In their simplest incarnation Buffalo chicken wings are deep fried, then tossed with a mixture of Frank’s Red Hot sauce and butter.  They are only slightly hot from the sauce (which is nowhere close to the heat level many wings are served at).  The main characteristics are the crisp texture of the fried chicken skin, which the wings have an abundance of, and the strong “chicken” flavor these produce.

To capture this in a sausage three things were done:  chicken stock was added to the sausage along with breadcrumbs to modify the texture. The skins that were on the thighs were cooked to the point of crispy and were then ground.  This added a noticeable boost to the chicken flavor with no effect on the texture, probably because they cooked down to such a small amount. 

Third, the acid in Frank’s Hot Sauce was neutralized to a bind friendly pH of 6.  Salt, pepper, garlic powder and a bit more cayenne pepper for additional heat rounded out the recipe.  More hot sauce and cayenne are possibilities, though I wouldn’t want it at the expense of the chicken flavor.

Ingredients

250 g Chicken skin from 12 thighs cooked to yield 60 g ; seasoned with salt, pepper and cayenne then cooked 20 minutes at 350 F on a Silpat (or baking paper), followed by 10 minutes on a rack. It was then minced/ground through a fine plate (4.5 mm).  The grinder plate was then changed to a medium (6 mm) without disassembling the grinder.

1750 g Chicken thigh meat and fat
Grind the par-frozen meat and add it to the ground skins.

100 g Frank’s Red Hot Sauce
4.58 g Baking soda
(Stir together in a deep bowl)

100 g Plain breadcrumbs
100 g Chicken stock (200 g concentrated to 100 g by boiling)

25.3 g Kosher salt
8.4 g Black pepper
3.25 g Cayenne pepper
1.8 g Garlic powder

All of the above was mixed together until a good (sticky) bind was achieved then the mixture was stuffed into sheep casings.

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