Sweet and Sour Kielbasa
This easy Sweet and Sour Skillet Kielbasa is a family friendly weeknight recipe perfect for busy nights. With real ingredients and a homemade sweet and sour sauce, this quick kielbasa recipe is sure to become a favorite in your meal plan.
Meals during the week should always be super easy, full of real ingredients and definitely super tasty! This skillet meal only takes a minimal amount of prep work, 30 minutes (if that!) to make, and its filled with real ingredients! The result is a super tasty meal the whole family will love, and it will take hardly any effort on your part!
If your family loves kielbasa, make sure you check out my other quick and easy kielbasa recipes like this Kielbasa and Zucchini Recipe with Linguine!
What I love most about this meal is that I am a HUGE fan of skillet meals! They are so easy. If you don’t have a great skillet, you definitely NEED to get a good quality cast iron. They last forever, they are super easy to care for, and they are amazing. If you are looking for more information on why I choose cast iron, or how to care for them, check out my Cast Iron 101!
How to Make Sweet and Sour Kielbasa
- Slice your peppers, onions, pineapple and kielbasa.
- Cook the onion until it starts to caramelize.
- Add in the peppers and sauté for 3-5 minutes.
- Add in the garlic and kielbasa and cook until the kielbasa is browned.
- Pour in the sauce and the pineapple and cook until the sauce has thickened!
- That’s it! Serve and enjoy!
How do you cook kielbasa sausage?
How do you make quick homemade sweet and sour sauce?
How do you prep ahead of time?
- Slice your peppers and onions ahead of time. Store in an air-tight glass container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
- Mix your sauce ahead of time and store in the fridge for up to 1 day.
- Slice the kielbasa into coins up to 1 day ahead of time and store in an air-tight container in the fridge until ready to cook.
- Use microwave ready rice pouches or a rice cooker (affiliate link) to help cut down on time spent on cooking rice.
How to Make Sweet and Sour Kielbasa Kid Friendly
Dinner Conversations with Kids
Dinner time should be more than micromanaging each and every bite your kids take. Use this opportunity to bring in a more analytical way of thinking about and trying food:
- Talk about the different colors of produce they are trying – can they take a bite of something red, yellow, green, etc?
- Talk about the textures of the ingredients they are using – How differently do the peppers feel in your mouth than the pineapple?
- Talk about the flavors they taste – does the sauce taste more sweet or sour to them?
- Ask questions about what their favorite part of the dinner is – Is there anything they would change next time to make it yummier?
How to Serve Sweet and Sour Kielbasa
Kids In The Kitchen: How Your Kids Can Help You Cook
Getting your kids in the kitchen is an amazing way to help them be more interested in trying new foods and confident in their own abilities. This Halloween Pizza recipe is great because it helps expose them to vegetables in a fun way and they get to practice their knife skills. This recipe is perfect for beginner cooks because it is so easy! And it is a great recipe for kids to experiment and become more comfortable with new flavors – which means they are more likely to eat it!
- Kids aged 1-3 can help you wash and dry the peppers, as well as measure and mix the ingredients for the sweet and sour sauce.
- Kids aged 4-6 can do everything above, plus help you cut the pineapple pieces into smaller chunks and slice the kielbasa into coins.
- Kids aged 7-10+ can help you do everything above, plus help you slice the bell peppers and onion.
*Please note that these recommendations are generalized, and to please use your personal discretion with your child’s skill level. And always, always supervise! Read more about how to have your children help you in the kitchen.
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Sweet and Sour Kielbasa
Ingredients
- 1 lb Kielbasa
- 1.5 cups pineapple chunked
- 1 medium yellow onion
- 2 bell peppers – red and green or whatever colors you want
- ⅓ cup honey
- ⅓ cup apple cider vinegar
- ⅓ cup tomato puree
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 tsp fresh ginger
- 2 TBSP Olive Oil
Instructions
- In a large sautee pan, heat the olive oil over medium high heat.
- Add the onion slices and sear for a few minutes until they start to caramelize.
- Add the pepper chunks and cook, stirring occasionally, until they start to soften, about 3-5 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside.
- Add in the garlic and the sliced kielbasa and cook until the kielbasa is warm and starting to turn brown on the sides.
- In a small bowl, stir together the honey, apple cider vinegar, tomato puree and minced ginger.
- Add the sauce and the pineapple to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thickened.
- Serve with rice.
Notes
Nutrition
Thanks, Jenni, this was really good! I added a jalapeno because I needed to use it up and I used crushed pineapple instead of chunk because that's all I had on hand. It reminded me a little of Chinese Sweet and Sour Chicken 😉 Can't wait to have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
So glad you enjoyed it! 🙂 Jalapeno would be a great addition!
Delicious dish I made yesterday! Easy and I enjoyed the combination of flavors! Yummy!!
What kind of vinegar do you use?
Made this for dinner tonight. It was pretty good although I used apple cider vinegar as that was all I had, I think I probably should have used a little less. Still very good.
My family said a big thank you to you for this recipe, and I say thank you too!
Just perfect, easy and just served tonight for our dinner.
I love how this recipe uses kielbasa! The smoky flavor goes great with the sweet ad sour!