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.
This was one of my favorite suppers that my grandmother used to fix. We would also have some fried tators to go with it.
Another thing that my grandmother did with weiners was to slice them longways down the middle and put cheese inside and bake until the cheese browned slightly…another delicious, cheap meal!
Oh my, did my mouth ever start watering when I saw your picture! I can smell it now. One of our “Poor Folks Food” dinners would start with Mother frying up some white meat. That’s a little leaner than fatback, but not as lean as bacon and cut thicker. She’d then cut up cabbage and fry it in the grease leftover from the fatback. She’d cook up a pot of those large dry lima beans, make some potato salad and whip up a pone of cornbread and as my Daddy would say “we’d go to town on it!” I love your site Christy and look forward to getting your book!
Mashed potatoes were always the companion for our kraut and wieners. To our family it is the best combo but I sure do love all the other yummy meals y’all are remembering. I’d be proud to put my feet under the table with you any day! Blessings to you all.
That does look good. I love sauerkraut, or even plain ol’ cabbage cooked down and served with smoked sausage. That’s good eatin’!
Growing up, my mother had a couple of budget meals. She loved neckbones and potatoes, too. I remember those being some of the best potatoes I’ve ever eaten. I guess the fat in the meat made them especially tender and flavorful.
We were also raised on big pots of navy beans cooked up with a hamhock. We’d have cornbread with that, as well as a big bowl of cucumbers and onions in vinegar. If we were lucky, mama would get out her cast iron pan and fry up a big batch of potatoes to go with it. We loved those… especially the ones from the bottom of the pan that got extra brown with crispy edges. LOL
I don’t remember ever having a dirt necklace, but I sure do remember having dirty feet everynight. We always played outside barefoot in the Summertime.
Boy… I’m hungry now!
Oh I so remember this! I have fixed it a few times for my family, but only two of us like kraut :-(. And yes I had “Granny beads” every night, would catch the lightening bugs, and frogs! Those were the good ole’ days! Another budget meal my mother fixed was called Poor Man’s Chili. She would mix pork n’ beans and ketchup and let it simmer! It becomes sweet and is great with crackers! Sometimes we would have ground beef in it too, but not always! So YUM!
I am over in Florence, and I cannot tell you how many times I had that *exact* dinner while I was growing up! Nothing more, nothing less. Cornbread, pintos, and kraut n’ wienies. I still love, love, love it. That was back in a time where my toughest decision was whether to eat the cornbread and pintos separately, or mushed up together, and whether to have another piece of cornbread now, or to save it to mush into my milk later.
Oh my gosh, April! I have the same problem with cornbread, lol. I always HAVE to save some for cornbread n’ milk. I didn’t think many others would like that. Now that after a big meal of kraut n’ weenies, pintos and plain cornbread is just doggone good!
April & Rita….. Love me some lots o butter cornbread, let it drip off! I’m not a huge “white milk” drinker, but I absolutely LOVE buttermilk! Give me that cornbread crumbled into a tall glass filled with buttermilk to the rim…..and, of course, a spoon to gobble up all that goodness! Love buttermilk with cake, too….
Hi Angie.
we loved catching lightening bugs when we were kids too. My son is visiting from Colorado with his dog who is going crazy trying to chase those silly bugs, It’s so funny, my son says they don’t have lightening bugs in Colorado. Wow, they don’t know what they are missing.
Christy, my Mama would say I had “Granny beads” on my neck(the dirt necklace)when I was kid. This was one of my favorite meals and still is. Add a big ole chunk of onion… lord have mercy…some good eatin’!