Chicken and apple breakfast sausages
These chicken and apple breakfast sausage patties are super quick, packed with flavor, and a great way to add some lean protein to your breakfasts.
So! It’s been forever since I last posted because, like half of the food bloggers I follow, I’ve been busy cooking something else: A BABY. Normally I have a strong sense of smell, but pregnancy turns me into a bloodhound. Combine that with constant nausea, and you can imagine how I’ve felt about cooking or looking at food photos or being in the kitchen or even opening the refrigerator door.
Luckily, I started working on a homemade version of chicken and apple sausages (a family favorite) WAY before they started making me nauseous, so I know they’re good. Plus, they’re easy to whip up over the weekend and then store or freeze for future breakfasts. OR, if you’re feeling ambitious, you can even make them on a weekday morning if you’re one of those people with your shit together on school days.
I fiddled around a lot with the spice mix so that it would be strong enough to compensate for how little fat is in the recipe. I use a combination of fresh and dried sage but you could certainly opt for a single type. If you like less garlic or just milder flavors generally, cut back on the garlic powder and the patties will still taste great.
A note about the fat we add: It’s only a Tbsp, which may feel like too little or too much depending on where you stand and you may be tempted to add more or leave it out. But I’ve found that 1 Tbsp is enough to keep the meat from drying out without making it taste oily or making the texture crumbly.
And the apple adds a little sweetness and a little moisture.
Chicken and apple breakfast sausages
Time: 15 total (5 prep, 10 cooking)
Yield: 16 patties
1 lb ground chicken, (7-8% fat)
1 small apple, shredded (about ½ cup of apple)
2 Tbsp olive oil, divided
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp dried sage
1 tsp fennel seeds
½ tsp garlic powder
¼ tsp onion powder
1 tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp pepper
Combine the chicken, shredded apple, 1 Tbsp olive oil, and the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl. Mix just until all of the ingredients are combined.
In a large skillet, heat ½-1 Tbsp of oil over a medium flame until hot. (If you’re cooking the sausages in batches, use half of the oil; otherwise, use it all.)
Scoop 2 Tbsp of chicken mixture into balls and place in the hot skillet. Push them down slightly to form round patties. Reduce the flame to medium low and cook until well browned on the bottoms, about 5 minutes.
Flip the patties and cook on the other side until the meat is cooked through, the patties feel firm to the touch, and/or the patties reach 165 on a meat thermometer, about 4 more minutes.
Cherry rye muffins
Cherry rye muffins are just healthy enough to feel virtuous without sacrificing flavor or texture. I promise these are worth heating up your kitchen for!
It’s been a minute since I posted something to the blog here and I have no excuse except that… I hate July. Don’t get me wrong, there is A LOT to love about summer. Produce, herbs, ice cream, pick-your-own blueberries, swimming, beach days, later nights, more sunlight, BBQs, a slower pace, vacations, etc. But the bugs and sweat and general malaise that overtakes me when that weighted blanket of humidity settles over the northeast, make it nearly impossible for me to stay productive.
However! I’ve soldiered on behind the scenes and heated my kitchen countless times to get these muffins exactly right.
The rye flour, to me, is just enough to taste the nutty flavor without changing the texture or inhibiting the rise on these muffins.
I also added just enough baking powder and soda to get a good amount of leavening without leaving a weird bitter aftertaste from too much rising agent. A note about rising agents: I’ve been adding the rising agent at the end and letting the batter bubble slightly after learning this technique from the America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook. Does it make a huge difference in these muffins? I’m not sure. But it certainly doesn’t hurt.
I’ve also combined fresh, sweet cherries for moisture and seasonality, but added some unsweetened and unsulfured dried cherries for a concentrated cherry flavor. I haven’t tried omitting either from the batter, but in the coming months, I’m sure frozen cherries could be subbed for the fresh.
How to check fruit desserts for doneness: This can be tricky! When there’s a lot of fruit in a batter, checking with a toothpick or cake tester can be misleading because if you stick it into a piece of fruit, the tester may come out looking wet. Instead, I like to push on the tops of the muffins a bit and feel how firm they are. If the top springs back and maintains its shape after gently squished and the body of the muffin feels lightly firm (like a medium rare steak; you don’t want a hocky puck with no give, but you also don’t want to feel at risk of sticking your finger through the muffin), they’re done.
Also, let the muffins cool completely. Like, really let them cool. I’m the queen of eating muffins too soon and I end up losing half of the crust when it sticks to the baking paper and the muffin can be crumbly when still warm. But if you must, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Cherry rye muffins
Active time: 20-25 minutes
Total time: 1 hour, 40-45 minutes
Yield: 12 muffins
3 Tbsp butter, softened to room temperature for about 1 hour
¾ cup coconut sugar
2 eggs
¾ cup full fat plain yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1½ cups AP flour
½ cup rye flour
2 Tbsp flax seed meal
¼ tsp salt
1 cup whole cherries, roughly chopped
¼ cup dried, unsweetened cherries, minced
1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
Streusel topping
2 Tbsp butter, softened to room temperature for about hour
½ cup oats
1/8 tsp salt
¼ cup packed brown sugar
Preheat the oven to 400.
In a large bowl, mix together the softened butter (no need to use a hand mixer, just elbow grease and a wooden or silicone spatula) and the coconut sugar.
Add the eggs and mix until fully combined.
Add the yogurt and vanilla extract and mix again until fully combined.
Add the flours, flax seeds, and salt to the wet mixture and mix until no streaks of flour remain.
Add the fresh and dried cherries and mix in 10 times.
Finally, add the baking powder and baking soda and mix just until combined. Let sit while you make the streusel topping.
In a small bowl, mix together the butter, oats, salt, and brown sugar until well combined. I like to use my hands for this.
In a greased or baking cup-lined muffin tin, fill each opening to the top with batter. Top with about 1 heaping tsp of the streusel mixture (I usually eyeball this bit and try my best to make the topping equal).
Bake at 400 for 16-20 minutes or until the muffins are lightly firm to the touch and golden brown on top.
Grilled lamb kebabs with haloumi and apricots
Shake up your grilling routines with these savory, herby, sweet, and fatty lamb, haloumi, and apricot kebabs that hit all the right notes— fast.
What is a kebab? Sometimes it’s cubes of meat and/or vegetables on a stick (think shish kebab). Other times, a kebab is a mountain of meat cooked on a rotating stick and then shaved off and served (think doner kebab, shawarma, or al pastor). And, confusingly, sometimes what is considered “kebab” is meat cooked and served nowhere near a stick.
For our purposes, we’re sticking close to a shish kebab.
But here’s what I don’t like about this method: Not all ingredients cook at the same rate. Why should I have to choose between undercooked meat/crispy vegetables and cooked meat/disintegrating vegetables? I say, we don’t have to.
My solution is to cook the meat on a skewer, cook the cheese and apricots directly on the grill, and then skewer them all for serving. Good, right? RIGHT! I mean, it’s not perfect. Some of the meat cooks faster because the cubes aren’t exactly the same size. And it’s important to leave a little bit of space between the cubes so that the heat gets all around. But you control the doneness far more when the kebab elements are cooked individually.
A note about halloumi: If you’ve never had this squeeky, salty cheese, please change that immediately. This cheese adds so much flavor and seasoning to any dish. But when it’s cold, it makes a squeaking noise when it’s chewed, which can throw off anyone with any sort of sensory sensitivity around food. Eating it hot off of the grill or pan makes it more gooey than squeeky, which is why the cheese cooks longer than the meat in this dish.
A note on the kid-appeal of these kebabs: It’s fun to eat things off of a skewer! This dish also has plenty of salty and sweet elements with the grilled cheese and fruit, which can also be appealing to kids. But mine wouldn’t touch this. I found it too delicious not to post, so this may be one for the grownups and not the kids. But who knows? Next month, they might gobble these up. Who can say?
Grilled lamb, haloumi, and apricot skewers
Total time ime: 30 minutes (all active- 15 minutes of prep and 15 of cooking)
Yield: 4-5 skewers
1 lb boneness leg of lamb (if you can only find bone-in, that’s fine! You’ll just need to buy more and cut away the bones. Save them for a stock or soup.)
2-3 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
2 large garlic cloves, minced
4-5 medium apricots, ripe, but not falling apart, quartered
8 oz haloumi cheese, cut into 1/4-inch thick slices
Heat your grill to low.
Place the lamb cubes in a large bowl. Top with the olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, and garlic and mix up. Let sit while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Cut the haloumi into 6-8, 1/4-inch slices. Halve the apricots.
Make the sauce. (See directions below.)
Skewer 5-6 lamb cubes onto sticks. Try to keep like-sized pieces together and don’t crowd the pieces together.
Bring all of your ingredients out to the grill and cook with the following timing:
Cook the haloumi for 2 minutes.
Add the lamb skewers and cook everything for 3-4 minutes.
Flip both the haloumi and the lamb.
Add the apricots, cut side down and cook everything (fruit, cheese, and meat) for 3-4 minutes.
Check the lamb. If it has reached an internal temperature of 145 and you don’t see any obvious rare spots, take the skewers off of the grill. If they need more time, keep them on the grill while you continue cooking the fruit and cheese.
Flip the apricots. Continue cooking the fruit and cheese for 2-3 more minutes.
Your aim is for medium-rare meat; cheese that’s a little gooey and has dark brown grill marks, but that’s staying together in one piece; and apricots that are deep orange and soft-er, but not falling apart. If any of the elements seem to be cooking too fast, take them off!
Serve immediately.
Herby sauce
1/4 cup toasted cashews/walnuts/pistachios
1 cup loosely packed fresh basil
10 fresh mint leaves (fairly large)
2-3 Tbsp fresh oregano leaves
5 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
Toast the cashews in a large skillet over a medium flame, OR in a 350 degree oven, for about 5 minutes until the nuts are lightly brown and smell aromatic.
Add the nuts and the rest of the ingredients to a food processor or blender and blend until well mixed.
Taste for seasoning and add more salt if needed.