As we were sampling the tasty dishes at F&W, we came across the Spicy Chicken Sausage with sweet corn polenta in Canada. It was really good, and had a topping that was sweet, sort of maple-y, with a little bourbon flavor, and red bell peppers and onions. A lot of us really liked it (and many other dishes) so Mike and I bought the cookbook for this year. I was flipping through it on Monday night, since I was going to try to make the sausage dish for dinner on Tues, and I realized, "It's not the same." The dish in the cookbook adds maple syrup, fresh corn, and onions to the polenta, but it doesn't give you the sauce/topping. Well, at first I was a little mad (think

), but then I realized, "I can cook. I tasted the dish. I can recreate it." So I did.
I bought Aidelle's chicken sausage with apples (since I do not have the time to make my own chicken sausages-Tom Colicchio can bite me), an onion, and a red bell pepper.
I started off by julienning the 1/2 of the pepper and 1/2 the onion. While the veggies were on the cutting board I added salt, freshly ground black pepper, crushed red pepper, and cayenne pepper to them. Then I tossed them into the heatedskillet, where I had just added about 1 tbs of olive oil. I let them soften, then I added 3/4 cup water. While that was reducing, I started the polenta: 2 cups milk, 2 cups water, 1 tsp kosher salt in a pot, on high (until boiling). While that was heating, I added 1/4 cup maple syrup (I just used the pancake syrup we had on hand) 1/4 cup water, and a little less than 1/4 cup bourbon. Stir, add a little more salt, and let it reduce. When the milk/water boils, gradually add 1 cup ground cornmeal and stir constantly. When I added the polenta, I slipped the sausages in the oven, on BROIL (turn once after about 6 min). The polenta was ready after 11 min of stirring. I pulled the sausages out of the oven, threw them on top of the polenta, topped with the sauce and served. Quick, easy, and tasted just like Epcot.

I tasted the sauce a couple of times to make sure it was spicy enough, sweet enough, etc. The kids loved it too.
It took 27 min start to finish.
