Grilled Sausage Stuffed Chicken Thighs Recipe

Stuff You Need:

• ~3/4 lb Italian Sausage
• 6 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs

Seasoning

You can use whatever you see fit, this is just what I used.

• 1 tbsp Diamond Crystal Kosher salt (or 1/2 tbsp table salt)
• 1/2 tsp granulated garlic
• 1/2 tsp granulated onion
• 1/2 tsp ground mustard
• 1 tsp paprika
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Take Chicken Thighs and Remove the Bone + “Knuckle”

The knuckle is a piece of cartilage and it won’t render and will be chewy, after you remove the bone, look for this remove and slice it off.

Take the Thighs and Put into a Large Mixing Bowl.

Add all the spices, add your 2 tbsp of olive oil and mix thoroughly, massaging it into the meat.

You’re just trying to ensure even coverage.

Stuff the Chicken Thighs with the Sausage

You’ll have to use discretion here as not all chicken thighs are the same size.

Take a portion and flatten it onto the thighs, ~1 tbsp is a good place to start.

Repeat this for all 6 thighs.

For 6 thighs I used ~3/4 lb of italian sausage.

Wrap the Thighs Around the Sausage and then Tie with Butcher’s Twine

You also want to take the skin and wrap it around the meat as much as possible – forming a “pillow” – pictured above.

Take your twine and wrap the thighs tight and knot it – like you’re wrapping a gift.

This twine just keeps things “whole” and helps hold the sausage in place.

Set Your Grill to ~385-400F

I used my Pellet grill and since I know where the “hotter” spots are – I put the bigger pieces, closer to those zones.

Allow these to grill for ~1 hour or until the internal is ~200F.

The reason we can push the internal so high is because Chicken thighs are dark meat and are rife with collagen. Cooking to that temperature allows the collagen to tenderize and gelatinize.

The sausage inside also helps add moisture and we render more of the skin fat – making it crispy.

Once at 200F+, take off the allow to rest for ~10 minutes. Then enjoy!

Grilled Sausage Stuffed Chicken Thighs

This is just another way to grill chicken thighs – ballotine style – only just with sausage. You get crispy skin, tender meat, followed by a moist, savory sausage.

Rate Pin Print

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour

Rest Time: 10 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 40 minutes minutes

Ingredients

• ▢ ~3/4 lb Italian Sausage
• ▢ 6 whole bone-in skin-on chicken thighs

Rub

• ▢ 1 tbsp Diamond Crystal Kosher salt or 1/2 tbsp table salt
• ▢ 1/2 tsp granulated garlic
• ▢ 1/2 tsp granulated onion
• ▢ 1/2 tsp ground mustard
• ▢ 1 tsp paprika
• ▢ 2 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

• Take whole chicken thighs and de-bone and remove cartilage. Leave the skin on and whole.
• Place thighs in mixing bowl and add salt, garlic, onion, mustard, paprika, and olive oil. Mix thoroughly.
• Flatten 1 tbsp Italian sausage onto each thigh.
• Wrap thighs around sausage, pulling skin tightly to cover meat.
• Tie thighs with butcher’s twine to secure filling.
• Grill at ~385-400F for 1 hour or until chicken thigh internal temperature reaches 200F. Sausage should be ~165F.
• Remove from grill and rest 10 minutes before serving.

Notes

This takes me ~10 minutes to prep. but assuming you’ve never deboned a chicken thigh or twined meat, it might take ~30 minutes for 6 thighs.