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Southwestern Chicken Sausage

Chicken thigh meat and fat 1330 g

Yellow grits. 80 g. (1/2 c)
Chicken stock. 340 g. (1 1/2 c)

This yields 360 g of cooled cooked grits

Black pepper. 2.33 g (1 t )
Cumin powder. 2.33 g (1 t )
Guajillo chili pepper. 2.33 g (1 t )
Kosher salt. 24 g
Roasted Hatch chilis. 192 g
Red bell pepper. 141 g (1/2 )
Fresh cilantro. 7 g (2 T )

Scatter everything except the grits over the par frozen chicken meat and pass once through a course plate. Mix with the grits until uniform. Stuff into hog casings (32 mm). This is a variation of two given by Bruce Aidells Complete Sausage Book. The mix is loose from the wet ingredients. The heat from the fresh chili comes first coupled with the fresh bell pepper. The other spices then follow without masking the chicken flavor. A lesson I learned from Big Guy is to use chilis in different forms to stagger their appearance. The thigh meat came from 10 pounds of leg quarters bought for 5 dollars.

They're quite coarse pieces of cornmeal, is it always like that?

Phil

This looks like a great recipe. Are the grits gritty in the sausage, no pun intended

Grits can have different grinds and can be white yellow or even blue. I like the coarse yellow ones as they keep the corn flavor best as they are heated least when they are ground. The grits are fully cooked and you wouldn't know they are in the sausage. I have used breadcrumbs, rice and now grits to help bind chicken stock so it can be added to chicken sausage recipes. This gives them a big boost in chicken flavor. I also find the additives move chicken sausages away from having too much bind and from being too firm.

Ok no gritty feel; I hate that. Now it sounds like a plan. Odin

NCPaul wrote:Grits can have different grinds and can be white yellow or even blue. I like the coarse yellow ones as they keep the corn flavor best as they are heated least when they are ground. The grits are fully cooked and you wouldn't know they are in the sausage. I have used breadcrumbs, rice and now grits to help bind chicken stock so it can be added to chicken sausage recipes. This gives them a big boost in chicken flavor. I also find the additives move chicken sausages away from having too much bind and from being too firm.

I assume that the yellow ones aren't treated with lye - so polenta could presumably be used as an alternative?

Phil

Polenta would work great. I think you would like this one. I have another chicken recipe planned for the next big chicken mark down. In front of the Super Bowl, the chicken processors build up a big stock of chicken wings. The wings sell for a premium price, about $ 2.29 per pound. This gives them a big oversupply of chicken leg quarters which I prefer for chicken sausage

Thanks Paul. Pauline want low calorie/fat stuff at present, so this will be one the list.

Phil

looks great Ken, Ive been making chicken feta and spinach sausages for over a year now and everyone seems to really enjoy them. I like to add carmelized onions in mine then put them in a blender with the seasonings and a little water. Im going to be making another batch this weekend as our Sausage turn in at our next comp.