Homemade Sausage - Romano Cheese with Chicken

The last sausage on our list needed to be made with chicken. We wanted to have an opportunity to find a lean sausage that had a different flavor and we were drawn to one called Roman-Style Chicken Sausage. The base ingredients, onions, green pepper, and Romano cheese just sounded so different and making these into links meant a flavorful chicken sausage to add my Caramelized onions or Zucchini Relish and any of the Mustards from the canning pantry.

The recipe from the "Home Sausage Making" book was simple and now after using the Kitchen Aid grinder for the third time, went fairly quickly. I am finding that the chicken was much easier to grind than the pork. Both the white and dark meat plus the skin were required for this recipe. It turned out to be a perfect recipe to use a combo pack of chicken.

The first part of the recipe deals with the casings. Hog casings which are the type that we are using are packaged and stored in salt and must be soaked and then rinsed before you can fill them. Here is a link to purchase the Hog Casings. The casings soak for the 45 minutes while you process the meat they stretch out and become pliable. You will need to run water through the casings. In the book they say to run it under the faucet but we used a straw at one end to flush through the water which seemed to be more sanitary. You will need 4 feet small hog casing.

Here is the recipe for the Roman-Style Chicken Sausage:

Grinding of Chicken - Both light and dark meat!

Roman-Style Chicken Sausage 

4 lbs chicken meat (mixture of dark and light with skin)
2 t. kosher or coarse salt
2 t. freshly ground white or black pepper (fine grind)
1 cup finely chopped onion, sauteed and cooled to room temperature
1/2 cup finely chopped green bell pepper
1/2 cup freshly grated Romano Cheese

Casing loaded on the extruder

Prepare the casings.
Cut the chicken and fat into 1 inch cubes.
Grind the meat and fat together through the coarse disk of a meat grinder.
In a large bowl, combine chicken, pepper, salt, onion, green pepper, and cheese.  Mix well, using your hands.
Grind the seasoned mixture through the coarse disk again.
Before you start to fill your casings fry up a small patty of the mixture to make sure that it's seasoned the way you want it.

Hubby loading the casing
and twisting into links.

Stuff the mixture into the prepared casings...

Prepared Casing - slide the 4 ft of casing on the extruder tube. The key is to stretch with one hand and slide it on with the other. Once all of the casing is loaded on the tube tie a knot at the end of the casing. Begin filling the casing and letting the sausage fill the section as much as you can without blowing out the casing. This will take a bit of practice, but you will have 4 feet to practice!

Prick air pockets once all the sausage has been extruded through the machine. Twist off into 3 inch lengths and cut the links apart with a sharp knife or kitchen scissors. 

Completed links - 4 lbs of yummy sausage!

Place the links on a platter, cover, and refrigerate for a couple of hours or overnight to meld the flavors. Use within 2 to 3 days or freeze for up to 2 months.