A New Chicken Sausage

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couger78

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
May 3, 2011
679
243
Northern California
I picked up something like 20 lbs of boned chicken thighs at the local market (89¢ a pound!). So now its time for some chicken sausage! The boys aren't crazy about chicken thighs (nor am I), so making sausage with the chicken is a good deal.

I'll be making a 5-pound batch of the Thai-style chicken sausage I've made several times before ( a big favorite in our house), but I wanted to try something NEW as well. I read several chicken recipes and decided to create a version with some of the 'italian' ingredients I had on hand. so here's my go at...

"Chicken Sausage with Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Basil & Parmesan Cheese"  
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First the ingredients. I took the sun-dried tomatoes and soaked/marinated them for about 3 days in a good italian olive oil. The oil will pick up an orange hue & some of the 'tang' from the tomatoes. The tomatoes soften nicely.

Heres all the stuff:

a427beca_Chix_ingred_lg.jpg


Oh, and the chicken....

I ground up about 8.5 pound of the thighs; half of them had skin so in went the skin as well...

71368a2f_Chix_ground_lg.jpg


I separated the ground chicken into two bowls and added the ingredients to each. Hand-mixed both until a sticky paste formed. For the Thai-style sausage, I'm using 22mm natural sheep casings; for the other: 32mm pork casings.

All stuffed & ready to go:

ddc23998_Chix_bothStuffed_lg.jpg


Nice color on the NEW sausages...

00c61b97_Chix_detail1_lg.jpg


I warmed up the poacher as I prefer to pre-cook all my chicken sausage. 165° and into the bath goes the larger links. These will cook for about 25 minutes until an IT of 165° is reached. 

e512704d_Chix_poach_lg.jpg


The thai-style took about 15 minutes due to the smaller diameter

f3366049_Chix_Allpoached_lg.jpg


SAMPLE time for the NEW sausage:

A nicely-spiced, juicy, flavorful chicken sausage.

These would go great with pasta & good marinara sauce. Garlicky, with an nice herbal basil flavor and the tang of the SD tomatoes is terrific! I'm very happy with these! My wife likes them better than the Thai-style—which used to be her favorite.

Here's a slice shot: the overall color should or would be a bit darker when these are grilled or browned in a pan. As they are pictured, they've only been lightly poached. A very tasty sausage, none-the-less!

36c9ed5e_Chix_slice_lg.jpg


Kevin
 
Awesome Cougar................... They look great......................
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Joe
 
 
Thanks, guys.

If you're interested in trying these, here's the recipe I used:

Chicken Sausage

with Basil, Cheese & Sun-Dried tomatoes

Makes 5 pounds

4.75 lbs Chicken thighs & skins (2150 g)

1/2 cup fresh garlic, finely-chopped (60g)

2/3 cup fresh basil, chopped (40g)

4 tsp Kosher salt (30g)

1 Tbl Black pepper (7.2g)

1 tsp Nutmeg (2.2g)

1/2 tsp Allspice (1.0g)

2/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped (90g)**

2/3 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded (55g)

1/3 cup olive oil**

** soak sun-dried tomatoes in the olive oil for 2-3 days, room temp. Chop tomatoes into small pieces before mixing into meat

32mm hog casings

Partially freeze then grind the chicken with skins through a medium plate.

Mix all ingredients into the ground chicken & mix well until it forms a sticky paste.

Fry a sample to adjust seasoning, if necessary. Stuff into casings; 5-inch length.

Grill, fry or poach for later use.

Hope you enjoy 'em as much as we do!

Kevin
 
Thanks for the pics and recipe. I've been meaning to try some turkey or chicken sausage so I think I will start here. Look fantastic!! Are you happy with the results? Would you change anything? How did the basil flavor come out?

Thanks for sharing!
 
 Are you happy with the results? Would you change anything? How did the basil flavor come out?
I'm very pleased with how the flavors came out in this sausage. Chicken makes a pretty 'bland' sausage, so its a perfect platform for trying bolder ingredient combinations. The basil is very prominent, but not overwhelming, and balances out nicely with the 'perfumey-ness' of the nutmeg/allspice combo. The garlic is obviously present, but the kicker is the SD tomatoes—those really shine in this recipe, adding a nice 'tang' or tartness. The parmesan brings a subtle bit of 'nuttiness' and salt.

If I'd change anything, I'd consider adding some toasted pine nuts to add another textural component.

Kevin
 
Last edited:
This recipe looks great with a lot of flavors. Would you please share the Thai recipe that you mentioned . Thank You for a great post. mds51
 
Tried the chix recipe w/ minor tweaks, they turned out great... Never
did a chix sausage before, the sun dried tomatoes and fresh basil make these along
w/ getting a good sear or caramelization on them. Made some into patties after
trying test patty (was so good) and linked up the rest.
Thank you for the recipe, Thai does sound intriguing also.

Rick
 
I have some pork fat I'll be adding any other ideas are welcome or comments hate to spoil all that meat.
Pork fat will work just fine; so will chicken fat (and chicken skins as well). The key is getting the sausage fat content up to approximately 17-20% range by weight.

Lean, skinless chicken breast is only 3% fat; with skins, about 10-12%.

Kevin
 
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