Chorizo

[uncleshorty]

This is my recipe for Mexican Chorizo.  I use it for breakfast tacos. 

Take tacos out on the ice in a towel lined lunch box sized cooler w/ two mason jars of boiling water as a heat source.*

Last time I went to buy "industrial" chorizo I saw it was made with lips, snouts and LYMPH NODES.

No more of that s**t for me...

MUY BUENO CHORIZO

1 lb ground pork
1 tsp ground cumin seed
1 tsp ground coriander seed
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp Mexican oregano - may use Italian
1/2 tsp ground thyme
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 Tblsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar (can substitute with red wine vinegar)

Adjust spices to your taste.  Mix everything together. refrigerate over night.  Don't link this sausage.  It's bulk sausage.

Fry it up with some onions, green peppers, taters & eggs.  Heat a FLOUR tortilla.  Scoop some of the mix on to the tortilla and add the cheese of your choice.  Serve w/ good salsa or homemade pico de gallo.  Roll 'em up and enjoy... 

* After breakfast ya got hot water for a coffee press.

[Iceassin]

Sounds good and easy. Pretty sure it will be part of my breakfast fare this winter. Thanks for sharing.

[Buckshots]

Sounds good but... where are the pictures?

[meandcuznalfy]

Nice, may have to make some.

[IDbasser]

I'm gonna try this with some ground deer

[Niz]

Sounds good but... where are the pictures?

 

[uncleshorty]

IDbasser:

I use 50% venison and 50 % ground fatty pork shoulder.

I tried it one time with straight venison.  Very dry & tasteless.

Luckily we were at huntin' camp so we took turns.  I'd hold a gun on Cletus and make him take a bite.  Then he'd hold the gun on me...

Seriously, 100% venison is a no-go...

[IDbasser]

Thanks for the advice

[IDbasser]

I made some last night after grinding the deer with a higher fat percentage.  Turned out good.  I'm gonna fix a breakfast burrito in the morning

[uncleshorty]

What time we eatin'?  I'll be over...

[IDbasser]

I think I was eating while you were posting this morning.  Turned out really good

[uncleshorty]

Glad ya enjoyed it. 

[esox_xtm]

Oh good! I get to resurrect another zombie thread... 

Ok Unc, I finally got around to it. Had a 6# lump of nice ground pork left over from summer sausage making and thought it was time to make me some more fresh pork sausage. Done that for ages. Far better than anything store bought. 6# is a good amount and I often find myself experimenting with some of it and this recipe (above) came to mind.

My sole experience with chorizo was some crappy slime in a plastic tube that had enough grease in to pack the wheel bearings of a Peterbilt. I vowed never again BUT I DO like Mexican and I DO like spicy so's I took a swing with a coupla pounds.

First, wholly moley! That's a ton of seasonings for a relatively small amount of meat. When I mixed it into the meat everything really, really dried up. Then I got a gander at the liquid amount and did a double take. We mix in a cup of water into a 25# batch of summer sausage and it gets pretty slick. For my 2# it was 1/4 cup + 2 TBs, over 6 times what goes in our big batch! And then... vinegar? It's the recipe, roll with it.

Well it wasn't too much liquid, just right to hydrate all that dry seasoning. And the vinegar flavor? A very interesting, complementary flavor in the finished product. So let it sit over night and wait for breakfast. Fried some up with onion and habaneros, mixed in some eggs and sharp cheddar and piled it all into some tortillas. I DID sample the plain sausage before adding anything because I wanted to see. Surprisingly not oexcessive with flavor despite everything that went into it and very (very) tasty. It was so good, if you took a bite and closed your eyes, you could literally smell the creosote mingling with the sewage in the morning breeze 

I give this a "two thumbs up" and a tip 'o the hat for a quality share! Thanks Unc!

[ira-akrfc]

I'm going to try this today.

Curious about the water you added, esox. I don't see that in the original recipe. How did you come up with the 1/4 C + 2tbsp?

[Rebelss]

Be a long time before Mike's back on line. He came up with that 'cuz he's a chef. A danged honest-to -goodness one. He just ran it thru his chef's brain and knew.....

[meandcuznalfy]

I'm going to try this today.

Curious about the water you added, esox. I don't see that in the original recipe. How did you come up with the 1/4 C + 2tbsp?

He just portioned it out of a bigger batch, need a bit of moisture or your sausage will be dry, I know cause I omitted this step once

[Walted]

Can't wait to try this. I love chorizo but everytime I buy it in the grocery store it just cooks into greasy slop. Not sure what I am doing wrong.

[Rebelss]

Can't wait to try this. I love chorizo but everytime I buy it in the grocery store it just cooks into greasy slop. Not sure what I am doing wrong.

Nothing. Chorizo is super greasy. Fat needs to be drained while cooking, it'll get worse if ya finish cooking in the grease.  I then dump it on a couple layers of papers towels. Kinda like cooking a lot of bacon; same thing.

[Walted]

Nothing. Chorizo is super greasy. Fat needs to be drained while cooking, it'll get worse if ya finish cooking in the grease.  I then dump it on a couple layers of papers towels. Kinda like cooking a lot of bacon; same thing.

Thanks for the tips! I'll give that a shot.

[esox_xtm]

Good morning! Reading over my comment above and the following comments it's clear I was not very clear on my procedure.

Follow Unc's recipe to the letter. NO EXTRA WATER. For a 1# recipe the dry ingredients are a little over a quarter cup of seasonings. That's a lot of dry flavor for one pound of meat. The vinegar (3 Tbsp) is a LOT of liquid for that same pound of meat. THAT is what was over 6 times the amount of liquid we add to our summer sausage for proper seasoning dispersal and protein development, but it is needed to hydrate that much seasoning. My apologies for the confusion.

As I made it (to the recipe) it came out great. Far as being greasy? If you use good ground pork, no leaner than 80%, you'll be lucky to have any grease in the pan worry about. And yes, as Unc noted, you NEED some fat in the recipe otherwise the flavors don't carry well and it's dry as Northwoods pothole in August.

Coincidentally had some for breakfast this morning! Great stuff!