Gather Healthy Sausage Ingredients
Begin by gathering and measuring your ingredients. This recipe makes about 9 pounds of meat. Making sausage in bulk allows you to freeze individual portions and use them in different recipes for months. If you don’t want to make that much, divide each ingredient in half or in thirds to make a smaller batch.
Chicken, Apple and Bacon Sausage Ingredients
7.5 pounds of frozen chicken breast (no skin, no bones), partially thawed
1 lb bacon
9 ounces dried apples
Salt
Cinnamon
Dried sage
3 bouillon cubes
1/4 cup water
3 cups pure pressed apple juice (unsweetened, not from concentrate)
Simmer Apple Juice
The flavor in any variation of chicken and apple sausage comes primarily from concentrated apple juice. So, it’s worth it to get a high quality brand that is unsweetened and unfiltered. Bring your three cups to a boil. Then simmer until it cooks down to about 1/2 cup. Don’t overcook the juice. If it starts to thicken to a syrup, you many have cooked it too long. Make sure it doesn’t smell burnt or smoky
Grind Lean Chicken
The next step is to grind your chicken for sausage. A Kitchen Aid mixer with the meat grinder attachment works well for this step.
To get started, make sure the poultry is partially thawed. Then cut each breast into one inch strips and feed it into your meat grinder. Use a course grind setting. If you don’t have a meat grinder, you can substitute ground chicken from your local grocer. This may, however, change the nutritional information for your chicken sausage.