Buffalo Chicken Sausage

This recipe is presented exactly as it was executed in March 2006. Please read completely before starting. I've included some notes on recipe/process modifications at the end.

Shopping List
  • 5 pounds boneless chicken (breast, thigh, leg - leave most of skin and fat, remove excess), cut into 2-3 inch pieces
  • 1/2 cup carrots, small dice
  • 1/2 cup celery, small dice
  • 5 large cloves garlic, chopped (about 1/4 cup)
  • 2 tsp vegetable oil
  • 1 1/2 cup Frank's Hot Sauce
  • 1/2 cup Hooter's Hot Sauce
    Note: I'm not sure if Hooter's sells their hot sauce -
    if not, here's how to get some:
    1. Go to a Hooter's restaurant.
    2. Drink a shitload of beer.
    3. Steal hot sauce.
  • 1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped
  • 1 Tbsp black pepper
  • 1 tsp white pepper
  • 1 Tbsp cayenne pepper
  • 2 tsp celery salt
  • pork casings

Marinade
In a skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add carrots and celery and cook until slightly softened, stirring constantly, about 2-3 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 additional minute. Remove mixture from heat and set aside.

Combine carrot-celery-garlic mixture, chicken, sauces, and all spices (basically everything except pork casings and parsley) in a large bowl. Refrigerate and marinate for at least 12 hours, or up to 24.

Cocktail Hour
At this point, you'll probably have an urge to make yourself a gin martini - please do so.

Before You Start
  1. Soak the hog casings in clean cold water for 30 minutes to remove the salt. Run water through the length of the casings to rinse the inside. Hog casings are normally 2-3 feet in length. For 5 lbs of mixture, I normally use about 2 casings.
  2. Ensure that the meat and all of the grinder attachments are very cold. I put it all in the freezer for about 30 minutes prior to each run through the machine.

Grinding
  1. Pass mixture through grinder once on large cutting plate.
  2. Switch to small cutting plate and pass mixture through a second time.
  3. Add parsley to mixture and mix well.
  4. Return mixture to freezer while you prep the stuffing tube.

Stuffing & Twisting
  1. Fit the mixer with the larger stuffing tube. No grinder plate is used at this stage.
  2. Grease the outside of the tube using little Crisco or butter on a paper towel.
  3. Push enough mixture through the grinder to fill the tube completely. Otherwise, the first section of casing will be filled with air.
  4. Tie a knot at one end of a casing and gently work casing onto the tube.
  5. Begin passing mixture through grinder. As casing fills with mixture, use your hand to work air bubbles back toward the tube. This is a acquired skill. Have a toothpick handy for piercing the casing in the event that air bubbles get by you.
  6. When you've used an entire casing, lay the entire thing on a countertop. Resist the urge to tie the second end prior to twisting. Twist the sausage into links, alternating clockwise/counter-clockwise. Pay attention to the size of the links; I have a tendency to make them way too large. Nobody needs a 3/4 lb sausage link.

Cooking & Eating
Grill the sausages, toss them in Frank's sauce, and serve on a bun with bleu cheese dressing & crumbles, sauteed julienned carrots & celery.

Post-Production Notes
The next time I make these, I'll do a couple of things differently:
  1. Use all of the chicken fat, and probably some additional chicken or pork fat. This batch was somewhat dry.
  2. After the second grind (before stuffing), place the mixture in the mixer bowl and mix with paddle at medium-low speed for a couple of minutes. This will help bind the mixture together and prevent the sausages from being "crumbly", which these were.
  3. Increase the heat level of the marinade. Frank's is great and provides the wing flavor, but heat was lacking on these. I'd supplement the marinade with hotter sauce, and might also consider using minced habaneros or serranos.
  4. I actually toyed with the idea of putting bleu cheese in the sausages, but decided against it. I'm not sure how this would pan out.
  5. Hog casings are not necessarily easy to find. Search for "butcher supply" in your area. In Portland, I get mine from Market Supply.
  6. Have some olives available for the martinis.

If you endeavour to make this recipe, please email me and let me know how they turn out. Enjoy!
















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