Chicken Apple Sausage

[sawhorseray]

I finally had everything come together to get my chicken-apple sausage project completed. The recipe came from Bruce Aidells book and I had a couple of questions, but eventually Mr Aidells himself got back to me, seems like a very nice fellow. Here's the recipe I used, the only variation being that I used about 30% more dried apples than he called for in his book and I made six inch link rather than five inch.

12 lbs. deboned chicken thighs with skin
3 cups apple cider
12 oz. dried apples
4 tbsp. canning salt
2 tbsp. black pepper
2 tbsp. dried sage
¾ tsp. ground ginger
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. ground nutmeg
2 chicken bouillon cubes dissolved in ¼ cup boiled water
In a sauce pan reduce the apple cider to almost a syrup, about a half cup. Cool and reserve. Grind the chicken thighs and skin with the dried apples thru a medium plate. Mix with all the other ingredients until sticky. Stuff into 32-35mm hog casings, twist into six inch links.

Being up at three this morning deboning pork and chicken thighs had me ready to get going by 6am, everything was measured and assembled

I was somewhat skeptical of running the dried apples thru the grinder without rehydrating them but Aidells' e-mail to me stated there was enough moisture to just run them thru with the chicken meat

Having had everything set up in advance the grinding and mixing took no time at all

Threw the stuffing-ready grind in the fridge and my stuffer tank in the freezer, cleaned up and put away all the gear, set the stuffer up, and went bad to bed for a few hours. The stuffing and linking were done in no time when I got up

I put all the links in my garage freezer for a hour to firm up before shrink-wrapping, just enough time to get everything cleaned up and the kitchen tidy again. Shrink-wrapped and labeled, good to go

My wife and I thought the test patties I fried up were delicious, better then what's on the shelf at the local Safeway. I noticed on the Aidells' website they sell 12oz. packs of the chicken-apple sausage for $7.99. I made 12 pounds for $28, that's $2.34 per POUND. I really like this recipe and it'll be a keeper for me. I have to say that peeling. coring, and dehydrating the apples, and reducing the cider down made this a labor-intensive project, but all-in-all well worth the time and effort. RAY

[Krakowska]

Wow, Looks and sounds good Ray. Might be on the list of to do after the first. I'm on a first time "bacon in the makin' " project right now. You got some nice equipment. Nice grinder!