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.

Take me to the recipe!

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.

Healthy hot chocolate blender pancakes

The toddler absolutely stuck his finger into this pancake right before this photo.

There were 500 reasons why I loved living in Manhattan, but the city in winter was not one of them. Pushing a stroller through mountains of dirty snow and then the huge puddles on every corner once they melted, was torture. And not for nothing, but New Yorkers stop picking up after their dogs when it snows. Like, do you think the snow renders your dog's poop harmless? Because the only thing grosser than frozen dog poop is melted dog poop. But I digress.

So now we're cozy in our house in the suburbs while arctic winds and snow howl outside (and the only frozen poop belongs to OUR dog).

And while we've amended our diets for the inevitable post-holidays detox, it's not as easy for M to swear off sweets (nor do we expect him to), so we're toning them down and transitioning away from indulgence and toward moderation.

Enter, hot chocolate pancakes. The name is enticing and fits with the frigidity of our current climate. BUT! The ingredients are more wholesome than the name implies.

One thing I like about this recipe is that, unlike other recipes that use banana as a natural sweetener, they don't actually taste like banana. I mean, I love bananas, but I don't always want my baked goods to taste like them.

I also think that the mixture of malt powder and cocoa powders tastes more like hot chocolate than cocoa powder alone. *If you don't have malt powder, use 2 Tbsp of cocoa powder total and add 1-2 Tbsp of maple syrup to the batter.

And while we're at it, let's talk about "blender pancakes" as a concept. As an admittedly lazy cook and housekeeper, I'm skeptical of getting out the blender when it's not strictly necessary. Maybe I'm scarred from not having a dishwasher for most of my adult life, but it seems so much more complicated to clean the blender than to wash out a bowl and spoon.

Anyway, the blender is totally justified here because the oats get chopped up nicely and incorporated more easily. Without blending, you'd either have chunky pancakes or you'd have to wash a food processor and a bowl and spoon. In conclusion, thank god for dishwashers.

Hot Chocolate pancakes

1 large banana
1 cup quick oats
2 eggs
¼ cup milk (dairy, almond, soy, coconut, rice- anything will work)
1 tsp baking powder
3 Tbsp malt powder (*See note above if omitting malt powder)
1.5 Tbsp cocoa powder
¼ tsp salt

Combine all ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth, scraping the sides if necessary.

Heat a frying pan with the butter or oil of your choice over medium low heat. Pour out about 1/2 cup of batter (we're looking for about 4-inches in diameter) into the hot pan and let cook until 1 or 2 bubbles form on the raw side. (You won't get lots of bubbles as you would with regular pancakes.) 

Once a bubble or two form, carefully flip the pancakes over and cook for 4-5 minutes on the other side, until a crust forms and the pancake feels firm to the touch. 

Serve warm with berries, syrup, powdered sugar, nut butter, or honey.

Yield: 5-6 medium pancakes