How to Make Chicken Sausage at Home

Homemade chicken sausage is a lean, clean-tasting sausage you can make without preservatives or fillers — and it's one of the most forgiving sausages for a first-timer, as long as you get the fat content right. This guide covers the cuts to use, which casing to pick, a full recipe for about 18 links, and how to cook it so it doesn't dry out.

Choosing Your Meat: Thighs vs. Breasts

Chicken sausage lives and dies on fat balance. Chicken is naturally lean, so the cuts you pick matter more here than they do with pork.

• Thighs — the better choice. More fat and connective tissue, which keeps the sausage juicy after cooking. Leaving the skin on improves moisture and texture further.
• Breasts — lean and mild, but on their own they cook up dry or rubbery, especially if the heat gets away from you.
• The ratio that works — a 50/50 mix of dark and white meat. Butchering a whole chicken and including the skin lands the fat content naturally in the 20–25% range, which is where chicken sausage performs best.

Choosing a Casing (and When to Skip It)

Chicken sausage works as links or patties. If you're not sure which casing suits your recipe, our guide to sausage casings and which ones are edible breaks down the options.

• Natural hog casings, 29–32mm — the standard for dinner-size chicken sausage links. The Natural Hog Casings Home Pack is the right quantity for a 5 lb batch; the Premium Natural Hog Casings hank is better if you make sausage regularly.
• Natural sheep casings — smaller diameter, ideal for breakfast-style chicken links.
• Collagen casings — uniform sizing and no soaking required. The easiest option if you want every link identical.
• No casing at all — if this is your first batch, forming patties removes the hardest step. Our beginner's guide to sausage patties walks through it. You'll learn seasoning and texture without wrestling a stuffer.

Building Flavor: Simple and Balanced

Chicken is a neutral base, which makes it unusually easy to season — and unusually easy to overseason. Restraint outperforms complexity here.

• Tangy — powdered buttermilk or Fermento adds a subtle, classic tang. For a dairy-free version, use citric acid sparingly for a similar effect.
• Heat — cayenne, crushed red pepper, or fresh jalapeño add warmth without burying the chicken.
• Savory and aromatic — fresh sage, garlic, onion, parsley and green onion all pair well with poultry. A little sweetness, like grated apple, adds depth.

Equipment

You don't need a professional setup, but two things make a real difference.

• A grinder and stuffer — a #12 electric meat grinder gives a far more consistent grind than a food processor, and a dedicated 5 lb stuffer makes filling casings much less frustrating than using a grinder attachment.
• Working without them — a food processor can grind chicken in small batches if you pulse rather than run it. For stuffing short runs, a piping bag works.

Whatever you use, keep everything cold — meat, grinder parts, and mixing bowl. Warm fat smears instead of grinding, and smeared fat is what makes a sausage greasy and crumbly.

Recipe: Savory Homemade Chicken Sausage

Makes approximately 18 links.

Ingredients

• 5 lb chicken meat with skin (whole chickens, or a thigh and breast mix)
• 5 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• ½ cup powdered buttermilk
• 1½ tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 2 tsp granulated onion
• 2 tsp granulated garlic
• ¼ cup fresh sage, finely chopped
• ¼ cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
• ½ cup green onion, finely chopped
• ½ cup cold chicken broth
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
• 10–12 feet hog casings (if making links)

Instructions

1. Grind. Pass the chicken and skin through a ¼" (6mm) plate. If using a food processor, pulse in small batches until evenly ground.
2. Mix. Combine the ground chicken with all spices, herbs, buttermilk and cold broth. Mix by hand until the mixture turns sticky and cohesive — that stickiness is protein extraction, and it's what holds the sausage together.
3. Stuff or shape. For links, slide soaked casings onto the stuffing tube and fill gently without overstuffing, then twist into 6-inch links. Prick each link once or twice to release trapped air. For patties, wet your hands lightly and form uniform rounds.
4. Rest. Refrigerate up to 24 hours before cooking. This noticeably improves flavor. Cook or freeze within that window — see storage below.
5. Cook to an internal temperature of 165°F (74°C). Methods and times are below.

How to Cook Chicken Sausage

Chicken sausage is lean, so the goal is reaching 165°F without driving out the moisture on the way. Moderate heat, every time — and once it's cooking, don't pierce it. Every hole lets juice out.

Times are for links at roughly 29–32mm. Thicker links need longer; thinner breakfast links in sheep casings cook in 8–10 minutes in a pan. Always go by temperature, not the clock — 165°F in the center is the only reliable test, and an instant-read thermometer is worth more here than any timer.

Let cooked sausage rest two or three minutes before cutting. Chicken sausage benefits from it more than pork does.

Storage and Food Safety

Raw chicken sausage is raw ground poultry, and it follows the same rules.

• Refrigerated, raw: 1–2 days. If you use the 24-hour flavor rest above, cook or freeze it right after.
• Frozen, raw: safe indefinitely at 0°F, best quality within 1–2 months. Vacuum sealing extends that quality window and prevents freezer burn, but it doesn't make it indefinite.
• Cooked: refrigerate up to 4 days, or freeze up to 2–3 months.

Because chicken sausage has a short raw window, it's worth portioning and freezing whatever you're not cooking within a day or two, right after you stuff it.

A Few Final Notes

Chicken sausage rewards attention to two things: moisture and temperature. Keep the meat cold while you work, keep the heat moderate while you cook, and don't rush either step. Once you've dialed in the fat ratio and the seasoning, it's one of the most versatile sausages you can make.

Just getting started? Our beginner's guide to making sausage at home covers the fundamentals that carry across every style, and Sausage Stuffers 101 walks through stuffing technique in detail.