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Ontario, Canada
I am a wife, mother and grandma who enjoys the many aspects of homemaking. A variety of interests and hobbies combined with travel keep me active. They reflect the importance of family, friends, home and good food.
Cook ingredients that you are used to cooking by other techniques, such as fish, chicken, or hamburgers. In other words be comfortable with the ingredients you are using.
--Bobby Flay

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Sunday, May 13, 2007

Chicken Sausage (Rachel Ray's) & Grilled Chicken Strips

My husband picked up six more packages of chicken breasts (12 chicken breasts) before he left for his golfing weekend. He is back Sunday around lunchtime so that gave me plenty of time for experimenting. When I'm doing bulk cooking sessions I like to stick with the tried and true for our family but I also like to experiment a little when possible.

Grilled Chicken Sausage Patties

I was watching Rachel Ray yesterday. She was making breakfast sandwiches using ground chicken. I happened to have chicken breasts set aside for grinding so thought this would be good to try. This is one recipe I will be playing with a little more. The first results were not exactly what I was looking for but the taste will be quite pleasing with a little tweaking. Something just isn't meshing with the flavours for me so I need to play a bit more. This is a very low fat meat when cooked as I did on the indoor grill but you could fry it if you wanted to. These were grilled on a JennAir® grill cartridge that has wider grates. If your grill has narrow or rounded grates then these patties would be better pan fried.

Chicken Sausage (Rachel Ray's)
modified by Garden Gnome - all spice amounts have been modified as well as cooking method

4 chicken breasts
3/4 medium Granny Smith apple, peeled and chopped
1/2 small onion, chopped and sauteed
1/4 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp grilling seasoning*
3/4 tsp poultry seasoning
a good splash of 100% pure maple syrup

Remove the skin and bones from the chicken breasts. Grind the chicken breasts using the Kitchen Aid attachment or manual meat grinder. Stir in the other ingredients. Form into patties and this will be messy. A warning: they are not firm like burger patties. Place patties onto a hot grill. Flip using an egg flipper only when you can move the patty easily on the cooked side. When fully cooked remove from grill and serve along with eggs and potatoes by itself or place on a bun along with eggs to make a breakfast sandwich. These will freeze well.

*She didn't specify exactly what this was. I used Montreal Steak spice but while it gives the sausage a nice zip, the flavour just wasn't right.

A tried and true short cut I always have on hand is several bags of pre-cooked chicken strips. They are just so convenient especially during the hot months when you don't want to heat your kitchen by cooking. Any kind of barbeque type sauce or seasonings can be used or they can be left plain. I use them on wraps, sandwiches and salads.

Grilled Chicken Strips

Grilled chicken strips are very easy to make. They freeze nicely for later use in wraps or on salads.

Grilled Chicken Strips

2 - 4 chicken breasts
Dianna Sauce or your favourite barbeque sauce
grapeseed oil**

Remove the skin and bones from the chicken breasts. Rub the grates with a little grapeseed oil. Preheat your grill. Place the chicken breasts on the grill. Turn over when the chicken can be moved freely without sticking. Brush on a little sauce on the cooked side. When the other side is cooked, turn and brush on sauce. Let sit for about 5 minutes. Remove from grill. Allow to cook then cut into strips.

**Grapeseed oil is an ideal oil to use when grilling indoors. It has a high smoke point so you can grill at higher temperature without filling your house with smoke

To freeze: Flash freeze the strips on a cooking sheet. When frozen put the strips in vacuum seal bags and vacuum seal. If you do not have a vacuum sealer put the strips into freezer bags and press as much air out as possible.

To use: Thaw and use cold for sandwiches, wraps or salads. Re-heat in microwave if desired.


2 food lovers commented:

Sara said...

I was just looking at the Kitchenaid meat grinder attachment on Saturday - if I buy one, I will give this a try!

Garden Gnome said...

Sara, this is a great KA attachment. I bought mine on their website in the clearance section for about a third of the cost of a new one. Mine was refurbished but looks brand new. It is particularly nice to have if your grocery stores don't carry ground chicken, turkey or pork. Plus, you can take advantage of the sales and grind your own. Good luck!