Chicken sausage with feta & spinach

[sundodger]

Hi Guys - I already make a chicken sausage with red peppers, sundried tomato & fresh basil, but have been asked by an American Greek friend to try to copy a sausage for him, which he says he can't do without...It's a "Wegmans" Pesto with feta & spinach chicken sausage. Anyone know this sausage & can comment? I have a few ideas, but am wondering if there is anything that makes these special? The fresh spinach will of course be sweated down prior to using to concentrate & remove most of the water, but I will probably re add some if not all, instead of adding plain water at the mixing stage - By removing first, I will get a better idea as to the amount of liquid involved...Hope this makes sense ? For spice, am considering just using salt & white pepper & maybe some grated lemon zest as well.

[wheels]

I'm sure that there's a similar (if not the same) sausage on here somewhere. Ah, here it is:

viewtopic.php?t=3924

I've had turkey thighs in the freezer for ages meaning to make something similar, but like many things, it just hasn't happened.

Phil

[sundodger]

Thanks Phil - Interesting. Until I made my own chicken sausages, I never thought they could be so tasty, I have a great demand for them now & it will be good to increase the selection.

[onewheeler]

The recipe I use (also for chicken, but preparing turkey thigh meat is much quicker!)

Turkey, spinach & feta

1 kg Turkey thigh
100g frozen spinach leaf, thawed, squeezed dry and chopped. (weight is squeezed weight, not frozen weight) (fresh OK) (add more if you like it)
100g feta cheese or more, crumbled (olive oil marinated feta is good)
1/2 tsp marjoram
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp sage
1/2 tsp dried parsley
12 g salt
4 g black pepper
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Mince fairly coarsely, bind, add the feta and mix lightly to keep it in pieces, stuff/

No originality claimed, I think the recipe or something similar came from this board. I find turkey gives a good bind with minimal mixing. Use fresh herbs when available, about four times the quantity. No rusk, it's not needed if you cook low and slow. All the family love these (apart from the veggie daughter), I make them regularly.

Martin/

[sundodger]

Thanks Martin - This one looks interesting. Think I will give it a go & also one of my own concoction to try back to back for comparison & to see which way to steer .

John

[DanMcG]

Not sure if this would help, but heres a link to the Wegmans product.
http://www.wegmans.com/webapp/wcs/store ... &langId=-1

If you need a visual of the sausage I could pick some up. they're right around the corner.

EDIT: just reread your original post and realized you asked for pesto feta and spinach.
http://www.wegmans.com/webapp/wcs/store ... tId=668680

[wheels]

There seems to be very little difference between the two.

Phil

[sundodger]

Made a trial batch of the sausages...Used fresh whole chickens from which the meat was obtained, along with all the skin, also used fresh spinach, which was wilted & squeezed, the feta was a nice one fresh from the brine barrel. For the spice mix I used salt, black pepper & was going to use nutmeg (goes well with spinach) but in the end decided on mace. I also added some rusk & re added the water out of the spinach. The trial batch was just over 3 kilos & the result was very good - handed some around to friends for comment & now need to make a load more ! A few photos attached, excuse this being via a link, but still too thick to be able to add direct
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 180&type=1