Semi-dry or dry sausage, and method of preparing semi-dry or dry sausage, including removing moisture from cooked and diced or sliced meat using hot oil. The semi-dry or dry sausage may be prepared by mixing raw ground meat and seasoning, extruding the seasoned ground meat, cooking the extruded meat, dicing or slicing the extruded meat, and immersing the cooked diced or sliced meat in oil at a time and temperature sufficient to remove moisture from the cooked meat to form a semi-dry or dry sausage. The time and temperature can be selected to achieve a desired moisture to protein ratio in the sausage.
