Venison Nacho Sausage Balls

It’s hard to beat a sausage ball as an appetizer or snack. Not really a meatball in the traditional sense, sausage balls incorporate a bit of starchy goodness to change the texture to something of a meat / bread combination.

Sausage balls have been a prime party snack and appetizer choice for just about as long as there has been sausage. All images by author.

A good sausage ball needs a few things: Good meat, good seasoning, and a good binder. Binders can be things such as cracker crumbs, bread crumbs, or finely grated cheese.

The binder in a good sausage ball transforms the meat into a meat/bread combination full of cheesy goodness.

But what if we use a binder that also offers up a kick of extra flavor? For this recipe, I used Nacho Cheese flavored Doritos that I ran through the food processor to give them a finer texture.

For extra flavor, try finely processed nacho cheese chips as one of the binders.

For the meat, I used a mix of venison that I had ground with some bacon at an 80/20 ratio, and an equal amount of pork chorizo sausage. To hold everything together, I used an all purpose baking mix. Finish it off with plenty of shredded cheese, cheddar or a blend of your favorites, and you have the makings of a fine sausage ball.

Blend the ground venison and chorizo sausage with the other ingredients.

Start by processing the chips. If you don’t have a food processor handy, add the chips to a zip style plastic bag and crush them into a fine powder with a mallet or rolling pin. Add the venison and sausage to a large bowl. Pour in the crushed chips, shredded cheese, baking mix and taco seasoning. You will need a little moisture to get it mixed. For extra flavor, I went with thin salsa. Blend everything well by hand or with a stand mixer.

Once all the ingredients are well incorporated, roll into 1.5 inch balls, about the size of a golfball. Place the balls on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and transfer to a 350 degree oven.

Form the mixture into balls and place on a parchment lined sheet pan to make clean up easier.

Bake for 15 minutes or until just cooked through. While the sausage balls cook, mix the dipping sauce ingredients. Serve warm with sauce.

While the sausage balls bake, make the dipping sauce.

While they bake, mix the dipping sauce by blending sour cream, salsa and taco seasoning to taste.