Curly-Q Grilled Sausages

By Coldsnap46

"Giving a sausage a cool, coiled shape isn't just fun or frivolous; it's also fully functional. The extra surface area picks up additional delicious smoky, caramelized flavors from the grill. You could brush barbecue sauce on an un-helixed Italian sausage, but here you're literally flavoring the sausage inside and out. I served them on buns with homemade basil-garlic mayonnaise." --Chef John

Ingredients

• 2 (3.5 ounce) links Italian sausage
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 metal skewers
• 1 tablespoon barbeque sauce, or to taste

Details

Servings 2
Preparation time 10mins
Cooking time 85mins
Adapted from allrecipes.com

Preparation

Step 1

Place sausages into a skillet over medium heat and pour in water. Add a large pinch of salt to the water and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook for about 3 minutes per side.

Remove sausages from pan and let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate until cold, at least 1 hour. Insert a metal skewer the long way through each cooled sausage.

Preheat an outdoor grill for medium-high heat and lightly oil the grate. Pour barbeque sauce into a small bowl.

Place a sausage on a work surface and start making a knife cut about 3/4 inch from the end, holding the knife blade at a slight angle and cutting down to the skewer. Slowly rotate the sausage and continue cutting in a spiral until sausage is cut to about 1 inch from the other end. Gently spread the sausage apart on the skewer to create about 1/2 inch of space between the curls.

Place sausages onto the preheated grill and cook until browned and meat is no longer pink inside, about 6 minutes; turn occasionally.

Brush sausages with barbeque sauce using a pastry brush when sausages are nearly done. Cook, continuing to turn sausages, until sauce has caramelized onto the meat, about 1 minute per side. Transfer to a plate and let sausages cool for about 30 seconds before removing skewers for serving.

Tips from website:
1) Original recipe makes 2 grilled sausages but can be scaled according to your needs.
2) Sausage must be cold before slicing! (can be pre-cooked the day before).
3) Don't apply sauce until the last few minutes of cooking.

Note: EXCELLENT Prep video for this recipe on website. Helpful tips/suggestions from reviews of this recipe available on website.