Maybe you’re accustomed to eating your sausage on a bun but that’s certainly not the only way to go about it. There’s these Baked BBQ Sausages, for one thing, and they bridge the gap between crockpot cocktail wienies and main dish sausage beautifully. See, they fall somewhere in between — hearty enough to serve as the main focus of the meal, but casual enough to pick up with a toothpick for a starter. But all that really matters is that they’re tasty — meaty with caramelized crisp edges and sticky sweet sauce — and sooooo easy to make.

You only need four things.

One, sausage. I like kielbasa, but you could use anything you like, really. Andouille, Italian, bratwurst… it all works. Just make sure it’s the pre-cooked variety. Then you need brown sugar, your favorite kind of bbq sauce, and a little liquid smoke, which is what makes this taste like it’s actually been barbecued. (The reality is your oven does all the work.)

Slice your sausage in half inch rounds, then stir it into the liquid smoke and bbq sauce. Spread it out in a baking dish and top it with brown sugar. And then bake!

In 45 minutes, the sauce will be bubbly and starting to brown up in places, which is just what you want. You want that sauce to cook down and caramelize so you get some beautiful sugared edges on those sausages.

And then serve it all by itself as an appetizer. Or don’t. That’s not your only option. You can serve it alongside some corn and potato salad and have a delightful summer meal. Or you can just put it out alongside everything else at a potluck… one look at that caramelized smoky sauce and no one will care one little bit whether it’s a starter or a main.