For Bratwurst Bursting With Flavor, Use This Cooking Method (Not Your Grill)

Grilling bratwurst in the backyard gives them a charred flavor and crispy exterior. However, when the sun isn't shining, there's a better method that will produce tastier sausages that are bursting with flavor: Oven cooking them before finishing them off under the broiler. This technique makes for a juicier Bratwurst because the oven retains moisture better with its controlled temperature.

The method is as easy as laying your bratwurst on a sheet pan with a lip or in a large dish (taking care to leave a gap between them so the hot air can caramelize their exteriors) and popping them in the oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for around 15 minutes. Then switch your oven to broil and cook until they develop a golden color and slight char.

Cooking your snags like hot dogs on a grill is likely one of the reasons your Bratwurst never turns out right; you need to cook them low and slow to keep them juicy on the inside. Some of the other mistakes you might be making when cooking sausage are overcrowding your oven tray, which can give them a flabby and pale exterior, or pricking their casings. While pricking Bratwurst will reduce the risk of them bursting open, the holes also act as exit points for all that delicious fat, making them drier in the middle. Of course, for even juicier snags, you could soak them in a beer bath first if desired, which will also elevate their flavor.

The first benefit to cooking bratwurst in the oven is that you can leave them pretty much unmonitored until the final couple of minutes (you will need to flip them halfway through the cook-time though). Unlike frying or grilling them, you won't need to keep turning them regularly to ensure a balanced cook and color. Secondly, the even temperature of the oven will help the sausages to cook uniformly — some skillets and grills can have hotspots, which can quickly burn the exteriors of the Bratwurst and leave the inside underdone. Third, you can prepare an abundance of sausages in one move, which is ideal if you're assembling meal prep for the week. Finally, oven-baking keeps any splatters of fat inside the cavity, reducing the risk of burns, and contains the aroma of the snags, preventing the smell from diffusing into your adjacent living area.

Don't have an oven in your studio-sized kitchen or dorm room? You can also cook bratwurst in an air fryer. These appliances work in a similar fashion to a fan-assisted oven and swirl hot air around at a consistent rate, which ensures that your sausages develop some golden color while they cook through to the center.