- Feb 16, 2020
- 22
- 11
I’ve only recently gotten into sausage making, and have so far stuck to the classics, mainly pork sausages (andouille, hot Italian, bratwurst, kielbasa) and one batch of merguez (lamb). I’ve been wanting to branch out a little and gotten some requests from my family to make some chicken sausages. I haven’t been able to find a ton of info though (most of the recipes and basic sausage-making guides are for the typical pork or beef based sausages). I have a few questions I was hoping you guys can help me out with.
- Fat content: I'm assuming you want to stick to the same 20-30% fat content? How do you achieve this? I have a recollection of reading somewhere that skin-on chicken thighs naturally have enough fat that you don't need to add any (similar to pork butt). Is this true?
- If so do you run the skin/fat through the grinder separately or just leave it on the meat and run it all together?
- If not, what kind of fat do you add? I assume you cant just get chicken fat from the butcher like you cand pork fat.. I know you can get "Schmaltz" (rendered chicken grease, for kosher cooking) but that is more liquid and runny, not what I'd think you'd want in a sausage
- What size grind do you typically use for chicken sausages?
- Are there any other process/technique differences when making chicken sausages compared to pork? for instance do you need to use much more/less water, or mix a lot more/less to get a good bind, etc etc.
- Basically any tips/hints/suggestions about making chicken sausage that someone trying it for the first time should know