Maple Chicken Sausage

Happy Leap Day! Is this a celebration holiday? Maybe not, unless you have a birthday today.

But it is the end of February. . which means that (for the time being) breakfast food blogging is over. We’ll have a quick word on sausage and move on to some desserts next week!

I’ve told you I don’t love sausage. That means links, patties, even bratwurst type sausage. My main reasoning is the texture. They always have such a grainy texture. . not in a good way. Like you can tell they might be made from critter parts you don’t want to picture eating.

I have exceptions to all my rules though. I love those little smoky link sausages. . I had mini turkey ones over this past weekend and they were yummy. I also am not opposed to ground Italian sausage, which I use in dinner dishes sometimes, and I can do ground turkey breakfast sausage. But the kind of sausage I like the best is the kind I make myself. I control the critter parts.

I made these the first time about 10 years ago. I had seen Rachel Ray make something similar on her show and I decided to play around with it and make it something I wold like. She used ground pork but I went the bird route and prefer turkey or chicken. After a few experiments, it became this.

You could also make up the patties and freeze them so you can cook just a couple at a time. It would make whipping up a quick breakfast sandwich easy. My mom and aunt used to make us breakfast sandwiches similar to these when I was a kid. They called them Egg McMama’s. Love it!

I made mini sausage patties. Feel free to make your patties bigger. I was looking for bite size at the time as I was feeding a group.

If you make the sausage patties a regular size they will fit perfect on your breakfast sandwich. (Egg McMama)  Tim was the lucky recipient of this particular breakfast. He’s such a good taster.

So breakfast month is done. It had some hits (granola) and some misses (baked donuts). Next week I’ll bake you something delicious! Hello March!

Maple Chicken Sausage

1 lb lean ground chicken

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp fennel seeds

1/2 tsp minced dried onion

2 tbsp maple syrup

1 tbsp olive oil (I used non stick spray)

With a very clean hand mix together everything except the oil.  Form the chicken mixture into 16-18 small patties.

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cook the patties until golden brown on both sides. Serve with scrambled eggs or on a breakfast sandwich or however you like.