I want to adapt Meathead's Andouille Sausage to use with chicken, or just make chicken sausages in general. Some fam in the family doesn't eat pork so I don't have the luxury of bacon, shoulder, pork casings, etc.
I have some sheep casings and some collagen casings, and I'm thinking to use chicken thighs as the main meat. I assume I'll also need some skin to get the fat ratio up though.
You are on the right track by using thighs and the skin. You might have to grind it twice, but that method has worked well for me. Also, for every 5 pounds of meat, add 1 cup dry milk.The dry milk helps to make the sausage juicier. I've made andouille, brats, hotdogs, etc with only chicken and/or turkey with excellent results using the a fore mentioned methods.A fine grind will also help. When I used a coarser grind, the texture was too grainy for my taste, and did not retain moisture the way a finer grind did, even when using the dry milk. Yes, you can mix the grinds, just have about2/3 fine to 1/3 coarse. The fine should be like doing hotdogs, almost a puree. I use my food processor for that. Then use your finest hole for your grinder for the coarse. So, grind using your finest grind setting, then puree, season and stuff to your recipe. Any pork sausage recipe will work with little or no modification to your seasoning. Very much like making classic hotdogs, the meat puree creates its own meaty texture.
I hope this helps. Greetings from Houston, Alaska. Good cooking!
Equipment:
'88 Vintage Fire Magic gasser with over 4000 cooks to its credit
Large Big Green Egg
18 Inch Weber Kettle (Rescued from neighbor's trash)
Rotisserie for 18 inch kettle
Dyna Glo propane smoker
Pit Barrel Cooker
Smokey Joe with mini WSM mod
Garcima paella burner
Anova Sous Vide
Slaiya Sous Vide (gift)
LEM grinder, sausage stuffer and meat slicer (all gifts)
This isn't andouille, but falls in the category of chicken sausage in general. We've made chicken, feta, spinach sausage according to this guy's recipe many times. It's very popular in our house.
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