Homemade Chicken Sausage Links - No Spend Pantry Meals

A friend of mine recently sent me a food grinder/sausage stuffer for my Kitchen Aid mixer. Mine died after 20+ years. This one is all metal, so it should see me through the rest of my life. While this new one is not made by Kitchen Aid it still works. Now, I just need a new food processor. Both of them died

at the same time, so sausage making came to a standstill. 

Chicken thighs are easy to debone. They only have one small bone
and a piece of cartilage that needs to be removed. Thighs are also
budget friendly.

I ended up with exactly 4 pounds of chicken out of one package. 

I froze the bones to make chicken broth
at a later date.

I cut the chicken thighs into smaller pieces so they would 
fit into the grinder.

I divided the chicken pieces and made Sweet Italian and Copycat Jimmy Dean sausage spice mixes. 
You can find the link here for Copycat Jimmy Dean Breakfast Sausage Spice mix: https://roamingbuffaloranch.blogspot.com/search/label/Copycat%20Jimmy%20Dean%20Sausage

I did not take pictures of the process of making the links. I only had 
two hands and both of them were covered in chicken.

I froze the links individually on trays in the freezer, then I bagged 
them up and put them back in the freezer.

I did not use casings, so cooking the links frozen is a must. 

Sausage can be made from ground meats from the store if you do not have a meat grinder and sausage stuffer. Just mix the spices into the ground meat and form into patties. Sausage can be made into any flavor by changing up the spices. For instance, I changed out the breakfast sausage flavor for Italian by using Italian seasonings, sugar and more garlic. The basic recipe remained the same. Adjust the heat by adding or subtracting from the amount of pepper flakes. 

The cost of this sausage came in at $1.30 a pound. Chicken sausage at the store ranges from $6 to $7 a pound and up. Finding chicken on sale can greatly reduce the cost of the sausage. FYI, Turkeys go on sale after thanksgiving and the bones make a flavorful stock. Cooked grains such as rice can be added to the sausage to stretch the meat further and lower the cost. 

I made German burgers before I started the sausage.

It was a beautiful day!

It was also laundry day!

The day was full of jobs big and small, but I managed to finish them all. It's the next day now and the Sabbath is upon us. I am ready to rest, so I will end this blog with Shabbat Shalom!

Mrs. Smith