Tag Archives: Chicken

Chicken Sausage

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The sausage maker strikes again.  This time with a smaller load of chicken thighs.

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I started with only 5 pounds of chicken thighs instead of 10+ pounds of meat like last time.  The pieces were chopped up smaller this time, and I didn’t add any pork fat.  This was just simple chicken, salt, pepper, and a little fresh rosemary from the garden.

Last time I was doing a lot of meat shoveling and stuffing, and ended up having to employ my lovely wife to help.  I didn’t get many pictures as a result.  This time my maker mom was in town.  I figured out how to guide with one hand while I pressed with the other.  Mom filled the hopper and took pictures.  

I don’t know if it was the consistency difference, the smaller hunk size or what, but this batch went really smoothly.  My diameter consistency needs help still, but I am improving.  When all was said and done, we had two piles of lumpy but delicious looking sausage.

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The batch with rosemary got grilled for dinner the same night as it was made.  I don’t know if it should sit in the fridge a few nights for the flavors to meld or not, but this worked well.  It was pretty tender and moist enough.  Not as much as the brats were, but the fat content of this was a lot lower.  A very delicious and cheap chicken sausage for the grill.

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The second batch got smoked a few days later.  It was also quite delicious.  I am glad I didn’t use any white meat, the sausage was good, but could probably easily be dry if it were any leaner.

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Sesame Soy Slow Cooker Chicken

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This delicious SSSCC recipe was brought to me by an ex from many moons ago.  I have made it a number of times over the years, and decided to christen my sweet new slow cooker with it.   The recipe is super simple and really only involves chicken, soy sauce, and sesame seeds.  (Full recipe at the bottom)  To my surprise I was very low on soy sauce.  I poured what I had on the chicken, and threw a little more water in the bottom of the pot to help with the steaming action.

After 8-10 hours on LOW you should have something like this guy ready to go!  I was shooting for 8, but this guy was a little chunky so I gave him another 30 after reading the thermometer.

DSC_0267The results were wonderful.  The soy flavor wasn’t as strong because I only had half of what was needed.  Still, the breast was juicy and tender, the legs were pulled apart easily, but the whole thing didn’t turn to a mush pile.  This is a great basic recipe and could be adapted to a long list of other sauces and flavors.

Take the basic chicken and foil, then add buffalo sauce, bbq sauce, liquid smoke, salsa, marinade sauce, various oil based salad dressings, a few strips of bacon and dry ranch seasoning, and probably 100 other variations.  The cooking method makes a juicy wonderful chicken, the seasoning method is only limited by your imagination!

A Note on Soy Sauce

There is a word of difference between kikkoman, and the good stuff.  I would recommend going to an asian market and asking for a good low sodium soy sauce.  I went and was given this.  It is worth the special trip.  The flavor is amazing!  Regular soy sauces taste like salt water to me now.

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 Ingredients and Directions:

  • 1 Plump happy chicken
  • 1 Cup of good low sodium soy sauce
  • 3-4 Balls of tin foil
  • Sesame seeds

Make 3-4 balls of aluminum foil in the bottom of the slow cooker.  These will hold the chicken up off the floor of the pot.  Place chicken on the foil balls, and dump the soy sauce all over the chicken.  Sprinkle a heavy dose of sesame seeds on top of the chicken, and toss the lid on and set to LOW.  8-10 hours later you should have a gorgeous delicious chicken ready for dinner.  Smaller ones can go for 8, bigger pluckers need 10.  No hard and fast rule, but always test with a thermometer.