Southwest Venison Breakfast Sausage
This green chili venison breakfast sausage is made with ground venison, pork back fat, roasted poblanos or canned green chiles, sage, thyme, ginger, and a little maple syrup. It is a simple breakfast sausage recipe with a brighter, fresher chile flavor than a typical dried-spice version.
Ingredients
- 1.5 pound boneless venison, diced
- 8 oz pork back fat, diced
- 1 sweet onion finely chopped
- 1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped
- 2 large poblano peppers or 1/2 cup of canned green chilis
- 1 tablespoon fresh sage, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme,
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger or 1/2 teaspoon dried ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon maple syrup
- ice cold water, as needed (usually around 1/4 cup)
Instructions
- If using canned chiles, skip to step 2. On your grill or in your oven under the broiler, roast and char the chilies on each side. Place them in a bowl covered with plastic wrap for 15 minutes. Peel the skins off of the chilies and remove the seeds. Roughly chop the chilies. Place them in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to chill.
- Place all of the ingredients except the water and maple syrup in a large bowl. Toss the mixture to coat the meat and fat.
- Grind the venison mixture through the small die attachment of your grinder. Place the ground mixture in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. If you don't have a stand mixer, use a large metal bowl and a sturdy spoon.
- Mix the ingredients until they just start to incorporate. Now slowly add the water and maple syrup while mixing. Keep mixing until the sausage ingredients are fully incorporated and the mixture is tacky. If the sausage appears to be dry and not tacky, add a little more ice cold water and repeat the mixing process.
- Cook a small portion of the sausage in a skillet and check for seasoning. Add salt and pepper as needed.
NOTES
- Roast the poblanos first. Char them, steam them covered for 15 minutes, peel off the skins, remove the seeds, chop them, and chill them before grinding so they blend into the sausage without warming the meat.
- Use Canned Green Chilies. You can swap out the peppers for canned green chiles. I would start off with about 4 ounces.
- Keep everything very cold. The post specifically says cold grinder parts matter just as much as cold meat and fat because warm metal can start melting the fat and hurt the texture.
- Use clean grinding cuts. Top round, bottom round, eye of round, and loin are the cuts the post recommends because they have less connective tissue and are easier to grind cleanly than shank or sirloin tip.
- Add the water slowly. After grinding, mix in the maple syrup and ice-cold water a little at a time until the sausage turns tacky. If it still looks dry, add a little more cold water and keep mixing.
- Cook a test bite. Fry a small piece before packing or freezing the batch so you can adjust the salt, pepper, sweetness, or heat while it is still easy to fix.
- Freeze it wrapped well. It freezes well for about 3 months if you wrap it first in plastic and then in freezer paper, freezer bags, or vacuum-seal it.
Nutrition
Calories: 1423kcal | Carbohydrates: 21g | Protein: 84g | Fat: 109g | Saturated Fat: 40g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 13g | Monounsaturated Fat: 50g | Cholesterol: 354mg | Sodium: 1367mg | Potassium: 1609mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 12g | Vitamin A: 481IU | Vitamin C: 105mg | Calcium: 102mg | Iron: 14mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation. Nutrition is per serving.
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