After a couple of weeks of being under the weather with a nagging chest cold, then wonderful, rheumatoid arthritis flare ups and then a hectic Thanksgiving week entertaining visiting family, I am finally back to the computer. My flare ups were concentrated on my shoulders and wrists which made doing computer tasks impossible. I haven’t posted anything or even visited my favourite bloggers. Tasks in the kitchen where non existent too. My poor husband had to cook quite a bit while I nursed my shoulder and shouted out instructions from the kitchen table. We made it through and I am feeling much better. I am glad that I was well enough to host my cousins who were here from California and Texas for the Thanksgiving break. We had a blast eating, laughing and just enjoying each other’s company.

These cousins of mine, all guys, liked to sleep…. a lot. We ended up having breakfast at 11am or sometimes 12pm! But it gave me a chance to get up leisurely and enjoy coffee with my husband and then get to work baking, frying, scrambling and so forth. After a late breakfast, we headed out for a little sight seeing. I took them to Estes Park one afternoon and we walked around the cute little town that looks so beautiful now with all the holiday lights up and twinkling against the back drop of the magnificent Rockies.

One of breakfasts I made for them was sausage and biscuits, in honour of my husband who is a Southern boy (though he went to work and didn’t have any.) Since we don’t eat any pork, I usually substitute chicken or turkey for many sausage recipes. For this one I added some grated Granny Smith apple and some onion. Not only does this add a nice flavour but it definitely helps boost the moisture level of the lean ground chicken. There are chicken sausage recipes that add chicken skin to provide fat, but I prefer to use lean ground chicken. 

One day they were served with biscuits and gravy and then later on that week, I chopped up the leftovers and used them in potato, sausage and egg burritos. 

Makes about 24-28 patties

Apple and Onion Chicken Sausage

2 Lbs ground chicken

1 Granny Smith (tart green) apple, peeled and grated

1 onion, grated

1 teaspoon ground sage

1 teaspoon red chilli pepper flakes

1-2 teaspoons brown sugar (optional)

1 teaspoon salt

oil for drizzling or oil spray

Preheat the oven to 400 deg F/190 deg C

Grease or spray a baking sheet or tray. 

The sausage can be fried but they spit a lot and make a mess so I put them in the oven.

Mix the ground chicken, grated apple and onion together with the sage, red chilli pepper flakes, sugar if using and salt.

Mix thoroughly but gently trying not to work the mixture too much.

Once mixed, spoon out tablespoon size balls and flatted to a patty.

Place on the greased sheet. Once all the patties are done, drizzle some oil over each one and place the baking sheet in the oven.

Bake for 20-25 minutes till firm to the touch and lightly browned.

Serve with biscuits and gravy, stuffed in a burrito or on the side with some eggs.

I had the leftover biscuits with some butter and strawberry jam. My biscuit recipe is the Cream Scones recipe I posted a while back.

I hope you are all having a great start to the holiday season. Wishing you all a very happy, healthy and delicious holiday season!