Sausage Review - we review sausages

The Churchgate Sausage Company make some really good sausages and they tell me that recent demand for "other than pork" product has increased noticeably. So chicken with porchini mushrooms sounds pretty interesting to us...

We've predominantly sampled pork sausages for our reviews it's fair to say, so chicken ones are a bit of an occasional departure but these are billed as "meaty, intense, rich and woodsy with a subtle nutty undertone" so with that in mind, and the fact there's increased demand for other than pork, we are going in...

80%+ chicken thigh meat is used along with porchini, gluten free crumb, inhouse seasoning, and mores the point proper natural skins. I asked Churchgate whether they needed to add any pork or fat to the chicken in the mix. Their response was as they only use chicken thigh, there's enough fat just in the chicken to ensure the finished product has that necessary succulence and avoids dryness.

These are LONG thin sausages at 200mm x 20mm! Just like the chicken & chorizo flavour from Churchgate we previously sampled. More of a BIG chipolata if you like. We like sausages like this as they cook quicker to be honest and frankly, they appeal to us big kids! 

In the raw they look pretty good. Nicely filled, not over stuffed, good colouring and you can see the pieces of porchini mushroom inside the sausage. We are told that the recipe utilises dried porchini that in turn absorbs moisture in the mix and develops a deepness of flavour in the surrounding chicken. Nice.

The aroma from the pan frying (how we manage consistency of our sampling) was excellent!  These sausages cooked up really well and we will hastily add there was no skins splitting or bursting. Yee haa! and they really do taste very good. Yes there is an "earthy" taste. No not a horrible one, come on! It's like they say a "woodsy" "nutty" taste we got that's very good.  There is a close texture yes given the high percentage of meat and let's not forget a superb bite, almost a snap, but these are not dry at all.

We bought and cooked all 8. One minute they were in the pan sizzling away and next, they were all gone!

OK some people may not like mushrooms, yes we get that, but these are worth trying yourself.

Would we buy these again? Yes, yes, they were really very good!


Churchgate (Old Harlow, Essex) - Chicken & Porchini      (Feb 2025)

Here's the sample details:
200x20mm before cooking, 190x20mm after.
66g before cooking, 63g after.
That's a shrinkage of 4% & weight loss of approx 7%.
8 long sausages / 564g  £9.00  (£15.99/kg)

      


Image courtesy of The Churchgate Sausage Co 2025 

 

www.churchgatesausage.co.uk

Unit 5, Mayfields Farm,
Sheering Road
Old Harlow
Essex CM17 0JP.

Tel: 01279 444 812

And now also at:

23 Bell St,
Sawbridgeworth
Herts., CM21 9AR