My neighborhood H-E-B was selling family-size packages of assorted pork chops for an unbelievably cheap price the other day. I couldn’t resist picking up a couple. I seasoned some up and froze them in dinner-sized portions. But that still left me with four or five pounds of pork chops on my hands. So I used the rest of them to test homemade breakfast-sausage recipes for an upcoming cookbook.

I made the first batch in the meat grinder, but that was too much work. I decided it would be more practical for home cooks if I came up with a small batch recipe you could make in your food processor. I tried a lot of variations, but the best one had a lot of herbs, a little sugar and nice jalapeño kick. I used fresh red jalapeños — they looked good ground up.

I want to try this recipe again with pickled green jalapeños. I think the vinegary flavor of a pickled jalapeño might make the sausage taste a little like chorizo. See what you think:

The recipe, after the jump.

Jalapeño Breakfast Sausage

  • 8 ounces pork chop
  • 4 ounces salt pork or bacon
  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon fresh sage
  • 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • Dash of cayenne (or to taste)
  • 2 teaspoons minced fresh or pickled jalapeño (or to taste)

Dice the pork chop and salt pork into ½ inch cubes. Remove any ligament from the pork chop. Place all ingredients in the food processor and process for ten seconds. Hand form into patties and cook them in a skillet over medium heat until cooked through, about five minutes.

Makes six small patties or four big patties.

This article appears in Sep 24-30, 2009.