Buffalo Chicken Sausage?

[DirkDiggler]

Hello all,
This is my first post. I got into sausage making to utilize our expensive kitchen aid mixer more. However, making sausages seemed to be quite the effort. I have recently upgraded my grinder and bought a separate sausage stuffer from Northern and I have been cranking them out!

Anyway, anyone have a recipe for buffalo chicken sausage? I thought of it last night but knew that I wasn't the first and did a google search. Nothing came up other then some prepackaged sausage ready for the consumer.

My idea of ingredients would be:

chicken thigh with skin or breast with skin
hot sauce (I like texas pete)
cold butter
celery seed
salt
pepper
cayenne pepper
perhaps cheese -chunks of blu or jack? Not a lot just a small amount

(I am not sure of the ratios of ingredients and may need to test this out.)

Stuff into hog or collagen casings. I have been using the collagen which are easy to fill but a pain to cook up nice. I found that if I lob off the ends the sausage doesn't break when you cook in a skillet.

[slick4591]

Welcome!

I'd be interested in knowing how this recipe works out for you.

[captain wassname]

Hi Diggler and welcome.
I dont see why you shouldnt use these to make a sausage. Im not to shure about the butter it might melt out when you put them in the pan but if you fancy it go with it.
Chicken thighs are a better (more fat) and for shure with skin.If your going to use butter include it in the weight of your meat.
Your spice and herb mix should be around 2.5% of the meat wt. and about 60% of this mix should be salt.
You will almost certainly need some form of liquid(water or wine) but you need to mix this in by feel rater than a predetermined amount.
Get your mix right and then add cheese to taste
.Have a look at Len Polis site he has some chichen reciepes
Best of luck
Jim

[DirkDiggler]

Thanks all for the comments. I did find a recipe here:
http://www.choosy-beggars.com/index.php ... -sausages/

The cold butter is in idea that I use for making hamburgers on the grill. I actually freeze the butter, then hand shred it. Then I toss the butter with the hamburger and gently form patties. The butter does melt but it makes the hamburger really crumbly and good like a diner hamburger.

[Chuckwagon]

Hi Dirk, Welcome aboard. The butter will probably give you problems. If you're looking for diner texture, simply add soy protein concentrate (in the proper amount). Its the secret of every diner in the country - it prevents the burgers from shrinking and binds the mixture. If you're interested, jangle my chain and I'll look up the formula for you.
Best wishes, Chuckwagon

[DirkDiggler]

Buffalo Chicken Sausage:

3 1/2 lbs Chicken Thigh meat with the fat and skin
3/4 cup hot sauce (I used Texas Pete)
2 teaspoons of cider vinegar
1 tablespoon brown sugar (dark or light -I used dark)
4 tablespoons of unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
3 teaspoons of kosher salt
1 tablespoon of fresh cracked pepper ( you may need to adjust if you use the finely ground pepper)
2 tablespoons of fresh minced garlic
3/4 cups of shredded pepper jack cheese (if using blu cheese, you may need to adjust)
(Extra heat -maybe add 1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes) (I didn't add any)

Cut chicken in strips and lay on tray. Place tray in freezer for 20-30 minutes. Grind chicken thigh using a 3/8-inch plate. While chicken is in the freezer, prepare your spices. Start by melting the butter in a microwave safe quart size measuring cup fitted with plastic wrap. Take out of microwave and stir in brown sugar and vinegar. Next mix in hot sauce and place the mixture in the refrigerator while chicken is stiffening up. Finally, mix everything together adding the cheese last. If you have access to a mixer (like Kitchen Aid) you will be able to incorporate the mixture better without warming up the mixture with your hands too much. Be sure to mix on the lowest setting. After mixing, test for seasoning by cooking up a patty. Next, stuff into casings. Try to make 6" links if you can. Let mature in the refrigerator for 6 hours to overnight. Cook to 160 degrees. A tip for using collagen casings, lob off the ends and start in cold skillet with lid. I found that the sausage doesn't split open on you when you do this.

Notes: I used a course shred on the box shredder for the pepper jack cheese. If you use blue cheese, maybe just crumble the cheese in the mixture. Perhaps start with 1/2 cup of blue cheese during the taste testing as this cheese is much more assertive than pepper jack. Why pepper jack? My wife doesn't like blue cheese. Also, the hot sauce mixture is based on a Cooks Illustrated Buffalo wing sauce. For salt, I based the amount from Bruce Aidells' Sausage book for the Italian Turkey. He uses 4 teaspoons of kosher salt. However, the hot sauce has salt in it so I backed it down to 3.[/img]

[DirkDiggler]

Well, when I cooked a patty to test for seasoning, it was surprisingly very good! The seasoning was right on. However, I used collagen casings which are so easy to fill and convenient. When I make links I twist and tie them to keep from unraveling. However, cooking is another matter. When I lobbed off the ends a little, to relieve pressure, the skins tightened to half the original diameter pushing the meat outward on either side. This also caused more fluid to exude then I liked. When cooking, I used a nonstick skillet and set the sausages in. I then covered with the lid and then turned the heat up to medium. I cooked until 160 degrees. While the sausages are good, I didn't like all the moisture that was removed from them. Ugh! I am not liking these collagen casings! When I first started sausage making, I used the hog casings and they cooked up really good.

Therefore, I like the recipe but suggest using hog casings. Also, if anyone mastered cooking with the collagen, I would like to know your secret!

Thanks!

[Bangermuncher]

I use collagen and had the same problem,I found flattening the sausage out before linking helps,gets rid of any air,and start in a cold pan,another problem I had was just breaking the skin accidentally when turning causes them to split,my skins seem so delicate when cooking but fine when filling.

[DirkDiggler]

Ok I tried another cooking method with these sausages. I par froze batches of 4 links per food saver bag. After that, popped them in the freezer for later use. I got the idea that perhaps if I poach in the food saver bag, I can maintain the structure of the sausage. I poached in water at 175 degrees for 20 minutes by first dropping the frozen package in the cold water, then bring it up to 175. I then set the timer to 20 minutes. I then cool off the package in cold water for 5 minutes. Regardless, there is too much moisture that is released in the bag. Visually it was 1/3 cup of liquid for 4 links of 6-8" long. Therefore, this recipe needs work. I do have to say, that these sausages are still very juicy and good! I took the sausage out of the food save bag and fried them up a little to get a nice golden skin. I did this ever so gently. I don't think I have cooked anything so carefully in my life! These sausages tasted and looked good. It didn't have a kicking hot sauce flavor. But the flavor was rich like when you are chowing down on a wing with hot sauce mingling on your fingers and perfuming the meat. Very nice. Wife said these are the best sausages so far that I made.

However, I need to do something about the moisture problem -I think powdered milk or soy protein is needed. I can get powdered milk but don't know about the soy protein stuff? Any suggestions to improve this recipe?

[Chuckwagon]

Dirk,
Try this:
http://www.sausagemaker.com/

Or this:
http://www.lemproducts.com/

Or this:
http://www.butcher-packer.com/

Or this:
http://www.alliedkenco.com/

Best wishes, Chuckwagon

[DanMcG]

welcome to the forum Dirk!

I do have to say, that these sausages are still very juicy and good!

I'm thinking if you're loosing a lot of moisture but still have enough to make it very juicy then maybe you should cut back on the liquid, or maybe reduce the hot sauce over heat before it's added to the mix.
Soy or NFD Milk will also help retain more moister.

[DirkDiggler]

Thank you guys for the helpful suggestions. With your help, I think I can make this recipe really good!

[NCPaul]

Acid can cause problems in the myosin developement. You might try concentrating the hot sauce or adding phosphate to buffer the acidity.

[seajams]

I saw this thread and liked the concept. I did the follwoing"
4.5# boneless/skinless chicken breast
3# boneless/skinless chicken thighs
1.5# bacon
2 packages McCormicks Buffalo Chicken seasoning (dry)
12 oz Hooters Hot Sauce
4 oz cider vinegar

I sliced the chicken into strips and put in the freezer for 45-60 minutes
same for the bacon

Ran through the large plate on my grinder, put back into the freezer for 30 minutes with the dry McCormick spice sprinkled on.

Ran through the fine plate, mixed with the hooters sauce and vinegar and ran through my verticle press.

Really good flavor, but next time I will kick up the heat a notch as my wife and I like it really hot!

[DirkDiggler]

I love the idea of using the buffalo spice packs! We also felt it could have more of a kick.