The sausage making folk at Yorkshire based food company HECK! are on a mission to revolutionize the traditional hot dog and with Bonfire night just a few days away, what better time to put their brand new “Chickfurter” to the taste test.
So what exactly is a “Chickfurter”? Well, according to HECK! their frankfurter is made of 97% chopped chicken breast with a subtle smokey taste and is being launched exclusively in Morrisons this month.
However, thanks to the kind folk at the company, we were sent two packs of the HECK! Chickfurter to try and review before they hit the shelves across the country.
The packaging recommends that you pan fry the sausages for around 15 minutes the best results, which I duly did, having added a splash of cooking oil to the pan first of course.
As the sausages sizzled away slowly, a light smokey aroma filled the kitchen, prompting the kids (and hubby) to enquire as to how much longer the chicken bangers would be!
The packaging says that the chicken sausages are gluten-free, low sugar and high in protein, so we were keen to see what they tasted like.
The big question of course would be whether they could replace the humble hot dog or simply be just another frankfurter.
Obviously being made of chicken, they didn’t have the same depth of colour you’d expect from a pork or beef sausage, so their appearance was more akin to a German Bratwurst than British banger. But we all know that you should never judge a book by its cover as the old saying goes.
The other thing worth mentioning was the almost total lack of fat that dripped from the sausages, unlike your traditional supermarket banger, when they were finished cooking.
With the sausages now cooked and served to the hungry hordes around our dining room table, it was time to really judge these Chickfurters based purely on their taste.
I have to say we were all pleasantly surprised at how tasty they were! The subtle smokey taste blended really well with the chicken, with a firm but not chewy texture to the sausage.
Traditional frankfurters often seem to melt in the mouth, without much of a longer lasting taste, but not the HECK! Chickfurters, whose taste and flavour seemed to linger for that little bit longer, allowing you to really enjoy the savoury taste.
The texture and taste of the sausages, back up the claim that the chickfurters will be the only chicken frankfurter made purely of chicken breast, rather than mechanically reclaimed meat, that goes into some of the other chicken frankfurters on the market.
Overall, we as a family were pretty impressed by the sausages and would certainly consider buying them, either as an alternative to the traditional hot dog or the good old British banger.
Our local Morrisons have them priced at £3.15 for a 320g pack, although there weren’t many packs left when we were shopping!
So if you do fancy a change in sausage, then they could well be worth a punt for Bonfire Night especially if you’re having a family get together to enjoy the fireworks.