I have a deep and abiding love for fried chicken.  My wife, on the other hand, does not love that I love fried chicken! 

To capture the taste of fried chicken in an acceptable sausage, the skins of chicken thighs are baked until brown and crispy in the oven.  This provides a lot of fried chicken flavor while leaving the melted fat under the skin behind. 

Rice is used to absorb the flavor of chicken broth and to modify the texture of the sausage.  The spice blend is what would be added to a flour dredge when making fried chicken.

Ingredients and method

First, prepare some chicken skins:

Take the skin off 10 chicken thighs; the skin weighed 410 g. Lay them in a single layer on a sheet pan and roast at 375F (190C) for 20-25 minutes – mine weighed 89 g after this. Mince/grind them through a fine plate (4.5 mm).

Change the grinder plate to a medium (6 mm) without disassembling the grinder.

Prepare some rice:

Cook 135 g long-grain rice in 350 g chicken broth (1 1/2 c). It’ll weigh about 454 g when cooked. Cool the rice.

Mince/grind the meat and rice:

Mince/grind the meat and fat from the 10 chicken thighs (around 1325 g) and the cooled rice through the medium plate. Mix with the roasted ground skin.

Add the seasonings:

26 g  Salt
8.6 g  Paprika (1 T)
6.8 g  Onion powder (2 t)
9 g  Garlic powder (2 t)
1 g  Dried oregano (1 t)
1 g  Dried basil (1 t)
1.7 g  Ground white pepper (1 t)
3.5 g  Cayenne (1 t)

Mixed well until uniform.

Stuff into sheep casing or form into burgers (patties). 

Cook with a little oil; a thin, crispy shell of starch forms around the sausage/burger and makes it seem even more like fried chicken.

More chicken sausage recipes:

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