The last recipe I'm going to review from Sarah Ballantyne's The Paleo Approach Cookbook before doing my summary book review is her Apple Chicken Sausage. Breakfast anyone? The Paleo Approach has quite a selection of sausage recipes. Sarah gives great instructions for not only making the sausage but also how to make links. If anything, the book is worth purchasing to see the picture of Sarah making sausage links. One day, when I have time and am feeling adventurous, I'll make links, but for this review, I decided to make patties.
I gathered my ingredients and got to work. I decided to make a half batch as I am just one person even if I freeze them.
I don't see that Sarah has shared this recipe online herself, so I'm going to be a bit vague. First, I chopped the onion and prepared the apple.
Next, I sautéed the onions and apples.
While the apples and onions cooled in a medium sized bowl, I measured the needed herbs, spices, and seasoning into my mini-chopper and blitzed them until they were fine.
I added the processed spice/herb mixture to the apples and onions and finally added the chicken to the bowl.
I mixed everything together well. If you make this, I'd suggest using a bowl with a lid or a food storage container as you're going to put this in the refrigerator at least over night to let the flavors meld.
The next day, I removed the sausage mix from the refrigerator and I formed patties. I baked them per the recipe instructions on a foil lined baking sheet.
Once the patties were done baking, I waited for them to cool and then froze them in food storage bags. I put two patties in each bag as that seemed like a good serving size for me. The night before I wanted to have some of these for breakfast, I took a bag out of the freezer and put it in the refrigerator to thaw out.
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| I save my best penmanship for my freezer bags. |
In the morning, I added a little olive oil to a sauté pan (with a little spinach) and heated the sausage through. I'm glad I prepared them this way as when I removed them from the oven, they really didn't have any color on them, so heating them in the sauté pan gave them a nice brown crust.
Here's my plate.
Accessibility & Costs of Ingredients: You should be able to get anything you need for this recipe at your "big box" grocery store.
Preparation & Cooking Time: It took me about 20 minutes to prepare the sausage to sit in the refrigerator over night. It took me about 9 minutes to form these into patties and my oven took about 10 minutes to pre-heat. I baked the patties for 20 minutes. When I heated them after they had baked, frozen and defrosted, it took about 5 minutes. Sarah provides a range of preparation time and cooking times depending on how you choose to form your sausage and cook it.
Clean Up: I put everything except my sauté pans in the dishwasher. Easy.
The Paleo Review: Thumbs Up! This has likely been my favorite recipe so far. I did taste them when they were right out of the oven and while good, I think they were better after I sautéed them and caramelized the patties a bit. They are herby but a little sweet. I really don't taste apple per se but I know that is what's giving the sausage its sweetness. Next time, I'll make a full batch to freeze. I like that I can add some big weekend breakfast to my weekday breakfast by pulling a baggie of these out of the freezer. If you'd like to enjoy these, grab a copy of Sarah's book and get cooking!
What's your favorite breakfast sausage?
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Sources/Affiliate Disclosure- I received a review copy of The Paleo Approach Cookbook from its publisher; however, all of my opinions expressed here are my own. I own and make all of the products at Cavegirl Couture. This post contains affiliate links for which the blog earns a small commission if you purchase items through those links.