After I shared my homemade beef sticks, I was absolutely inundated with one question: Can you make these with ground chicken?
And my first thought was… I don’t know, because I don’t really love ground chicken.
I know. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for the recipe I’m about to give you.
But so many of you asked that I finally bought a pound of ground chicken and decided we needed to find out. I didn’t want to just swap chicken for beef and hope for the best, either. Ground chicken is milder and has a different texture, so I tweaked the seasonings a little while keeping the same basic idea that made the original beef sticks so easy.
And you guys—they work.
So for everyone who asked if the wildly popular homemade beef sticks could be made with ground chicken, here is your answer. These smoky, savory homemade chicken sticks are simple, made with regular ground chicken, and officially have the approval of someone who doesn’t even particularly like ground chicken.
Homemade Chicken Sticks
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground chicken:
- 2 tsp Morton Tender Quick
- ½ Tbsp dried chopped/minced onion
- ½ Tbsp liquid smoke
- ½ Tbsp granulated sugar
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp smoked paprika
- ¾ –1 tsp coarse black pepper
Instructions
- Mix everything really well. I use my stand mixer.
- Roll the meat between parchment paper until it’s about 2–3 mm thick, then cut it into strips roughly 1 cm wide x 6 cm long. I recommend using a large chef’s knife or bench scraper to press straight down…don’t drag the knife through the meat. Slide the parchment paper onto a half sheet pan and cover.
- Refrigerate overnight to cure.
- 24 hours later, uncover the half sheet pan, and 're-score' the lines from the day before…again, don't drag the knife or bench scraper. Bake on the parchment at 275°F for about 1 hour. The color will change from light pink to a slightly brighter pink. The internal temperature should be at least 165ºF. Let them cool enough to handle, break the sticks apart, blot well with paper towels, and refrigerate or freeze.