Smoked Kielbasa

Name: Smoked Kielbasa
Total time: 2 h
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Polish
Ingredients: Lean pork shoulder; Chicken breast; Garlic; Black pepper; Dried marjoram; Salt; Ice-cold water

213 kcal a serving, against 363 for the traditional version. That is 150 kcal off, or 41%, with 32.1g of protein. Serves 6. 1 day to cure, 2 hours to smoke.

What the traditional version is

Classic Polish smoked sausage made with fatty pork shoulder, salt, garlic, black pepper and marjoram, hand-stuffed into natural casings, air dried for a day and hot smoked over hardwood.

What changed, and what each change costs

Substitute half the fatty pork shoulder with skinless chicken breast

Pork shoulder's the soul of the thing, but the fat's doing a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to flavour and moisture. Chicken brings pure protein without extra fat, so you keep the structure and most of the bite. The seasoning's strong enough you won't feel too cheated, as long as you're not comparing side by side.

What it costs you. You're losing the juicy melt when you bite in. It's firmer, much less rich, and no one's going to confuse it for the stuff from the Polish deli on the high street. The snap's gone, but it's still got backbone.

Reduce salt slightly and keep seasoning strong

You can get away with a touch less salt when there's less fat soaking it up, but don't hold back on garlic and pepper. If the flavour's weak, it's just a sad chicken sausage and you're better off with chicken soup.

What it costs you. The seasoned crust on the outside isn't quite as punchy and the inside will never be as full flavoured. It's sausage, but it's not party food.

Shorten drying time to keep it tender

Traditional kielbasa dries 24 hours or more before smoking to toughen it and deepen the flavours. With leaner meat, it'll dry out fast and can end up close to bouncy rubber if you follow the classic route. A shorter cure means it hangs onto some tenderness, even if the outside doesn't crisp up the same.

What it costs you. The classic wrinkled skin and deep red colour suffer. It looks a bit pale and it's softer, but if you want the classic look, you have to take the classic calories.

What goes in it

The ingredients, without the quantities. The weights are what the figures below are computed from, and they are in the book.

Lean pork shoulder
Chicken breast
Garlic
Black pepper
Dried marjoram
Salt
Ice-cold water

How it starts

Cube the pork shoulder and chicken breast, then chill them in the freezer for 20 minutes - you want them firm, not frozen.
Mince both meats together through the coarse plate of your mincer.
Sprinkle on the salt, garlic, black pepper and marjoram, then add the ice-cold water.

The rest of the method, and every weight, is in Authentic-ish Polish.

The numbers

Per serving	Traditional	Lightened
Calories	363	213
Protein	26.2g	32.1g
Fat	27.1g	7.5g
Saturated fat	9.4g	2.3g
Carbohydrate	2.1g	2.8g
Protein per 100 kcal	7.2g	15g

Every figure is computed from the recipe's own weighed ingredient list against public food composition databases. The appendix in Authentic-ish Polish prints the exact database row used for each ingredient, so any number here can be checked. How every number is computed sets out the method.

The method is in the book

If you grew up on smoked kielbasa, don't expect a revelation. You're trading fat for function and the snap is the first thing to go. But the smoke, garlic and marjoram do a lot of good, and this is still proper sausage by any reasonable standard. The chicken doesn't get in the way and the pork's still doing the heavy lifting, even if it's on a diet. If you're after that greasy, crackling casing and a puddle of fat on your plate, you'll miss it here. But if you want Polish sausage you can eat for lunch and not need a nap, this is as close as you'll get without just eating a chicken breast and thinking sad thoughts.

The quantities and the method for this dish are in Authentic-ish Polish, along with 53 more. Buy the paperback