Thank you to Susan Conley, creator of cookthestone.com for this delicious homemade chicken sausage recipe. Chicken sausage won’t appear in any list of the most nutritious foods. But it’s relatively easy to make one, as you can learn from this post.
Making your own chicken sausage is very intriguing especially if you are a budding chef. By coming up with your own homemade chicken sausage, you can have a more nutritious food. You can limit or completely skip the use of additives that commercially-available processed foods are notorious for.
Moreover, chicken is available all-year round. It is also very affordable. Thus sourcing the most important ingredient in making chicken sausage should not be a problem at all.
What you’ll need to make your own chicken sausage
In making your own chicken sausage, you will need several tools such as:
Grinder
A grinder is a fantastic addition to any kitchen. With it, you can make your own ground beef or sausage.
You can opt for an electric meat grinder if you intend to grind meat regularly. An electric meat grinder may be expensive but it can help you in grinding more meat.
You may also settle for a manual grinder. This is very much recommended if you only want to grind meat from time to time. It is also cheaper than an electric meat grinder.
Sausage stuffer
You’ll be using this tool to stuff the ground meat into the sausage casing. While you can also utilize the meat grinder for this purpose, I would recommend you get a sausage stuffer. It’s pretty reliable and easy to use.
Casing
There are plenty of casings that you can choose from—natural, fibrous, collagen, and old fashion collagen.
I would suggest you use natural casing, though, as it is generally easier to stuff with ground meat compared to the other types. Natural casings don’t have bad smell aside from being easy to digest.
You can get casings at some supermarkets, ethnic markets, and butcher shops.
Scale
While not as essential as a grinder and sausage stuffer, a scale can help in ensuring that you make accurate measurements.
Ingredients:
(Printer-friendly recipe appears below)
- Five pounds of boned chicken
- Two tablespoons of Kosher salt
- Two teaspoons of ground black pepper
- Two teaspoons of ground sage
- One teaspoon of thyme
- One teaspoon of ground ginger
- One teaspoon of savory
- A cup of cold chicken stock
- 32mm natural casings
Step by step guide:
- Start by preparing the casings. For natural casings, soak in a clear, warm water for at least an hour. This should make the casing more pliable.
- Cut all the chicken meat into small pieces, or about an inch in size. Cut the chicken including the skin. Then pass the meat through the disk of the meat grinder.
- Add all the spices to the chicken broth. Mix them well.
- Add the broth and spice combination to the ground meat. Mix it by hand.
- Grind the meat again but this time using the fine plate.
- Stuff the meat into the natural casings. It’s really up to you which type of casing you would use. But if you’re a beginner, I would suggest you use smaller casings as these can be easier to deal with.
Attach the sausage stuffer tube to the funnel of the meat grinder. Gather one end of the casing into the nozzle of the sausage stuffer. Make sure that the casing is not twisted.
Switch on the sausage stuffer. Use low speed until you get used to it.
Knot the other end of the casing tightly once there is about 2 inches left dangling.
Tip: Fill the casing with enough meat so that you won’t end up with loose sausage links. You should also prick the casing to remove the air.
- Refrigerate the sausage links. Ideally, you should be consuming them within 3 days. But if you plan to use them beyond that period, freeze the sausage. The food should be safe to consume for up to four months.
Other pointers/tips
Here are some other things you should consider when making your own homemade chicken sausage:
- Make sure that you clean up your tools with hot and soapy water. You should also hand wash your knives. I would also recommend you run the grinder and stuffer parts through the dishwasher.
- Grind both the dark and white meat of chicken. Grinding the white meat alone will leave you with a dry and bland sausage. Grinding the chicken skin can also add texture to the sausage, aside from a small amount of fat.
- Get some help if you are to use the sausage stuffer for the first time. You can be the one to push the meat through while your assistant will catch the filled casings.
Conclusion
Homemade chicken sausage will always be a hit to many people because one, it is delicious and two, it is bereft of preservatives that most commercially available ones have.
And as you have learned after reading this post, homemade chicken sausage isn’t that hard to do. You will, however, need some tools like grinder and sausage stuffer.
Here is a printable version of this recipe for your convenience:
How to Make your own Homemade Chicken Sausage
Ingredients
- Five pounds of boned chicken
- Two tablespoons of Kosher salt
- Two teaspoons of ground black pepper
- Two teaspoons of ground sage
- One teaspoon of thyme
- One teaspoon of ground ginger
- One teaspoon of savory
- A cup of cold chicken stock
- 32 mm natural casings
Instructions
- Start by preparing the casings. For natural casings, soak in a clear, warm water for at least an hour. This should make the casing more pliable.
- Cut all the chicken meat into small pieces, or about an inch in size. Cut the chicken including the skin. Then pass the meat through the disk of the meat grinder.
- Add all the spices to the chicken broth. Mix them well.
- Add the broth and spice combination to the ground meat. Mix it by hand.
- Grind the meat again but this time using the fine plate.
- Stuff the meat into the natural casings. It’s really up to you which type of casing you would use. But if you’re a beginner, I would suggest you use smaller casings as these can be easier to deal with.
- Attach the sausage stuffer tube to the funnel of the meat grinder. Gather one end of the casing into the nozzle of the sausage stuffer. Make sure that the casing is not twisted.
- Switch on the sausage stuffer. Use low speed until you get used to it.
- Knot the other end of the casing tightly once there is about 2 inches left dangling.
- Tip: Fill the casing with enough meat so that you won’t end up with loose sausage links. You should also prick the casing to remove the air.
- Refrigerate the sausage links. Ideally, you should be consuming them within 3 days. But if you plan to use them beyond that period, freeze the sausage. The food should be safe to consume for up to four months.
Notes
Here are some other things you should consider when making your own homemade chicken sausage:
1. Make sure that you clean up your tools with hot and soapy water. You should also hand wash your knives. I would also recommend you run the grinder and stuffer parts through the dishwasher.
2. Grind both the dark and white meat of chicken. Grinding the white meat alone will leave you with a dry and bland sausage. Grinding the chicken skin can also add texture to the sausage, aside from a small amount of fat.
3. Get some help if you are to use the sausage stuffer for the first time. You can be the one to push the meat through while your assistant will catch the filled casings.
Do you have any comments on this article? I encourage you to share this article as well. Let’s help other people learn how to make chicken sausage.
About the Author: “Hi, I’m Susan Conley – a woman behind the blog http://www.cookthestone.com. I spend my most of time in the kitchen to cook healthy and tasty meals for my husband and my children. Then I realized that cooking became one part of my life and I’m happy doing that. I started writing on my own blog to share with you what I’ve gained after a long time digging on the Internet. Blogging came to me as a destiny. Hope my work can inspire you in cooking and sharing. Happy cooking!”
Wah so want to make chicken sausage at home. Thank you for the information. I wait for the next article
Tried your recipe Susan and I’m happy to report that both I and my wife are really pleased with the results. Your combination of spices make for a very flavorful and distinctive sausage. I used strictly thighs, so I only ground about half the skin with the meat. It came out quite moist (dry sausage is a failure in our book). I do all sorts of sausage and ring baloney and when my wife had asked if I could do a chicken variant, I wasn’t too sure. Your version made this venture a success. Thank you!
My question is, what makes chicken sausages moist? Is it its skin? or do I have to add something else?
It is easier with pork, but with chicken…?
It’s both the skin and the dark meat. The skin will ad some fat and the dark meat will add deeper flavor while the white meat adds texture and filling but to much white meat will make your sausage dry.
To cook a really good pork sausages I am using a infrared halogen conventional oven set to 450F and 15 min.
What temperature and time could be set for the chicken ones?
great recipe. I used chicken thighs only and the sausage was juicy and very flavorful.
What is one teaspoon of savoury?
Listed as ingredients.
Marta, savory is a herb that has thyme-like aroma and pepper in it. You can find in the spice aisle, there is a brand by McCormick. https://www.mccormick.com/gourmet/spices-and-flavors/herbs/savory-ground
I am a little confused because no one mentioned cleaning the chicken first. Do I clean it and then freeze it so it can be grounded? How exactly is. All this done? Please help
Carla, you use skinless and boneless chicken to start. Using a meat grinder, as the recipe calls for, you will grind the chicken – no need to freeze it first. Once you have the chicken sausages made, you can freeze them if you like. Hope that helps.
Marta: I realize how long it has been since you posted this question and you most likely have an answer. But, I was curious and it caught my attention. My parents were old and I learned a lot about stuff that they knew from their younger days and spices and herbs were no exception. Savory is Mediterranean from the mint family. It has a peppery bite to it. However, there is also a product called savory seasoning that has nothing to do with the mint family. My grandmother who was 95 when I was 5 grew savory and used it in chicken, duck, and lamb dishes. I haven’t seen a cutting of savory since childhood.
These are really good chicken sausages with exactly the right amount of spice and herb. Highly recommended and thanks for sharing.
These are the best home made sausages I’ve ever had and the best ones I’ve made my self. Many thanks
I was so happy with this recipe for making my own homemade chicken sausage, that I PIN IT TO My page on Pinterest ( Leslie’s cooking in the kitchen with the family woman) I made the sausage with some broccoli Dave and pasta. Delish 😋. Thanks -(blogghetti.com )) I’M AFAN . LESLIE BESSLER
I love this! Thank you!
I’m making mine with bought ground chicken meat into patties. I’m not stuffing any ‘sausages’. I can’t see why anyone would bother. Go to a good butcher and ask for a special grind.
Little pink salt ? , Just in case ?
Looks so delicious, my entire family loved sausage, I will definitely try it your way, looks seem easy to make, hope so :D. Thanks so much for this guide. Looking forward to seeing more recipes.