www.sausagemaking.org

I've been kicking around doing a chicken tandoori sausage after reading some threads here on 'tandoori'.

I thought about just getting chicken thighs, skin on, either boneless and on sale or bone in and ill de-bone them.
But im curious what fat people use in a chicken sausage. My knee jerk reaction is to simply use the skin. But something tells me that isn't a very good fat because its so, well.. skin. I feel like it will just end up a gummy mess if i try to grind it.

So to the poultry pundits out there, what do you use for fat, if not the skin, for chicken sausages?
And what do you say to those who buy chicken sausages because they don't eat pork or beef?

Chris

I just use the chicken fat that is on the thigh meat and what I can remove from the skin. I never use raw skin. I do use the skin cooked then simmered in water along with the drumsticks to make chicken stock / broth. This will have a lot of chicken flavor. To get the chicken stock into your sausage I would cook some rice in it, then add the cooked rice into your sausage mix. Other fillers (breadcrumbs, grits) can be used in the same way. Not only do these fillers carry the flavor, they also improve the texture. I would be careful to not over spice the sausage so the chicken flavor can come through.

Thanks Paul!

I appreciate the answer. Yeah I was thinking “yeah the fat and flavor is in the skin but man that is not going to be good going into anything as is.”

I think you’re right on. Usually I pull the skin off and fry them in a cast iron pan for crispy skins for the dog or myself and use the rendered out fat for whatever. As you say rice would be a good neutral flavored medium to soak up the fat and flavor and out into my sausage.

I’m thinking a tandoori spiced chicken sausage so the spice is going to blow out the chicken flavor no matter what. :/
At least I think it will. Trying some this Monday! I’ll post results.

Thanks again for the answer!

Chris

Late reply, but for what it's worth, I've always used the skin for fat in my chix sausage. I use boneless legs, and I used to just grind them skin and all. But these (healthier) days I use half as much skin, and my recipes still work fine. In other words, 50% skin-on legs, 50% skinless legs.

Great information - thanks. I can buy boneless legs from a local wholesaler - https://www.jjfoodservice.com/, so this is good for me.

Phil

I’ve got to get into butchering more. I am comfortable buying bone in thighs those are easy to debone.
I need to check out how to debone legs. Scott rea? Has some great YouTube videos on butchering maybe he has one on legs.

Legs are also usually the cheapest cut to find for chicken, even cheaper than thighs with bone in which are usually .99/lb somewhere at any given time. Usually the bone in legs are .89/lb.

I'd pay the extra 10% for thighs.

I'm with Phil, I'd pay extra for the thighs just so I don't have to deal with the tendons in the legs. But around here they are always the same price, so it's an easy decision for me.

I agree. I can almost always find them for the same price. .99/lb. but I have to shop around. One day it’s that price at Aldi’s, the next time it may be at Costco, etc.

What would be awesome is a website where you could enter your zip code and the cut you’re looking for and it would search all the grocery store websites for the cheapest price.

I mean if we can do it for airline tickets....