Name: Air Fryer Sausage and Peppers
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 18 min
Total time: 23 min
Ingredients: 3 bell peppers; 6 sausages; 1 tsp. oil; 1/2 tsp. salt; 1/4 tsp. pepper

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If you aren’t a fan of mushy peppers but love sausage and peppers then this is the recipe for you. The air fryer keeps a little bite in your peppers while cooking the sausage to perfection in less than 20 minutes.

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Why cook sausage and peppers in the air fryer?

I love a good sausage and pepper sandwich, and this slow cooker sausage and peppers recipe reminds me of my favorite sausage and pepper sandwich from the fair. But not everyone’s a fan of that mushy pepper texture or the flavors all melded together like slow cooking delivers. That’s where air fryer sausage and peppers saves the day. You cook the sausage and peppers simultaneously but they aren’t cooked long and slow so you control how soft the peppers get.

What difference does it make to cook them in the air fryer?

Like I said above, cooking sausage and peppers in the air fryer means the flavors don’t get all mixed up together. You can taste the juicy savory flavors of sausage and the sweet crisp bite of green bell peppers (or sweeter, mellower red bell peppers if you prefer). This is especially nice if you have pickier eaters who don’t care for peppers. I’m pretty much known for making food and giving the option of eat or don’t eat but I won’t make a meal very often if only one or two of us really enjoys it. Making the components separate – but together in the air fryer – lets us all enjoy one person’s favorite dish (MINE!)

It also means you can have sausage and peppers so much faster – less than 30 minutes without standing over the stove!!

Does everything cook the same as on the stove top?

The interesting thing I found with cooking sausage and peppers in the air fryer is that the sausage cooks through significantly faster than the bell peppers. Does that surprise you too? I found the peppers need a good 5 minutes more than the sausage in order to be cooked to somewhat soft with a bit of bite left in them.

You can easily control just how soft you want the peppers to get. A few minutes longer for softer peppers and a few minutes shorter for peppers with some bite left to them. You may want to experiment with adding a little more/less time until you see how long it takes to cook them to your preferred doneness. Just remember the sausage needs around 11 minutes to cook through. Check the temperature with an an instant read thermometer to ensure doneness – 150°F. for pork sausage or 160°F. for poultry.

If you want to cook your starch at the same time as your sausage and peppers, you’ll want to give this Air Fryer Smoked Sausage, Potatoes, and Peppers a try. So good!

What kind of air fryer do you use?

I’m using the Instant Pot Vortex Plus, which is considered an air fryer oven so cooking your meal in an air fryer basket may yield slightly different results. Timing should stay fairly similar. One thing you will need to do differently is instead of cooking the sausage and peppers on different trays like I do, you will add the sausage on top of the pepper slices in the basket.