Smokey Sweet Chicken Sausage Bruschetta Recipe

This chicken sausage bruschetta recipe, was created while I was trying out Hillshire Farm Gourmet Creations sausages.  These premium, but reasonably priced sausages come in several varieties.  For this recipe, I selected the Chicken Apple with Gouda Cheese variety.  It seemed such a great choice for a fall recipe, especially since it has apple in it, one of the iconic flavors of autumn.

The Chicken Apple with Gouda Cheese sausages had a savory, yet slightly sweet taste, so I added a bit of smokiness through both heat (habanero) and smoked flavor (Gouda), the cooking process adds to the subtle smokey flavor too.  I also added some salt & tang with the capers and vinegar.  Cooking subdues these flavors considerably, but I think they certainly added to the dish.

Great as an appetizer, or serve with a simple salad for lunch or dinner.

Chicken Sausage, Onion & Gouda Bruschetta Recipe

Ingredients:

1 package of Gourmet Creations Chicken Apple with Gouda Cheese sausages from Hillshire Farm

1 tbs of butter, spread or olive oil, plus more for basting bread

1 sweet onion quartered and sliced

1/2 an orange habanero pepper minced

2 tbs. capers (diced green olive can be substituted)

1 1/2 tsp. brown sugar

2 tbs. apple cider vinegar

crusty bread, such as a French

3-4 slices of smoked Gouda cheese

Directions:

1. Put the butter/oil in a saute pan over med-high heat.
2. Slice the Gourmet Creations sausages into 1/4″ wide slices.
3. Add the onions to the hot pan, saute until they just start to carmelize around the edges, then add sausages and habanero.  Stir frequently.
4. Once sausage has started to brown, add capers.  Saute for about a minute, then add brown sugar and vinegar. Stir.  This will loosen all those yummy browned bits from the pan.
5. Once the smell of the vinegar cooking off has dissipated, take the pan off burner.
6. Baste some hearty slices of crusty bread with butter or oil, and broil until golden and crispy.
7. Top the bread with the sausage saute.  Then top with smoked Gouda, if the cheese doesn’t readily melt, pop it in the broiler for a few seconds.

I really enjoyed the results of this recipe, and will be purchasing the Chicken Apple with Gouda Cheese sausages again soon.  I had a few other recipe ideas in mind, that I want to try.

Hillshire Farm Gourmet Creations Sausages are available at Walmart stores.  Check out my shopping trip to pick them up.

This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias.  All opinions and original recipe presented here are my own.