Chicken Italian Sausage and Cheddar Cheese Muffins

These came up as a lark while I was flipping through my favorite cookbook in the world, the Way I Cook by Lee Bailey. His recipe is for ham and cheese muffins with options for sausage and bacon muffins. I chose to go with what I had sitting in the fridge - Italian chicken sausage from the Fresh Market - and some cheddar cheese from the Walgreen's a block away. I also used white whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour so I had to increase the amount of liquid I used from the base recipe.

So then, I present Chicken Italian Sausage and Cheddar Cheese Muffins:


Ingredients

• 2 cups white whole wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
• 1 1/2 cup buttermilk at room temperature
• 1 egg at room temperature
  
• 2/3 cup canola oil
• 8 oz chicken Italian sausage (about two links)
• 1 1/4 cup sharp cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
   
2. Lightly grease a silicone muffin pan or lightly grease and flour a metal one.
   
3. Sift together flour, salt and baking powder, set aside.
   
4. Remove sausage from casing and cook in a deep saucepan. Heat until thoroughly cooked and then set aside on a plate to drain and cool.
   
5. In another bowl whisk together buttermilk, egg and oil.
6. Mix dry ingredients into egg mixture then fold in sausage and cheese.
7. Fill muffin tins and slightly round off tops of muffins.
8. Place pan in oven and reduce heat to 400 degrees. Cook for 20 minutes or until tops are golden brown.

Makes 12 muffins

These muffins are made of awesome and win. I think that they would be marvelous with some sautéed onions or even some onion or garlic powder mixed into the batter. I will be experimenting further and will post the results gleefully.