crockpot. For 6, 8 or 10 quart slow cookers, you can double and possibly triple the recipe.
- Add the sliced kielbasa, halved or diced potatoes, sliced green peppers, chopped onions, canned diced tomatoes, minced garlic, broth and seasonings to the crockpot. Stir, pushing the ingredients into the liquid as much as possible. Set to low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours.
- Mix the sausage and potato casserole, taste and season with additional salt and pepper if desired. Serve warm.
How To Store
Store slow cooker sausage and potatoes in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 7 days. Freeze for 2-3 months in freezer storage bags. To defrost, thaw in the fridge overnight.
What To Serve With Crockpot Sausage and Potatoes
This easy meal is great served with a side salad or fresh bread, like Italian bread, cheesy bread, garlic bread or toasted white bread.
Easy Variations
- Add cheese to make cheesy crockpot kielbasa and potatoes. Cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese are good choices.
- Add more veggies: green beans, asparagus, carrots and peas will all give sausage and potatoes an extra dose of veggies and flavor.
- Make a creamy sauce: add a can of cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup or cream of celery soup to make a creamy sausage and potatoes recipe.
- Make it spicy: use andouille sausage or add a few teaspoons of red pepper flakes.
Recipe Tricks and Tips
- For crispy peppers, add them during the last 30 minutes of cooking time. Bell peppers cook quickly, so if you put them in at the start they will be very soft (which is how my entire family likes them).
- Use your favorite type of sausage to give it your own flair. Both mild and spicy sausages work well!
- To make this recipe more of a potato casserole, double up on the baby potatoes.
Recipe FAQs
I love this recipe with kielbasa sausage, particularly turkey kielbasa. But any other type of sausage works, including beef kielbasa, smoked sausage, Italian sausage (beef, chicken, or turkey sausage variations) and andouille sausage.
Browning meat before adding to the crockpot is optional. I skip this step in most of my recipes to keep them one-pot meals and as simple as possible.
Crockpot Sausage and Potatoes
This is one of the best kielbasa and potato crockpot recipes! This is such an easy dump and go dinner full of tender potatoes, the rich flavor of Polish sausage and wholesome peppers, tomatoes and onions.
- slow cooker
- 1 package kielbasa (14 oz, sliced into rounds)
- 1.5 lbs baby potatoes (quartered)
- 2 large green bell peppers (sliced)
- ½ large sweet onion (diced)
- 3 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 can diced tomatoes (28 oz, undrained)
- 1 cup beef broth (or 1 cup water and 1 beef bouillon cube)
- 2 teaspoon dried parsley
- 2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
Add the sliced kielbasa, baby potatoes, sliced green peppers (*see notes), chopped onions, canned diced tomatoes, minced garlic, beef broth and seasonings to the crockpot. Stir, pushing the ingredients into the liquid as much as possible.
Set to low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours. Mix the sausage and potato casserole, taste and season with additional salt and pepper if desired. Serve warm.
*For crispier peppers, add them with 30 minutes of cook time remaining.
Storing: Store slow cooker sausage and potatoes in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 7 days. Freeze for 2-3 months in freezer storage bags. To defrost, thaw in the fridge overnight.
angela says
Just a clarification on the cook-time:
At the top of the recipe it says 10 min prep and 2 hr cook; in the body of the recipe it says 3-4 hrs minimum on high, and longer still if cooking on low (which I suspect is right, even though I wish I could put this together in just 2 hrs!).
Please confirm how long this takes in the slow cooker, and if there is any way toi speed it up.
Kristina Tipps says
My apologies! It is 6-8 hours on low and 3-4 on high. I have done this in 2 hours by dicing the potatoes into small pieces or leaving them larger but parcooking them in microwave. The potatoes take the most time to cook in this recipe, so doing one of those will cut the cook time down. But keep in mind that the other flavors, such as the herbs and seasonings, won't have the full cooking time and the meal will be a little less flavorful. But if you have leftovers, all the flavors will "marry" while in the fridge and it will taste even better later on!
Shannon Price says
I didn't have beef broth available. I used half of a cup of red cooking wine and also half a cup of water to dilute it. Is that a good substitute? I haven't tasted it yet. Also, is Worcestershire sauce a good substitute also? I had some, but didn't use that.
Kristina Tipps says
Those sound like good substitutes if that's what you have. You can certainly add worcestershire sauce for some more flavor. Soy sauce could work too.
Roxi says
Very good. I didn't have a can of tomatoes, so used a big fresh tomato from garden. Also no green peppers, I used a whole bag of baby carrots. A whole onion. Two sausages. Instead of salt, I added some knorr chicken bullion powder. Delish. I'd make again. Also added 3 TBS butter. I did have to cook for about 5 hours on low. Maybe my veggies were too big. Idk. But it was amazing!!
Kristina Tipps says
That sounds delicious, enjoy!
Stephen Eder says
Not good. Use a skillet to build browning and flavor. This is basically boiled meat and veggies.
Victoria Spencer says
Very good. Took more like 3 hours on High. And I will cut the thyme in half next time. It's quite strong as measured here. Will make again.
B. Loftis says
I don't see how you came up with a calorie count of 190 per serving. The kielbasa alone is more than that, even if you use turkey kielbasa.
Kristina Tipps says
Thanks for pointing that out. I do not come up with the nutritional information. It is ran through a program which calculates it. That program has an entire kielbasa being only 3 calories! I've changed it to turkey kielbasa and it is correct. A 12 ounce serving of this recipe is 344 calories.