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 small 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" :)
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:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/GuitarPix/Stuffer%20Stuff/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...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/GuitarPix/Stuffer%20Stuff/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:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/GuitarPix/Stuffer%20Stuff/Chix_bothStuffed_lg.jpg)
Nice color on the NEW sausages...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/GuitarPix/Stuffer%20Stuff/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.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/GuitarPix/Stuffer%20Stuff/Chix_poach_lg.jpg)
The thai-style took about 15 minutes due to the smaller diameter.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/GuitarPix/Stuffer%20Stuff/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! The nutmeg & allspice really compliment the basil. I'm quite happy with these! My wife likes them better than the Thai-style—which used to be her favorite.
Here's a slice shot:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/GuitarPix/Stuffer%20Stuff/Chix_slice_lg.jpg)
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!
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.
Enjoy!
Kevin
Those sausages look great. Nice job
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Home run again Kevin. I still need to get off my big duff and do some of the recipes for chicken. Maybe this weekend. Nice looking sausage there.
Never thought chicken sausage could sound and look so good!
That looks incredible. I am definitely going to have to try it. Thanks for posting.
I like this alot and I think my wife would love these as well. Copied and pasted.
Thanks Kevin. They look fantastic!
Looks real nice.
Wow! That's what I call a master class in sausage making. Outstanding.
That looks delicious!
Another great looking sausage product from Kevin!!
I bookmarked this one, don't know when i will get a chance to make it but i got it.
Very nice job!!
Fantastic job Kevin! :D
Nice Job!!! those look wonderful. You've raise the bar yet again!!!
Thanks for the nice comments, everyone.
These new sausages went quick! I made about 5.5 pounds last Monday & they were gone by Friday! :o
Still got about six links of the Thai left (of a 3 pound batch).
The chicken basil sausages really brown up nicely in a medium-hot pan with a bit of oil or butter. My sons like to slice them first then really brown them. Served up with dipping sauce (marinara) on the side. Good stuff!
Kevin
looks great Kevin, copied and pasted