This sausage uses chicken and schmaltz, along with plentiful sage, garlic, ginger and pepper. And salt of course—sausage needs salt. My optimal salt level is 1.75 percent, so I multiply the weight of the meat (in ounces or grams) by 0.0175 to get that amount of the salt needed (also in ounces or grams). If you like less salt take it back to 1.5%.
This seasoning makes a great breakfast sausage as well as an excellent grilling sausage. If you have a sausage stuffer and like to link sausage, by all means stuff this sausage into casing. I like to cook this in patties and cook them either in a sauté pan or on the grill. The schmaltz can be replaced with pork fat or pork belly, if you have access to thighs but not schmaltz, but I think it's most intensely flavored using chicken fat.
I'm fanatical about keeping sausage fixings cold all the way through the making, and I'm especially crazy about it here, because chicken fat is pourable at room temperature. Thus it's important to keep everything—the fat, the meat, even the seasonings—close to frozen while you're making this. I freeze the fat, cut it in chunks and then grind it frozen. After grinding this can be mixed by hand using a stiff spatula, dough spatula or wooden spoon, but a standing mixer with the paddle attachment works best. Either way, make sure the mixing bowl is cold.
Ingredients
Makes about 2 pounds/900 grams sausage
Step 1
1. Combine all the ingredients except the wine in a large bowl and freeze for 20 to 30 minutes. Measure the wine and put that in the freezer too. If your grinder attachment is metal, freeze that as well, and also your mixing bowl. Set up your grinder, remove the chicken mixture from the freezer, and grind it through a small or medium die into the freezing-cold mixing bowl. Return the meat to the freezer for 10 minutes and set up your stand mixer.
Step 2
2.把香肠混合物从冰箱里mix it with the paddle attachment on medium high for 60 seconds or so, adding the very cold white wine as you do. Paddling will distribute the seasonings and give the sausage a good bind help hold together rather then crumble. In order to be sure the seasoning is right, fry a small portion of the sausage (put the mixing bowl in the fridge while you cook the test piece). Taste the test piece. If you think the mix needs more salt, pepper, sage or ginger add it and repaddle it. You can do this as often as you like till you get the seasoning just so.
Step 3
3. Wrap the sausage in plastic wrap in the shape of a cylinder, about 2-1/2 inches/7.5 centimeters in diameter. Put the wrapped sausage in a plastic bag. It will last a good week in the fridge (thanks to the salt); it can be frozen for 3 months (the longer you freeze it, though, the more chance it has of getting freezer burn or picking up unpleasant freezer odors, so label the bag with the date and don't forget about it).
Leave a Review
Reviews (2)
Back to TopYou can get ground chicken thighs at Whole Foods or most better butcher counters. Use that and forget the grinding.
michael17
Chicago, IL
3/17/2016
These look fantastic but I just can't imagine investing in a grinder for the two times a year I'll actually make this recipe.
Anonymous
9/29/2014
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