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This was only my second try at making sausages and I wanted to have a go because all the chicken sausages I've had in the past were just tasteless mush.
These weren't!
They turned out pretty flipping good
Bear in mind this was an experiment,I only had 8 chicken thighs and not wanting to waste them all only used 4 to make a very small batch so all weights and measures pertain to just 1lb of meat.
The 4 thighs weighed 500gm,just over 1lb in old money(sorry,I can't speak metric)and yielded exactly 1lb after boning.
1lb=484gm so if making larger quantities obviously adjust the recipe.
They're based on an English banger.
My apologies for the measures,I use scales to weigh the meat only,for everything else except the water I use measuring cups and spoons,I just find it easier that way,I'll add further comments etc after the recipe so make sure you read those before making the sausage!
All herbs/spices are dried.

1lb chicken thigh meat,boned but skin on(it's important to leave the skin on)
1/2 cup of rusk
100ml(approx)chilled water
1/8 teaspoon each
Sage
Marjoram
1/4 teaspoon each
Sea salt(I used fine instead of coarse)
Ground white pepper
Parsley
Thyme
Nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar(it was the only sugar I had)
A good splash of lemon juice


Comments & tips
I stuffed into collagen casings because that's all I have at the moment but they browned beautifully,hog casings would be better.
The rusk I have is plain non phosphate but on checking this time I found it contains salt and dextrose but it doesn't say how much so I added salt and sugar,johnfb recommends icing sugar but I made them in the early hours of Christmas day so used what I had in the cupboard.
I only have a hand mincer so everything from mincing to stuffing is by hand.
I chilled the meat to near frozen first for ease of mincing then ran it through the coarse blade first,a pain in the bum as even well chilled and cut into small pieces the skin came through in strings.
No problem,I put the mince back in to chill again and had a couple of beers
A couple of beers later I ran it through the fine blade and Bingo
I had perfect chicken mince.
Now the next bit I may have done wrong but I made it work.
I read somewhere,and this is the thing about making sausages,everyone has different methods,to mix the rusk,spice mix,AND water separately before adding to the meat mix,in retrospect I probably wouldn't do that again as when trying to combine the two I soon realised this was going to take some time with my wooden spoon.
I wanted to go for it and really stir this baby up but it soon became apparent that age had caught up with me(50 in a few days)and to get the myosin working I need to do something else in the absence of mechanical means or immigrant labour.
So I improvised.
I bashed the mix with a spud masher....well why not
It worked,I soon saw the difference,that myosin was doing its stuff,the mix took on that glisten as the myosin worked its mojo and it was ready to go.
I chilled it again while I chilled myself with a couple more beers.
Then I stuffed the casings and refrigerated my new babies after frying a small patty off to taste.
A day later I fried some up in a tiny bit of oil,no shrinkage and no crap in the pan and they tasted fabulous!
You have to understand that the nature of chicken meat is very different from pork so the texture and bite is different,it's much softer than pork but still a meaty sausage without that horrible "mush" you often find in chicken sausages.
I didn't take pics at the time but later today I'm probably going to eat the rest,they're in the freezer now so if I remember to charge my camera batteries I'll post some pics.
I kept the recipe simple so as not to make too many mistakes and kill the flavour of the meat and it worked for me.
You may want to tweak it to your taste but I believe in using herbs and spices to enhance the flavour of the meat and not overpower it and no offence to those that produce commercial spice blends,I feel if I use those it's not my sausage,it's theirs and we don't all taste the same as the cannibal probably said to someone.........
And that lemon juice really does add a zing

Hi Bangermuncher, always nice to hear when someone gets it right.Two important things that you mention contributed to your success,firstly keeping things cold throughout the process next time place your grinder in the freezer might help the the skin problem.Secondly the mixing getting that right is probably the most important step to a good sausage.Another important step:

I chilled it again while I chilled myself with a couple more beers

I do like your improvised idea of using you potato masher for mixing
Was just wondering how many kilos of sausage do you get on a pint of beer?

Zulululu wrote:Hi Bangermuncher, always nice to hear when someone gets it right.Two important things that you mention contributed to your success,firstly keeping things cold throughout the process next time place your grinder in the freezer might help the the skin problem.Secondly the mixing getting that right is probably the most important step to a good sausage.Another important step:

I chilled it again while I chilled myself with a couple more beers

I do like your improvised idea of using you potato masher for mixing
Was just wondering how many kilos of sausage do you get on a pint of beer?

Hi Zulululu
Placing the grinder in the freezer isn't an option right now,it's absolutely full.
Though I did just make a little space
My grinder is plastic so I doubt it would make a lot of difference anyway but chilling the blades might.
I do have two old cast iron grinders that were given to me as well but both only have a coarse blades and are too small for for my stuffing tubes which are the smallest I can get,the old iron mincers are older than me!
I have absolutely no idea how many kilos I can get to the pint but at a rough guess,including cutting the meat etc I probably get through two pints to the pound in weight of sausages made.
Which is probably why I haven't made a lot of sausages yet
Going by that ratio I should be able to make 6lb in one go but it would be very dangerous and very silly to play with knives and things you can stick your fingers in to free moving parts while three sheets to the wind so when one rope is a bit loose I tend to tie it up rather than tie one on
Speaking of the freezer,I just polished off the whole lot of remaining chicken sausages,I did freeze them but there was little point,they were only in there a couple of days max.
I fried them straight out of the freezer,no defrosting,in the same pan unwashed since I fried the first lot the other day.
Absolutely gorgeous
I ate them with some leftover mash which okay I did reheat in the microwave,frozen peas which I also heated in the microwave,some leftover chicken gravy which I didn't heat in the microwave,and some cheap frozen Yorkshire puddings,and here's the trick for heating frozen Yorkies.
Put them on the same plate you're going to eat your dinner from while it's warming in the oven,it takes exactly the same amount of time to warm the plate as it does to reheat the Yorkie puds.
Obviously this only works for single blokes with a decent appetite but it may work for two reasonably sized children.
Anyway,here's a photo as promised of the disgusting mess I made of the above grub with my chicken sausages.
You wouldn't get that in Claridges

Well done Andy.
They look the business and nicely browned too, I will be giving these a go for sure.
Thanks, Mate
john

Looking good Andy! To say they are only a second attempt they look as a sausage should and the pic looks delicious!

Have you tried bacon making yet?

And the texture looks great and,and, and now I'm hungry.Good picture will remember the tip about the Yorkies should I ever get the opprtunity to wonder over to your side of the pond.

Bangermuncher, Oh Bangermuncher, the sausage looks great, but frozen Yorkies, really; we're going to have to do something about that!

Phil

wheels wrote:Bangermuncher, Oh Bangermuncher, the sausage looks great, but frozen Yorkies, really; we're going to have to do something about that!

Phil

Sadly I didn't have any plain flour,only self raising for dumplings and I only had unleaded(semi skimmed)milk,otherwise it would have been yorkies made with at least two free range eggs and Jersey(gold top)milk!

Mike D wrote:Have you tried bacon making yet?

Making bacon



Not yet Mike,my preference is for dry cured smoked streaky but I have no way of smoking,I will have a go at some ordinary dry cure streaky soon.
If I can catch my butcher today though it's a couple of breasts of lamb for lamb,rosemary and redcurrant sausages

Zulululu wrote:And the texture looks great and,and, and now I'm hungry.Good picture will remember the tip about the Yorkies should I ever get the opprtunity to wonder over to your side of the pond.

The picture makes me hungry,I wish I'd made more!

Bangermuncher wrote:-

my preference is for dry cured smoked streaky but I have no way of smoking

I cannot smoke yet, so I just add powdered smoke to my cure and it does what it should. You can get powdered smoke here, just scroll to bottom of page for the details. A little goes a long way!

I have now got the Cold Smoke Generator but need to sort out the BBQ and get it ready for use.

Mike D wrote:Bangermuncher wrote:-

my preference is for dry cured smoked streaky but I have no way of smoking

I cannot smoke yet, so I just add powdered smoke to my cure and it does what it should. You can get powdered smoke here, just scroll to bottom of page for the details. A little goes a long way!

I have now got the Cold Smoke Generator but need to sort out the BBQ and get it ready for use.

I'm sure the powdered smoke tastes great Mike but it's exactly the kind of thing I'm trying to get away from,I'm trying to recreate the tastes from when I was a kid in the 60's my old Great Gran would be spinning in her grave if I used powdered smoke!

I know the feeling about smoke powder, I have used it for personal cuts occasionally, and have smoked individual bits and bobs on a one off type basis where the recipe required, but have long been looking to sort out our smoking ability on a decent scale.

We had drawn up plans for a small smokehouse here last year, which I was very pleased with (albeit with concerns about how well controls would work!)

Then after reading more on the subject and always having time for tried and tested methods that are based on the traditional skills and experience of time served experts, and reckoning that these are skills I would rather learn than trust a bunch of gadgets, I have scrapped my modern approach for a 'Maynard' style 15' x 10' monster which should allow several days smoke at a time.

This will get built this spring and then we can effectively smoke products with (hopefully) consist results

Can you tell me what rusk is?

Hi, welcome to the forum.

Rusk is a yeastless breadcrumb replacement used in British Sausages. There's a recipe for it here:

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopi ... +rusk%20...

I hope this helps.

Phil

Hi All.
Have looked at just about every post here on Chicken with or without skin Recipes.
I have made nice and juicy Chicken with skin sausages which I used "Wheels" Breakfast Recipe and swap'd in the Chicken.
The taste was weird, some said like stuffing, some said earthy but most agreed that it tasted funny. So before I try again and use a normal Chicken Recipe is there anything about spices that shouldnt be used with Chicken. Like Len's site has some great sounding ones but no real out there spice mixtures, just wondering from U experienced guys what best.
Also shouldnt the sausage at least taste like the parent meat, these didn't have Chicken taste in the slightest. Like Salmon saus do, Venision does, assume Bear would, know Beef & Pork do ????
Appreciate any help.
Spudeye

You can boost the taste of "chicken" by using chicken stock in place of the water in the sausage.