Phil has graciously allowed me to post some of my recipes on his wonderful site. This is the first sausage recipe that I designed from the ground up. I wanted it to taste like chicken, only better. The seasoning blend is based on the chicken brine recipe of Thomas Keller in Ad Hoc at Home. In the brine, the taste and aroma of fresh bay laurel comes through and what I decided was that I could infuse the bay in stock that I was using to boost the chicken flavor (flavour). At the time, I had a nice bay laurel tree (Laurus nobilis).

I now cut bay leaves like this to unlock their essential oils.

Chicken Sausage
Chicken thigh meat and fat 1100 g (from 8 thighs)
Chicken stock (homemade) 225 mL (1 cup)
Fresh bay leaves 2
Dried lemon peel 1.5 g (1 t)
Fresh garlic clove chopped 2 g
Fresh thyme 1.5 g (1 t)
Fresh parsley chopped 4 g (1 T)
Black pepper 2 g (1 t)
Salt 21 g (1 1/2 T Morton kosher)
Breadcrumbs 75 g (3/4 c)
Cube the chicken meat and place in the freezer. Chop the bay leaves and put them into chicken stock. Boil the chicken stock until reduced to 75 mL (1/4 cup) and strain. Cool stock in an ice bath (it will gel). Measure out the rest of the seasonings and scatter them over the frozen chicken meat. Grind through a coarse plate (8.5 mm) into a bowl chilled with ice. Add breadcrumbs and gelled chicken stock and mix until a sticky mass forms. Stuff into sheeps casings and link. Allow to bloom overnight in the refrigerator. Poach at 170 F (77 C) for 10 minutes. Cool quickly, then vacuum pack and freeze.

