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.
We had sauerkraut and hot dogs, or knockwurst, a lot when I was a kid, with mashed potatoes and apple sauce. I always passed on the sauerkraut and my mom always said, “Good, pass your share over here, more for me!” I remember going to the corner store and trying to pick out the bag of sauerkraut that was the whitest cause my mom said that was the best one. I’ve no idea why!
I’m thinkin that the whitest sauerkraut would be the crispiest, because it’s the thickest part of the cabbage leaf.
We had kraut & weenies served with canned pork & beans (mama worked in an office when I was little so I know she didn’t have the time to deal with dried pintos, at least I think that was the case). We also had creamed tuna on toast (yikes I know some folks call it S.O.S. – s*** on shingles) but I thought it was wonderful. She also made a dish she called “beefy mushroom/potato bake” and it was simply potatoes sliced in rounds, a pound of browned ground beef spread over the potatoes, then a can of cream of mushroom soup poured over the top, then baked in the oven until the potatoes were tender. Simple but very good and inexpensive. Thanks, Christy, and responders for sharing!
I love those make do foods. Our sauerkraiut and weenies would have been served over mashe dpotaoes and then once on your plate stirred all together. Our daily food was some sort of beans. We ate soup (navy) beans over cornbread, with dumplings, with macaroni cooked in the broth or transformed into baked beans. Kidney and pinto and dried limas were served other days for varirty. many night before bed we kids would get a cold bean sandwich on a thick slice of homemade bread and it is tastier than you might think especially with a big slice of onion on it. We also ate a lot of potato and rice dishes. Slim on meat and heavy on the fillers but always delicious and belly filling. The granny beads is a totally new thing to me. Never heard that expression.
We always had kraut and weenies with fried green tomatoes and corn bread with lots of fresh honey (gramps would always trade eggs for honey).
Buttered noodles and peas was good too. And “macaroni and ‘maters”… whatever pasta noodles you had with home canned tomatoes on top.
That sounds just delightful! I can’t think of sauerkraut and pintos as going together so well though. I’d likely serve up some kind of potatoes with them, maybe your buttered stewed potatotes (is that what you called them?) or some tater salad. I live in a very heavily German settled town in Texas and Wurstfest, our 10-day salute to sausage, is right around the corner! I’m getting more excited every day so I might serve this to help pump up my household! 🙂
I forgot to say that even though I don’t like the sound of sauerkraut and pintos together, pintos and cornbread actually are my favorite poor folks food. It sticks to your ribs so well and makes you feel like you’ve had a real nice meal even if it colds only a few cents a serving. Throw in a piece of fruit and it’s rather well balanced too.
My momma called those dirt rings “mandy beads.” Isn’t if funny how close all the names we heard growning up are?
Our go to meal was plain buttered noodles and sweet peas. That is my kids most requested comfort food now. When they don’t want anything else they will eat plain noodles with a little butter.
Boy, what a surprise to get a wave from you, Christy! I’m waving back.
This is how we eat sauerkraut once or twice a year (not a budget meal): smoked porkchops, mashed potatoes, and the kraut which is drained, then cooked with 3 slices chopped bacon, a chopped onion, and a chopped apple. So good!