Newbie looking for help with using chicken for sausage

[Patty]

Great to find such a superb forum!

I'm just about to make my first sausages. My first interest was in duplicating British bangers, but when I learned I can use us the dark meat of chicken to make great sausages I was very very interested.

I'd like to know, first: can I use the meat of the drumstick as well as the thigh? Do I have to remove that thin, but tough, covering that lies over the meat, just under the skin? (Is that the sinew?) I'm sure I have to get the tendons out (yuck!) but don't know how far to go with trimming everything.

How much skin/fat to meat do I use? I've been doing some butchering/freezing, and separating the skin and fat from the dark meat. I'm getting 6-8 oz of each from a 4 lb chicken. (I don't have superb knives yet, might that number improve much?)

I read in one posting that the chicken skin should be boiled for 10 minutes and then frozen. Right?

Has anyone made bangers with turkey and pork? I should think they'd blend well. We like bangers much better than the hard, greasy American ideal, so I hope to work that out next. (I've found a source for HP Sauce.) First, though, I have this recipe for spinach and feta chicken sausages, and I can hardly sleep for imagining how good they'll be!

All advice and comments gratefully received.

[wheels]

Patty

Welcome

I don't make chicken sausage (I might make turkey if there's any cheap ones post Christmas). However, you may find some of the answers to your questions here:

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopic.php?t=1421&highlight=chicken

Other posts about chicken sausage:

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopic.php?t=1421

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopic.php?t=2788&highlight=chicken

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopic.php?t=2091&highlight=chicken

If you have any further questions just post them here.

Phil

[Patty]

Thanks for the quick reply, Phil, and the helpful links. I spent several evenings looking at posts before I wrote, but there are so many. I hadn't seen the ones you suggested. They answered some questions, including questions I hadn't thought of yet.

I'd still like to know about how to use the chicken skin. A few people say to cook first, most don't mention it. I'm still not clear on the butchering. �Stripping the legs� makes it sound like they're using everything. I didn't find anything that helped me there.

Otherwise, I guess I just need to jump into the deep end of the pool and see if I can swim.

[Ianinfrance]

Hi Patty,

I've never tried to make chicken sausages, so I'm by no means speaking from experience. However I don't think the skin as such would add much, although the subcutaneous fat might help make the sausages less dry.

My personal take would be to use the skin and bones to make stock, reduce that heavily and use it in place of water to hydrate your rusk. After that I'd throw them away.

All the best,

Ian

[wheels]

I can see Ian's point but the fact remains that many recipes include it.

FWIW, I'd get it very cold, near freezing, and grind/mince through a small holed grinder plate.

Phil

[vinner]

Patty:

We use chicken here more than any other meat, except during hunting season. Almost always it is chicken thighs, but breast meat will work. Use the meat, and the skin, with the fat that sticks to the skin. Excess fat that comes with the thighs can be discarded or put to another use. The excess fat that comes with the breasts should be used in the sausage, as the breast meat is leaner.

I have never boiled the skin first. You can use the drumstick meat, it is just a little more work to bone it.

Incidentally, the chicken and apple sausage from Bruce Aidell's Complete Sausage Book is the most popular at our house, and is adapted in one of the threads that Phil posted.

When it is on sale, boneless, skinless thighs will work. Because of the lack of more fat, be sure to mix the meat very well to help it hold together. In fact, mix all your sausages longer than you might think necessary for best results.

[Patty]

Ian: If you haven't made sausage with chicken - skin included - you're missing something great! Feta cheese and garlic and I could still taste the chicken.

Phil: Thanks, as always.

Vinner: Thanks very much for the help. I'll get more meat off those chickens next time. I mix until I can't feel my fingers, then the meat is done. So far it has always worked.

[welsh wizard]

Hi, I make a lot of pheasant sausages and mix the pheasant meat 50 / 50 with minced pork. I find this gives a succulent sausage not too dry what so ever.

Cheers WW