Friday, September 4, 2009

Chicken Sausage Patties

Posted by Erin Wilburn / 7 comments » / breakfast, chicken

‘Round these parts, we love us some breakfast sandwiches. They might be made on an english muffin, homemade toasted bread, or a mini-bagel. They always include a fried egg, cheese (whatever I happen to have on hand), and meat. Most often, they are made with turkey bacon. But I recently saw Elly posted homemade chicken sausages. They seemed so incredibly simple and delicious. I’m happy to report, they definitely are what they seemed! These couldn’t of been easier to mix up. I only ran into trouble when trying to pat them out, as they kept sticking to my hands. I had better luck just forming them with a spoon.

These breakfast sausages make a great healthy alternative to pork sausage. Growing up I was always a sausage girl. When faced with both bacon and sausage at the breakfast table, I’d reach for the sausage every time. The past 5 or 6 years as I’ve begun eating healthier, I really thought I had left the world of sausage patties behind. Sure I love turkey bacon as a healthy alternative, but it didn’t replace my longing to smell that wonderful aroma of sausage cooking at breakfast time. These chicken sausages have filled that void! I’m pretty sure I’ll be whipping these up pretty frequently so that I always have them on hand. My only addition to this recipe was fennel seeds, as I really love the aromatic flavor you get from them.

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Chicken Sausage Patties

from Elly Says Opa
Makes 16 1-oz. patties (or 8 2-oz. patties)

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground chicken*
1/2 tsp. dried sage
1/2 tsp. dried marjoram
1/2 to 3/4 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 tsp. ground cayenne pepper
heaping 1/4 tsp. ground allspice
1/4 tsp fennel seeds (my addition)
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
about 3/4 tsp. kosher salt
1 garlic clove, finely mincced or pressed
1/2 Tbsp. maple syrup
2-3 tsp. olive oil

Directions:

Lightly mix all ingredients together until the herbs/spices are well incorporated – make sure you don’t over mix!

Divide the mixture into 4 equal parts, and then make 4 (or 2, for 2-oz. patties) patties from each part.

Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat and add 1 tsp. of oil. Put 1/3 or 1/2 of the patties (depending how big your pan is and how much space your patties take up) into the pan and cook about 2 minutes per side or until browned and cooked through. Repeat with the next 1-2 batches, adding an additional teaspoon of olive oil per batch.

*Ground chicken breast will make a leaner patty, but dark (or a mixture of white and dark) meat will make a tastier patty.

Nutritional information for both is as follows:
Using all white meat (per 1 oz. patty, using 3 tsp. oil): Calories: 40.9 / Fat: 1.2g / Saturated Fat: 0.2g / Carbs: 0.6g / Fiber: 0.1g / Protein: 6.6g
Using dark meat (per 1 oz. patty, using 3 tsp. oil): Calories: 52 / Fat: 3.6g / Saturated Fat: 1.0g / Carbs: 0.6g / Fiber: 0.1g / Protein: 5.2g

McDonald’s ain’t got NOTHING on this breakfast sandwich!