This homemade chicken heart salami turns two pounds of chicken hearts into sliceable, fully cooked logs for Full GAPS. Bacon supplies fat, mushrooms help move the meat through the grinder, and a measured blend of basil, oregano, garlic, onion, black pepper, fennel, and sea salt gives the chilled slices a familiar salami-style flavor without sugar, starch, casing, or commercial curing agents.
This is not fermented or dry-cured salami. The seasoned ground mixture rests covered in the refrigerator for 24 hours, then bakes at 250°F for four hours. After cooling and thorough chilling, the logs firm enough to slice thinly for snacks, lunch plates, or a simple protein tray.
In a household of eight, a recipe that uses the whole two-pound package at once is easier than setting half aside without a plan. The long refrigerator rest and low oven do most of the work. The hands-on part is grinding, mixing, and shaping the logs evenly so they cook at the same rate.
What Makes This Salami-Style Rather Than Dry-Cured
Traditional dry-cured salami follows a different process with casing, controlled curing conditions, and extended drying. This recipe does none of those things. It is a cooked chicken-heart loaf shaped into small logs, chilled, and sliced in the style of salami.
That distinction matters in the kitchen. The 24-hour refrigerator rest lets the salt and spices distribute through the ground mixture, but it does not make the raw meat ready to eat. The full four-hour bake is part of the formula.
The finished texture should be firm and fine-grained. Expect a deep savory flavor from the hearts, gentle richness from the bacon, and small earthy notes from the mushrooms. Crushed fennel gives the slices their most recognizable sausage aroma.
Where Chicken Heart Salami Fits On Full GAPS
This is a Full GAPS recipe for someone who has already introduced and tolerated organ meat, pork, mushrooms, garlic, onion, herbs, and spices. It is not an Introduction Diet recipe. The baked, seasoned, sliceable format belongs after the simpler foods of Intro.
Use properly prepared additive-free uncured bacon with no sugar, starch, chemical curing agents, nitrate, nitrite, liquid smoke, or other non-GAPS ingredients. “Nitrate-free” on the front of a package is not the whole ingredient check; the full label still needs to match the current bacon ruling.
The dried basil, oregano, garlic powder, and onion powder should also be plain and additive-free. Avoid seasoning blends that include starch, maltodextrin, sugar, flavoring, or anti-caking ingredients not supported by the recipe.
Prepare The Hearts And Bacon For Grinding
Keep the chicken hearts and bacon cold while you set up the grinder or food processor. Trim away any large tough vessels or excess connective tissue from the hearts, then cut any oversized pieces small enough to feed into the equipment without forcing them.
Cut six ounces of the prepared bacon into grinder-sized strips or processor-sized pieces. Quarter the four mushrooms. Keep two mushrooms for the end of the first grind and two for the end of the second.
Measure every seasoning before grinding. Once the meat is ground, it is easier to mix promptly and return it to the refrigerator than to stop with the bowl warming on the counter.
Grind Twice For A Fine, Sliceable Texture
Feed the chicken hearts through the grinder, followed by the bacon. Push two mushrooms through last so they carry the remaining meat out of the grinder path. If using a food processor, pulse in batches and stop while the meat still looks finely ground rather than whipped into paste.
Mix the first grind briefly, then pass it through the grinder a second time. Use the final two mushrooms at the end to clear the remaining meat. The twice-ground mixture should look cohesive and evenly marbled, with no large chunks of heart, bacon, or mushroom.
Keep the bowl cold. If the bacon fat begins smearing heavily along the sides or the mixture feels warm and loose, cover and chill it before adding the seasonings.
The aroma at this stage should be clean and meaty, with the mushrooms adding an earthy note. Sour, sharply fermented, or otherwise unpleasant odors are not part of this cooked formula. The mixture will darken during the long bake, so judge the raw grind by its evenness and temperature rather than expecting the finished salami color before it goes into the oven.
Season The Mixture Evenly
Add 1/2 teaspoon dried basil, 2 teaspoons natural sea salt, 3/4 teaspoon black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, 1/2 teaspoon additive-free garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon additive-free onion powder, and 1 teaspoon crushed fennel seed.
Mix until the spices no longer sit in streaks or pockets. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl as you work. The mixture should become uniformly speckled with herbs and fennel and should feel tacky enough to hold together when pressed.
Transfer it to a covered nonreactive bowl and refrigerate for 24 hours. Keep the bowl covered for the entire rest so the surface does not dry while the center remains soft.
Shape Small Logs That Cook Evenly
After the refrigerator rest, heat the oven to 250°F. Line a rimmed stainless sheet pan with parchment. Divide the cold mixture into small, evenly sized portions and shape each into a compact meatloaf-style log.
Press out deep cracks and keep the logs similar in thickness from end to end. Thin tapered ends dry sooner than the centers, while one oversized log takes longer to cook through than the rest of the batch.
Space the logs apart so warm air can circulate around them. They should be fully supported by the parchment and sheet pan, with no part hanging over the rim.
Before baking, each log should feel compact and tacky rather than wet. If one slumps immediately or leaves liquid on the parchment, chill the shaped batch again before it goes into the oven. Keeping the logs cold and evenly shaped protects the fine texture created by the second grind.
Bake Low And Slow For Four Hours
Bake at 250°F for four hours. The logs will darken, release some fat, and become noticeably firmer. At the end of the bake, the exterior should be set and browned rather than soft or glossy, and the center should be fully cooked with no raw, wet section.
Move the pan to a heat-safe surface and let the logs cool for about one hour. They will still be too soft for clean slices while warm. Transfer them to a covered container and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.
A sharp knife should pass through a cold log without crushing it. The slice should hold together with a fine, even interior and visible herb specks.
Serving And Storage
Slice the chilled logs thinly and serve them as you would salami: alongside raw or cooked Full GAPS vegetables, on a lunch plate, or as a compact protein snack. Keep the unsliced logs covered and refrigerated, and return sliced portions to the refrigerator promptly.
Freeze extra logs only after they are fully cooked and thoroughly chilled. Wrap them separately so one log can thaw in the refrigerator without exposing the rest of the batch.
For another organ-meat option, Rosemary Liver Pâté With Cultured Crème Fraîche uses a separate spreadable formula. Crispy Beef Tongue for Full GAPS offers a different sliced-meat texture.
The upcoming Whole-Animal Buying & Cut Sheet Guide is the most relevant WFLI catalog companion for families trying to use more of an animal without losing track of unfamiliar cuts. It will be available through the WFLI shop.
Recommended Equipment
Use a stand-mixer food-grinder attachment or food processor, two chilled nonreactive mixing bowls with lids, a kitchen scale for the bacon, measuring spoons, a flexible spatula, parchment paper, rimmed stainless sheet pan, cooling rack, covered refrigerator container, and a sharp slicing knife.
A grinder produces the most even fine texture because the mixture passes through twice. A food processor can work in small batches, but pulse briefly and keep the meat cold so the bacon fat stays distributed instead of smearing into a warm paste.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is This Fermented Salami?
No. It is a fully cooked, salami-style chicken-heart log. The covered 24-hour refrigerator rest seasons the mixture; the four-hour oven bake cooks it.
Can I Skip The Bacon?
The six ounces of bacon are part of the measured source formula and supply fat as well as flavor. Removing it would create a different, untested formula.
What Kind Of Bacon Fits This Recipe?
Use properly prepared additive-free uncured bacon with no sugar, nitrate, nitrite, chemical curing agent, liquid smoke, starch, or other non-GAPS ingredient.
Why Are Mushrooms Put Through The Grinder Last?
The mushrooms help move the remaining meat out of the grinder path. Two go through after the first grind and the final two after the second grind, so all four remain part of the finished mixture.
Why Grind The Mixture Twice?
The second grind creates the fine, cohesive interior that allows the thoroughly chilled logs to slice cleanly. One coarse pass leaves larger pieces and a looser slice.
Why Does The Mixture Rest For 24 Hours?
The covered refrigerator rest gives the salt, fennel, garlic, onion, oregano, basil, and pepper time to distribute through the ground meat before shaping and baking.
How Do I Know The Logs Are Ready To Slice?
They need the full four-hour bake, about one hour of cooling, and thorough refrigerator chilling. A cold log should feel firm, and a sharp knife should cut a slice that holds together without a raw or wet center.
Homemade Chicken Heart Salami Recipe
Homemade Chicken Heart Salami for Full GAPS
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Keep the hearts and bacon cold. Trim large tough vessels or connective tissue from the hearts and cut the hearts, bacon, and mushrooms into pieces that fit the grinder or processor.
- Grind the chicken hearts, then the bacon. Feed 2 mushrooms through last to move the remaining meat out of the grinder path.
- Mix briefly and grind the mixture a second time, feeding the remaining 2 mushrooms through last. The mixture should be fine, cohesive, and evenly marbled without large chunks.
- Add the basil, sea salt, black pepper, oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, and crushed fennel seed. Mix until evenly speckled with no pockets of seasoning.
- Cover in a nonreactive bowl and refrigerate for 24 hours.
- Heat the oven to 250°F. Line a rimmed stainless sheet pan with parchment. Divide the cold mixture into small, evenly sized meatloaf-style logs, press out deep cracks, and space them apart.
- Bake for 4 hours, until the logs are set and browned outside and fully cooked through with no raw, wet center.
- Cool for about 1 hour, then refrigerate in a covered container until thoroughly chilled.
- Slice the cold logs thinly with a sharp knife and serve as salami-style slices.
Notes
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