Chud’s Jalapeño-Cheddar Hot Link Sausage
Let’s talk Texas sausage. One of Brad’s specialties is house-made sausage, especially Jalapeño Cheddar sausage—a spicy, cheesy BBQ staple. Brad teaches sausage-making classes and walked us through his step-by-step process.
Equipment
Ingredients
- Meat/Fat: 80/20 - 70/30
- 5-10 % Jalapeños, cut in half
- 1.5-2 % Salt
- 0.25 % Pink Curing Salt #1
- 2-4 % Binder Milk Powder
- 0.5 % Primary Seasonings
- 0.25 % Secondary Seasonings
- 0.125 % Tertiary Seasonings
- 10 % Liquid
- 10-20 % Cheese (high-temp preferred)
Instructions
- Chill your grinder parts in the freezer. Also cube and chill your meat in the freezer for about a half hour.
- Run the meat and the jalapeños through a coarse plate on your meat grinder.
- Add the salt, curing salt, binder, and seasonings and mix to distribute the dry among the meat. Add the liquid and cheese and mix to combine thouroughly—until the meat clings to your hand enough to hold it upside-down without falling off.
- Stuff into your casings of choice.
- Preheat your smoker to 150°F.
- Insert RFX MEAT into your sausage, and smoke up to 150–160°F. Increase the smoker temp to 250°F and keep cooking.
- Remove the sausages from the smoker and shock them in an ice bath for about 10 minutes, trying to get below 75°F. Move them to the refrigerator and cool completely before wrapping for storage
- If cooking any immediately, put them back on the smoker and cook to an internal temperature of 160°F.
- Let the sausages cool slightly before enjoying!
Notes
If you want to make it the exact way we did in the video, use this ingredient list:
- 2.5 lb lean brisket
- 2.5 lb pork belly
- 4 oz jalapeños
- 1.6 oz salt
- 3 tsp pink curing salt (Prague #1)
- 1 Tbsp black pepper, ground
- 1 Tbsp paprika
- 1 Tbsp granulated garlic
- 1 Tbsp ground mustard
- 3.2 oz milk powder
- 8 oz water
- 12 oz high-temp cheddar