Curly-Q Grilled Sausages

Giving a sausage a cool, coiled shape isn't just fun or frivolous; it's also fully functional. The extra surface area picks up additional delicious smoky, caramelized flavors from the grill. You could brush barbecue sauce on an un-helixed Italian sausage, but here you're literally flavoring the sausage inside and out. I served them on buns with homemade basil-garlic mayonnaise.

• Preparation Time: 10 mins
• Cooking Time: 15 mins
• Total Time: 25 mins
• Calories: 227 Calories

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups water
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 (3.5 ounce) links Italian sausage
• 2 metal skewers
• 1 tablespoon barbeque sauce, or to taste

Recipe Instructions

Step 1

Place sausages into a skillet over medium heat and pour in water. Add a large pinch of salt to the water and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook for about 3 minutes per side.

Step 2

Remove sausages from pan and let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate until cold, at least 1 hour. Insert a metal skewer the long way through each cooled sausage.

Step 3

Preheat an outdoor grill for medium-high heat and lightly oil the grate. Pour barbeque sauce into a small bowl.

Step 4

Place a sausage on a work surface and start making a knife cut about 3/4 inch from the end, holding the knife blade at a slight angle and cutting down to the skewer. Slowly rotate the sausage and continue cutting in a spiral until sausage is cut to about 1 inch from the other end. Gently spread the sausage apart on the skewer to create about 1/2 inch of space between the curls.

Step 5

Place sausages onto the preheated grill and cook until browned and meat is no longer pink inside, about 6 minutes; turn occasionally.

Step 6

Brush sausages with barbeque sauce using a pastry brush when sausages are nearly done. Cook, continuing to turn sausages, until sauce has caramelized onto the meat, about 1 minute per side. Transfer to a plate and let sausages cool for about 30 seconds before removing skewers for serving.