Cooking Hot Links

Derived from traditional Louisiana andouille sausages, hot links are pork, turkey or beef sausages with a spicy kick that comes from red pepper. Hot links are a classic barbecue dish. You don't have to grill them, though, hot links can also be cooked in the oven or on the stovetop.

The trick to cooking hot links on a barbecue is to cook the sausages over a low heat for a long period. Keep them toward the edge of the barbecue, away from direct heat. The safe internal temperature for a meat sausage is 160 degrees Fahrenheit, and 165 F for sausages made from poultry, but you can remove the hot links from heat before this and they will continue to cook for a few minutes. To speed up cooking on a barbecue, poach the sausages beforehand in water over a medium heat.

If you don't want to fire up the grill, you can also cook hot links in the oven. Preheat the oven to 300 F, place the sausages in a pan and cook them for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the hot links, drain the pan and pierce them with a fork. Return them to the oven and cook them for a further 10 to 15 minutes. The hot links should darken, but not burst. Check the temperature with an instant-read thermometer if you're cooking raw links.

Even without an oven, it's simple to cook hot links. Add a small amount of oil to the pan and add the hot links, making certain that they are spaced far apart enough not to be touching each other. Cook them over a medium heat for 10 to 15 minutes, turning them every minute or two until they're cooked through. Check that they're cooked through with an instant-read thermometer.

Some packaged hot links are already cooked, meaning you simply have to heat them up before serving them. Grill cooked hot links over a medium-low heat for eight to 10 minutes. Alternatively, wrap them in a moistened paper towel and microwave them on high for 30 to 60 seconds. You can also simmer hot links in a skillet with a small amount of water for 10 to 12 minutes.