Chicken And Sage Sausage - The Great Seasonings Quest

I like the idea of making my own sausage.  For one, I can control what's in it.  Also, I can use whatever meat I want.  We like using ground chicken since it's leaner than pork; however, most chicken sausage is pretty costly and hard to find.  Turkey sausage is more common, but it can still be fairly expensive when you look at the per unit ounce price of the pre-made sausage vs a pound of ground meat.  Also it tends to not be seasoned to my liking.  Picky?  Perhaps, but I don't like the idea that I either have to get something I don't like the flavor of or pay extra for something that's hardly exotic.

My digging through the Kitchen Simplicity blog lead me to this recipe for Chicken and Sage Sausage Patties.  I tried it exactly per the recipe, but found it didn't have enough flavor to suit me or my boyfriend.  I grew up eating hot and spicy pork sausage; and while I realized I would never capture that pork flavor in chicken, I did want to at least get some of the flavorful seasonings I enjoyed.  So here's what I have so far.  It needs work as I'm not 100% satisfied with the seasonings, but it's getting there.  I may try with turkey to see if that helps.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground chicken
• 2 tbsp green onion, finely chopped
• 1 small garlic clove, minced
• 2 tsp dried sage
• 1/2 tbsp dijon mustard
• 1/2 tbsp smoke flavor
• 1 tsp cajun seasoning (I use this in place of the salt as most of it has salt in it)
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp crushed red pepper

I may end up either doubling the cajun seasoning or adding a touch of sea salt and cayenne pepper.  I could also add more sage, or perhaps add thyme.  If you try this, and change up the seasonings, then let me know how it was!

Directions:

1. Mix all of the seasonings, onion, garlic, and mustard with the ground chicken in a large bowl.  You may be able to do it with a fork, but you might find it easier to mix it with your hands like you would a meatloaf.  Mix until the seasonings are well blended into the ground meat.  You want to make sure you don't have large clumps of seasoning as it will make the sausage taste different from patty to patty.
2. Once mixed use a tablespoon to scoop out the meat into balls and flatten into patties.  You can place these on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper until you are ready to cook them.  If you do refrigerate the sausage, then leave it out for about 30 minutes to make sure it cooks evenly.  You can also freeze them up to six weeks if you make sure to have parchment paper between the patties so they do not stick.  Allow to thaw overnight in the fridge, and sit out for 30 minutes prior to cooking.
3. When you are ready to cook the sausage keep the heat around medium to medium high.  If you are not using a no-stick pan, then you will want a bit of oil to keep the patties from sticking too bad.
4. Cook around 3 minutes per side or more depending on the thickness of the patty.

This can make around 10 sausage patties depending on the size of the patty. That's 5 servings total at 2 patties per serving.