Chicken Apple Sausage Patties

Imagine a sausage patty made from chicken that's just as tender, juicy, and flavorful as one made from pork. It's possible, with a little help from pancetta. Using chicken thighs makes for a significantly more succulent and tender patty, as long as you keep the meat very cold while working with it.

• Preparation Time: 30 mins
• Cooking Time: 20 mins
• Total Time: 50 mins
• Calories: 399 Calories

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons butter
• 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• ¼ teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• ⅓ cup creme fraiche
• 2 Granny Smith apples
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt, or to taste
• 1 (4 ounce) package pancetta
• ½ teaspoon crushed toasted fennel seeds
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh sage (Optional)
• ½ tablespoon oil, or as needed
• 8 leaves fresh sage (Optional)
• 2 ½ cups chicken broth, or more as needed
• 4 buttermilk biscuits, split

Recipe Instructions

Step 1

Cut chicken thighs into 1-inch pieces. Chop pancetta finely using a meat cleaver until paste-like in texture. Mix chicken and pancetta together. Sprinkle salt, pepper, thyme, fennel, coriander, cayenne, nutmeg, and sage. Mix until combined and place mixture on a plate; cover with plastic wrap and freeze for 15 to 20 minutes before grinding.

Step 2

Peel and quarter apples. Grate apples into a bowl. Place grated apples in a paper towel and squeeze all the water out. Add apples to the partially frozen chicken sausage meat.

Step 3

Place 1/2 of the chicken mixture in a food processor. Pulse on and off until mixture is slightly finer than coarse sausage. Repeat with the remaining chicken. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate to let the flavors develop, 4 hours to overnight.

Step 4

Use a large ice cream scoop to portion out the meat. Flatten scoops with dampened hands to make patties about the same size as your biscuits.

Step 5

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook patties until bottom is browned and leaves a deep brown fond in the skillet, 3 to 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and flip patties over. Add butter and sage leaves. Cook until patties are firm to the touch, removing leaves once they stop bubbling, about 5 minutes more. Remove patties.

Step 6

Whisk flour into the pan; cook and stir until starting to thicken, about 1 minute. Pour in broth and bring to a boil, whisking the browned bits of food off the bottom of the skillet. Add maple syrup and creme fraiche; season with salt and pepper. Cook until gravy is spoonable and reaches desired thickness, 2 to 3 minutes more. Add more broth if gravy is too thick. Remove from heat.

Step 7

Place biscuit halves on individual plates. Top each with a chicken sausage patty; spoon gravy on top. Garnish each with a fried sage leaf.