Chicken Sausage with Sun-Dried Tomatoes,...and other stuff!

[Kevin A]

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:


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...


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:


Nice color on the NEW sausages...


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.


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


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:


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

[mikecorn.1]

Those sausages look great. Nice job


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[Sailor]

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.

[SiFumar]

Never thought chicken sausage could sound and look so good!

[Buck36]

That looks incredible. I am definitely going to have to try it. Thanks for posting.

[Sam3]

I like this alot and I think my wife would love these as well. Copied and pasted.
Thanks Kevin. They look fantastic!

[watchdog56]

Looks real nice.

[3rensho]

Wow!  That's what I call a master class in sausage making.  Outstanding.

[KyNola]

That looks delicious!

[Tenpoint5]

Another great looking sausage product from Kevin!!

[Up In Smoke]

I bookmarked this one, don't know when i will get a chance to make it but i got it.
Very nice job!!

[iceman]

Fantastic job Kevin!   :D

[MTFiddler]

Nice Job!!! those look wonderful.  You've raise the bar yet again!!!

[Kevin A]

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

[GusRobin]

looks great Kevin, copied and pasted