Swedish Potato Sausage [Chicken]

Swedish Potato Sausage - Chicken Version

Originally published December 19, 2018, Updated on 10/3/20

Today’s recipe was a fun challenge to tackle - Chicken-Based Swedish Potato Sausage.

As I’ve mentioned before, my husband is no longer able to eat pork or beef, which has been ... interesting... to work around. It’s not a religious or ideological thing, his body just can’t handle either any more.

SO, for the most part, he just eats chicken, fish, or vegetarian dishes, and doesn’t normally miss the pork or beef - save for the odd cheeseburger craving.

For the few favourites that he didn’t want to give up, I’ve had great success with replicating the taste and texture, using non-pork ingredients. For instance, my Chicken and Mushroom Tourtiere, or my Vegan Donair “Meat”.

Early on in our marriage, my husband made mention of potato sausage he used to get as a kid. His extended family all went in on a bulk order of the stuff from some unnamed (to him) supplier, and they’d split it up, freeze it all, and eat it over the following month or two.

We bought a few different kinds over the years, all of which he found to be “meh” - they weren’t THE ONE. He knew.

Last year - our final Christmas in the US - I happened across a little Scandinavian store in Minneapolis, and picked up a bit of their sausage for the hell of it. As luck would have it, that was THE ONE.

Ingebretsen’s, for anyone in the Minneapolis area who may be interested!

Potatiskorv - Swedish Potato Sausage

Swedish Potato Sausage - or “ värmlandskorv” as it’s known in Sweden - is traditionally served at Christmastime. It’s made from beef, pork, potatoes, onions, and spices.

While my husband’s family isn’t Swedish, Minnesota has a lot of people of Scandinavian heritage, so it’s not surprising that it was a tradition in his family as well.

Unfortunately... it’s a pork and beef sausage.

He braved the consequences and had some anyway, just in the name of nostalgia, but I promised him I’d make a safe version. It felt like big shoes to fill, having seen how “meh” he was over everything that wasn’t IT.

I played around with chicken, mushrooms, potatoes, and spices, and came up with a recipe that was BANG ON, bringing him right back to his childhood on the first bite!

Even his father was shocked and in disbelief - He seemed to think we were pulling his leg when we told him that we’d made it at home, and it was chicken!

The only problem? When frozen and thawed, my sausage turned all kinds of ugly colours - like blue black, marbled in.

After making some calls, we learned that this was safe - if unappetizing - it was just the raw potato oxidizing. The solution? Cook the potatoes first.

I tweaked the recipe, tested it out, and here we are!

Once stuffed into casings, this sausage can be boiled right away, put in the fridge for a day or two if needed, or frozen - so do whatever makes the most sense for your needs, without worry about discolouration!

Making Sausage

We went the traditional route and stuffed sausage casings to make the sausage as you see it here.

Equipment

I have a Kitchenaid Stand Mixer, as well as the Grinder Attachment and Sausage Stuffer Kit for it.

If you don’t have a Kitchenaid, you can always buy a Manual Meat Grinder fairly cheaply - a fun thing to have on hand, as it’s key to making all kinds of homemade sausages.

You’ll also want a manual Sausage Stuffer kit - this one doesn’t require a KitchenAid stand mixer for use.

If you really don’t want to mess around with grinding meat, you can always buy some ground chicken - just be sure to have a mix of lean and .. Not lean ... so your sausage isn’t dry.

Technique

The sausage that my husband used to have as a kid was sold in coils, so that’s how we did it.

Alternatively, feel free to make individual sausages out of it.

A third option - the lazy option (NO judgement!) - is to use a burger patty press to make sausage patties.

Finally, you can also roll the sausage meat into wax paper chubs, freeze, and slice off patties of what you need from there. This would be the SUPER lazy option, but - again - no judgement! This is by far the easiest - and least messy - path to Tasty Sausage Goodness!

Serving Swedish Potato Sausage

It sounds like this sausage is traditionally served boiled (on Christmas), and either cold OR warm throughout the rest of the year.

Many people grill or pan fry the sausage whole, and serve it with pickled beets.

In my husband’s family, it was boiled, sliced in half lengthwise, and then pan fried - on both sides - in butter. This is how we’ve been serving it, since we started making it.

We love the flavour and texture that the browning gives to the sausage, and cutting it in half allows for more surface area to brown!

Note on Scaling

Sausage making can be a bit of an... undertaking. I created this recipe to make enough to make the effort and mess worth it.

However, this Chicken Sausage recipe can easily and successfully be halved, for a smaller batch!

Conversely, you can also multiple the batch to make much larger batches, should you need even MORE Swedish Potato Sausage.

Now, on to that Swedish Potato Sausage recipe!