Coming Soon - Smoked Chicken Sausage

[ringodad]

I came across a sweet deal on chicken thigh/leg quarters - .39 Lb at the local mart in 10 Lb bags, limit 2. I had no luck in enticing my darling wife to come with me purchase an extra 2 , so there you go. She's still tops in my book, because she let me use the kitchen. If you ever wanted to know, when you trim 13 Lbs of chicken quarters you get 5 Lbs of boneless meat. That came to $5.07 for 5 Lbs of sausage-ready meat. The thighs were the easiest to work with and give the best cuts!

I've got an idea for a savory smoked chicken sausage and need your feedback. Can chicken be cured and smoke cooked without being too dry? I'm going to try. I figure I'll go with a 30% fat content (I'm using bacon end and pieces for fat) and a little extra buttermilk powder for water retention. Here are my recipe thoughts so far:

Lean/Fat 70/30
cure, salt, sugar
pepper
dehydrated green/red/purple/yellow peppers (from the garden)
dehydrated tomatoes (from the garden)
garlic and onion
marjoram and basil
cayenne OR New Mexico Chile
buttermilk powder
water

What do you think? I'd like to hear any feedback, and I'll post some pictures of the process when I do it this weekend. I'm not looking for any particular style, like Mexican, Greek or Italian, but am going to put this in small (2.5") salami casings. I'm going to smoke to 165. Please let me know if you think the temp is right.

 

[rbranstner]

I believe I have see a few posts for chicken sausage. Sounds good to me.

 

[davef63]

just made chicken sausage," smoked chicken with thyme and garlic" from charcuterie. we used 3 1/2 lbs ckicken thighs with 1 1/2 lbs pork shoulder [ kinda fatty shoulder but not all fat]. i ran smokehouse temps at 180* to get sausage to 160* internal. turned out awesome.
dave

 

[scubadoo97]

Thighs work so well in many applications. They are very forgiving.

Ringodad, I hope you saved all those bones and skin. If you have a pressure cooker you can be in chicken stock heaven in just an hour. You can make it stove top with a regular stock pot but a pressure cooker will have those bones brittle in an hours time and the stock will be like jello once cooled.

 

[ringodad]

I got my chicken and fat ground and stuffed last night, I'll post some pics later. Ground thighs/drums with home grown dried bell peppers and tomatoes, some cayenne to say "hello" and Marjoram, Basil and Coriander plus the usual spices - garlic, onion powder, and powdered buttermilk.

Note to any reading this who are getting outfitted - Forget about the .2 HP Gander Mountain grinder or any of that sort. I'm so fed up with poor grinding. Look at it sideways and the plates are clogged within 20 seconds. You really need something with a size 10 plate in my opinion, and much better steel on the cutting blades. Also, it just won't stuff well with any meat containing sinews. Since we can't find beautiful smooth back fat as well, the bacon ends and pieces I use clog it up too. You can't really grind anything using less than the 3/8" plate, and only then if you have exceptionally clean meat. I had really good luck with pork loin, but how often is that found for $1.00 / Lb? The cheap meats I find need a more robust grinder. My rant is finished. Oh, by the way, also make or buy a dedicated stuffer. You'll be much happier, and your wife won't roll her eyes and stare off into space with her mouth set in a tight line while assisting you in the stuffing process.

 

[ringodad]

Wow - 10 hours in the smoker again. It's getting to be a habit! The chicken sausages have been showered and are resting - I'll post a pic once I can slice them open tomorrow. You're welcome of course to send me a message and we can talk about the recipe - If I can stand what I made. They have a soft feel, not firm like beef or pork sausage. Unfortunately, my local supplier only had mahogany casings, so what's the point of a photo of that? I will post a photo however so you can see the shrinkage I got. All I can say right now is that it'll be interesting.