Sauerkraut and Weenies
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This is an old-fashioned Southern main dish. As the name suggests, all you need is sauerkraut and weenies to make this tangy yet delicious dish.
This sauerkraut and weenies recipe was one of my dear favorite meals as a girl and still is. It is a prime example of a budget meal (very common in the South back in the day) and so very good! Oh goodness, I’m getting hungry.
Now, I realize some folks are just not sauerkraut fans. Chances are, I lost about half of you in the title of this post. But I know some folks saw that photo and your stomach started growling, and chances are pretty darn good that you’ll be having this for supper tonight. Those who don’t fit into this category, feel free to think of the rest of us as weird. We won’t mind and there will be more sauerkraut for us! Everyone has their preferences and it’s all good either way.
This is one of those meals that is great with slices of polish sausage. But I still like to cook it how Mama did growing up; just by chopping up a few weenies and cooking until the sauerkraut and weenies brown a bit. That’s all there is to it. You can add as many weenies or sausage as you like and if you’re vegetarian, just get some vegan hot dogs and keep on keeping on. If you want to take it up a notch, you can make your own sauerkraut as I do in this post. Put it on your Classic Reuben Sandwich and you will crave it every day.
Recipe Ingredients
- Sauerkraut
- Weenies
- Salt and pepper
Helpful Kitchen Tools
How to Make Sauerkraut and Weenies
Slice your weenies and put them in a large skillet.
Add in about two cups of sauerkraut.
Cook this over medium to medium-high heat, stirring often.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
You can start with 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 1/8 teaspoon of pepper and then adjust to make it just right for you.
Cook this until your weenies and sauerkraut get a little brown or you can just cook it until everything is heated through.
Now here is a supper from the old days!
Storage
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. I recommend reheating on the stovetop on low heat until heated through.
Recipe Notes
- How many weenies you use is up to you. We used to have to determine this based on how many we had, so to be able to use as many as you want is a big step up nowadays.
- I have a friend from Germany ~waves to Gudrun~ who swears by the bagged sauerkraut so I started buying it and now I’m a convert, too. You can get it in the refrigerated section near the weenies usually and sometimes near the deli if they have a refrigerated section there as well. Mama likes the kind you get in a glass jar and we’ve both used the kind that comes in a can (which you get on the vegetable aisle). Overall, they are all good and there isn’t a lot of price difference so it is up to you to pick your favorite.
- As mentioned, you can use a different type of sausage with the sauerkraut. For example, sauerkraut and brats (bratwurst) is a popular dish in Germany. Kielbasa or franks also work.
- For extra flavor, add 1 diced apple to the skillet as well.
Recipe FAQs
What goes well with sauerkraut and weenies?
Here are some serving suggestions for your sauerkraut and weenies:
- Dinner rolls (with mustard)
- German potato salad
- Mashed potatoes
- Fried potatoes
- Freshly fried corn (or creamed corn or baked corn on the cob).
- Baked beans
- Broccoli salad
- Fresh green beans
- Cornbread
Do you drain sauerkraut before cooking?
If you’re using jarred sauerkraut, you’ll want to drain it before using it.
What condiment goes well with sauerkraut?
Mustard, ketchup, green tomato relish, and hot sauce (like sriracha or tabasco sauce) all pair perfectly with sauerkraut.
How do you season sauerkraut?
Besides salt and black pepper, if you want a touch of sweetness add up to a tablespoon of brown sugar. If you want a more savory flavor, add a teaspoon of caraway seeds. Alternatively, for a kick, add a dash of red pepper flakes or a teaspoon of paprika.
What food goes well with sauerkraut?
Here are some other dishes that pair well with sauerkraut:
- Hot dogs or hot dog chili
- Pork chops
- Reuben sandwich
- Grilled cheese sandwich
- Polish sausage or kielbasa sausage
You may also like these recipes:
Southern Fried Cabbage With Bacon
Ingredients
- 2-4 weenies or polish sausage
- 2 cups sauerkraut
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Slice weenies into small pieces and place them in a skillet over medium to medium-high heat.2-4 weenies or polish sausage
- Add sauerkraut. Cook, stirring often until kraut and weenies brown slightly. Salt and pepper to taste.2 cups sauerkraut, salt and pepper to taste
- Serve hot.
Nutrition
This was originally published in 2010. I updated the post and photos in 2020.
Life is really simple,
but we insist on making it complicated.
One of my favorite meals! And I have those dishes. =)
Thanks for all the great recipes. Love your site!
I love me some kraut and weenies. My family doesn’t 🙁 I remember having “veggie plates”, fried okra, pintos, some sort of tater, cornbread. Meat was served a few times a week. I still prefer my veggies.
Our dirt necklaces were called Grandma’s necklace, not sure why. If we came to the table with dirty hands or face; man oh man would we be in trouble.
We were always asked if we were “wearin’ Granny’s Black Beads?” when we came in from playing. Especially when you were caught only washing your face and hands – you would always miss your neck and Granny’s Black Beads were showing!
1/2lb hamburger, fried up
1 large can of Campbell’s Pork and Beans (remove the fat glob from the beans)
some brown sugar, mustard and ketchup
Mix together in a skillet and let simmer for a while. Yummy!
Darlene,
This sounds awesome and weird at the same time. Gotta try it!
Love it! But I also add onions, and serve it with a big slice of cornbread!! YUMMY!!
“Molly beads” is what dirt necklaces were called when I was a youngun in rural Mississippi. What wonderful days those were ’cause it meant we had been playing hard outside! Like you, I loved whatever was put in front of me but instead of kraut it was usually weenies in pork and beans. I loved baby butterbeans, mashed potatoes, sliced tomatoes and cornbread for a summer meal. Of course, homemade hamburgers, fried bologna and homemade ice cream (banana was my special favorite) with sliced watermelon were other favorites.
I also grew up with weenies in pork & beans – I still make them occasionally. The weenies have been replaced in sourkraut with summer sausage or kibaussa (sp?), but you know, I’m going back to my roots in central Alabama! Nope – no more fancy fixins’!
Mmm yummy! We love sauerkraut and hot dogs/polish sausage/ham. Just a couple weeks ago I made a recipe that had sauerkraut and polish sausage in the middle of a baking dish sprinkled with a bit of brown sugar and celery salt, and canned baked beans around the edges of the dish, baked for about half an hour. I’ll have to try it your way with corn bread! One of our favorite poor dinners is REALLY cheap. You just boil some noodles, and in a sauce pan heat up some water and milk with a bouillon cube, stir some more milk into a cup with some flour in it, whisk the flour mixture into the sauce pan, add salt, pepper and parsley, and pour over the noodles. Can be done without the milk if necessary. Super cheap. A lot of people probably would look down on it but we like it and eat it with some frozen broccoli or steamed carrots or something simple like that.
Those pintos look good, but I have to have fried potatoes and cornbread with weenies and sauerkraut. My mom make homemade sauerkraut in a big crock. I can taste it now. My favorite meal from childhood is ham, blackeyed peas, fried okra and cornbread with, of course, my mom’s “plain cake and red jello with apples and walnuts.” I sure wish I had her recipe for plain cake. It was not as sweet as her regular cakes, more like pound cake and had to be served with red jello. We were poor, but we always ate good thanks to our chickens, cows and garden.
Fried Bologna and pinto beans, cornbread, onion fried potatoes…still love it. Don’t eat it maybe once a year if that much.