AIP Chicken Sausage

In deference to my husband’s religious dietary restrictions, we don’t eat pork in our house.  With the added restrictions of no eggs or dairy on the autoimmune protocol diet, getting adequate protein at breakfast can be somewhat challenging.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t like the idea of roast chicken, fish, or lamb chops for brekkie.  I’m a simple girl.  I want sausage.  And bacon.  Man, oh, man! I miss me some bacon. Can a I get an “Amen!”

Since grocery store sausage is pretty much a no-go for AIP, I knew I was gonna have to get some gumption and make it fresh.  I bought four pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, which I thought would be fatty enough to hit the 80-20 sweet spot for sausage.  Nothing worse than dry, hockey puck sausage!  I wanted to make a big batch of patties, cook them off and freeze them.  My food processor is only big enough to handle two big thighs at a time, so I ended up making four different batches, four different flavors.  This was a lengthy process, but it ended up being well worth the extra time and effort.

To start with, I sauteed onion and garlic, which was the base for all of my flavors.  For each batch, I added 1/4 of this mixture into the food processor with my raw chicken thighs, and I changed up the herbs for each batch.  Pretty easy, right?  And very delicious!

AIP Chicken Sausage – Four Flavors

Ingredients for base sausage:

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
• 4 large cloves garlic, minced
• 4 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs (about 8 thighs)
• 1-2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper

Additional Ingredients for basil flavor:

• 2 Tbsp finely chopped basil
• 1 Tbsp finely chopped parsley

Additional ingredients for Italian flavor:

• 1 Tbsp dried oregano
• 1 Tbsp finely chopped parsley
• 1 Tbsp finely chopped basil

Additional ingredients for breakfast flavor:

• 1 tsp dried sage
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 Tbsp finely chopped parsley

Additional ingredients for Asian flavor:

• 1 tsp ground ginger (would be amazing with fresh grated)
• 1 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil to medium in a large skillet, and saute onion and garlic until translucent and softened. Set aside.
2. For each flavor, repeat the following steps:
   • Add two chicken thighs to your food processor, salt and pepper to taste (about 1/4 tsp), one-fourth of the onion and garlic mixture, and additional ingredients for whichever flavor you are working on.
   • Process until meat is well ground but you can still discern small pieces of meat.  You don’t want meat puree!
   • Before removing meat from the food processor, take one small pinch of your meat mixture and cook it in your saute pan.  Taste and add salt/pepper to mix as necessary.
   • Once you have your seasoned to your taste, form meat into patties.  I got 8-10 patties per batch.
   • Cook on medium heat until just slightly browned and let cool.
   • Freeze the cooled patties in large, labeled freezer bags.

These are perfect for easy, on-the-run breakfasts!