Chicken Bacon Ranch recipes?

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WigglesOhTree

Fire Starter
Original poster
Aug 18, 2021
38
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I have seen several pictures of Chicken Bacon Ranch Sausage out there. I was curious if anyone had a great recipe to share.
 
This guys video looks good but my concern is that bacon that he cooks prior to mixing it in the farce. Would that not puncture the casing possibly? Or be super hard when I cook it again at the end bringing the sausage up to temp?
 
Using 100% chicken for sausage in the past, for us what works best is using both breast and thigh meat, and the skin from the thighs as the sausage's "fat". Then of course I would suggest our Bacon Ranch seasoning for brats for your sausage flavor!
Owens BBQ Seasoning Flavors 11-1.jpg
 
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I don't have one off hand, but maybe I'll work one up this winter. I'd mainly use thigh meat with skin as mossymo mossymo suggested and work up the spice profile from there.
 
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I don't have one off hand, but maybe I'll work one up this winter. I'd mainly use thigh meat with skin as mossymo mossymo suggested and work up the spice profile from there.


I am still very very new to all of this so I am trying to figure out what to do myself. I am kind of combining different recipes right now and going to give it a shot this weekend.

Do you just freeze the chicken skin and grind it as if it were fat? Would you use all the skin that comes with the thigh meat?
 
I am still very very new to all of this so I am trying to figure out what to do myself. I am kind of combining different recipes right now and going to give it a shot this weekend.

Do you just freeze the chicken skin and grind it as if it were fat? Would you use all the skin that comes with the thigh meat?
For chicken sausage, I debone and cube the thigh meat, cut the skin into strips, mix it together, and stick it in the freezer for a bit. Then run it through the grinder together. It seems to work pretty well in getting a good grind on it all for me.
 
For chicken sausage, I debone and cube the thigh meat, cut the skin into strips, mix it together, and stick it in the freezer for a bit. Then run it through the grinder together. It seems to work pretty well in getting a good grind on it all for me.

If you were using enough thighs to get to 5lbs would you estimate the protein/fat ratio to be say 75/25? or what? Thanks for the help
 
I've been using all thigh in chicken sausage and the fat ratio seems about right. I don't know exactly what the ratio works out to, but it has enough fat to make a good sausage without additional fat added.
 
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If you really want to know the exact ratio, you would need to separate lean from fat and weigh both out, but in most cases I find that I don't need to. There is an acceptable range of fat to lean, and in most cases, the cuts you use will put you in that range. Like pork butt ....... it's about perfect as far as fat to lean. I find thigh meat with skin on to be similar.
 
I've been using all thigh in chicken sausage and the fat ratio seems about right. I don't know exactly what the ratio works out to, but it has enough fat to make a good sausage without additional fat added.
Sounds good. This sausage will also have 10% Bacon in it so I am sure it will be fatty enough.

If you really want to know the exact ratio, you would need to separate lean from fat and weigh both out, but in most cases I find that I don't need to. There is an acceptable range of fat to lean, and in most cases, the cuts you use will put you in that range. Like pork butt ....... it's about perfect as far as fat to lean. I find thigh meat with skin on to be similar.

Yeah, I just have never used chicken thighs before so I am sure once I do it once I will be totally okay with estimated the fat % correctly. I just am hoping to get something usable first and go from there.
 
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With thigh and bacon, you should be fine, but I'd maybe skip the skin or trim the bacon some. Too much fat on the first go will be better than not enough, though. Like I said, the only way to really know is to separate all fat, all lean and calculate the ratio. Or since you are using bacon, maybe try breast meat and bacon in a small batch, and try the same with thigh, and see which is better. I've never yet done a bacon/chicken sausage, so that's how I'd approach it.
 
How are you planning to use the bacon and what quality?
Fresh bacon can be 25-75% fat, so adding at 10% results in 2.5-7.5% added fat to the meat mix

yeah good point, in my peabrain I thought of bacon as just another fat but it does have some protein in there. I haven't decided yet, I was just going to get some store bought standard bacon.

I imaged I was going to just grind it all into the sausage but I am also considering cooking some and adding it for textural purposes. Any suggestions on that? My fear with cooking the bacon is that it would be too tough at the end or somethign but I would like it to show up in the end
 
Store bought brings in significant salt and sugar.
DougE DougE what's your thoughts?
Definitely more salt than I use in my bacon, and likely more sugar, but definitely more salt. I use cure plus 1.5% additional salt (1.75%) and I know store bought has a good bit more salt. Sugar may be more, but store bacon has a salt heavy flavor that masks most of the other spices.
 
I already cut down on the salt because of the ranch powder, might have to bring it down even more hah.

Is the only negative side effect to too much salt that it just tastes too salty? It can't become unsafe right?
 
I already cut down on the salt because of the ranch powder, might have to bring it down even more hah.

Is the only negative side effect to too much salt that it just tastes too salty? It can't become unsafe right?
Other than being inedible, and possibly bad for the blood pressure, depending on who you listen to, too much sodium chloride (plain salt) isn't going to hurt you.
 
High salt is only unsafe to your high blood pressure.
I poach my bacon slices in hot water for a few hours to reduce the salt and sugars.

Inedible is a funny term from a person that loves country ham. That approaches inedible
 
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