Hi all! Long time no See, as the Bishop of Canterbury told the Gay African anglican.
I made some chicken sausages the other day. I tried two different spice/herb mixtures, but I think it will be pretty forgiving stuff when it comes to seasoning.
Firstly, I made my sausages with off cuts, skin (loads of skin) and leg meat. I usually buy whole chickens, cut out the breasts for some posh dish, bone out the rest, and pop the carcass in my "stock" bag in the freezer, and all the meat, fat, gristle, skin and (if you can get it) giblets in the "sausage" bag. This time, I had 2 kg of chicken.
I minced the meat when still half-frozen. This way, everything went through the mincer, I am not sure how chicken skin would react to that kind of treatment without being frozen first. I used the fine setting on the mincer, which gives fine sausage. I have heard that you Brits like the sausage a bit coarser, and usually grind the meat twice on a medium setting. I am unsure on how the skin would react to that, but intend to try it the next time. If you mince twice, put the salt, rusk, spices and herbs into the mixture before the last mincing.
I minced my meat, and then added the stuff. The stuff was, per Kg of meat:
5 grams salt.
1 teaspoon white pepper
I then made two different batches out of this force-meat:
1.
1 teaspoon mace
25-30 sage leaves, chopped
2.
1 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
2 cloves of garlic, worked into a paste with a fork and a little salt
a good handful of green herbs, mine was marjoram, parsley and thyme. And then some more thyme, because thyme rocks! Chopped, off course.
Mix it. Then, add the breadcrumbs. This is very important, it really makes or brakes the sausage. for 1 Kg of sausage meat, I used 70 grams of breadcrumbs, but you probably could go a little higher, say 100 grams. When adding the breadcrumbs, add some liquid as well. I used water (about a deciliter, more or less), but some cold chicken stock will probably be better. Then allow the force meat to set in the fridge for a bout 2 hours.
Make sausages! Sheep runners should make quite thin sausages that either lends itself to a string of very small sausages (excellent for conserving in oil) or longer sausages, good for grilling and frying. And they should freeze well, so feel free to make a batch.
After you have made the sausages, let them hang in a cold place to dry for a few hours, before freezing the sausages.
That was it, more or less. I would like to explore more recipes, and would be happy if you lot got any suggestions. Chicken Chilled-out Chili Sausages or Curry Bangers will probably work very well too.