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
