The variance in quality in store bought is pretty vast. I don’t think we eat it enough for me to make it myself at least yet. Some brands are too salty, some are super greasy and some are more like taco meat than chorizo flavor.
What do you buy that tastes halfway decent? Or should I really invest the effort in a making my own chorizo? If so, recipe?
Ahh so Mexican chorizo fresco. Store bought its hard to beat calcique brand. I can also share a recipe if you want to make your own. This goes well with eggs, potatoes, in refried beans, or queso.
John "JR"
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The stuff that comes in a plastic wrapped chub is usually salivary glands and such. I like the head-to-tail idea in general...but not here. Look for chorizo "bulk" packaged like hamburger and that costs $5+ per pound. OTOH, buy fresh pork sausage--even Jimmy Dean--and mix in the spices yourself; it's quick and easy. ;-)
Last edited by Willy; December 16, 2023, 08:42 PM.
When I met my Chicana wife in San Diego I refused to eat chorizo because the words "salivary glands" appeared on the package. After traveling around the world during the last 40 years, I don't sweat it. I've eaten a whole lot worse than a few glands.
Don’t buy shrink wrapped, brand name chorizo. Find a Mexican grocery store or butcher shop and buy real fresh chorizo.
they freeze pretty well, so I usually buy a dozen or more links at a time freeze on a tray or sheet until frozen through and then move to a plastic bag so you can take out individual links as needed.
This is a good idea. I found a local Mexican grocery to buy dried peppers for maybe 1/4 the price they are on Amazon, and much better quality. I've not looked at their meat. I couldn't speak the language and just asked a guy stocking shelves for "chiles". He walked me to a section in a corner that had 20 feet of wall devoted to dried peppers of all sorts. The ladies at the checkout didn't seem to speak Ingles either...
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We use chorizo in place of hamburger for just about everything. Adds a nice hint of spice. My wife even uses it for spaghetti and it comes out fantastic.
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We've seldom used store bought chorizo for years. The Marianski's web site has at least 10 different chorizo recipes of which we've tried several. Most have a distinct predominant flavor: Cuban-cilantro; Puerto Rican-Oregano; Mexican-Cayenne (hot); Aromatico-Complex. If you look through, you can pick ones that look like a flavor profile you might like. Easy enough to make small "test" batches using ground beef or pork from the grocery store. (We don't usually stuff our fresh chorizo).
Detailed sausage recipes and instructions are provided for making different types of sausages. The recipes cover the production of fresh sausages, smoked sausages, salamis, fermented sausages, liver and blood sausages, and hams.
Bkhuna - They also have a recipe for chorizo verde.
"Charcuterie" by Ruhlman and Polcyn has a great recipe that I've made several times. Flavorful, spicy, all pork shoulder, no glands. (@Bkhuna it Includes vinegar.)
Thank you for all of the ideas. We do have an excellent Mexican grocery nearby that I have sadly not been in for a while so I think this is a good chance to hit them up and grab some killer avacado salsa with cilantro while I am there. If the chorizo there does not pass muster, I will see about some of the other brands mentioned.
I’d like to make my own and the meat and sausage website is my go to but I just don’t think we eat enough to make it worthwhile.
The stuff that comes in a plastic wrapped chub is usually salivary glands and such. I like the head-to-tail idea in general...but not here. Look for chorizo "bulk" packaged like hamburger and that costs $5+ per pound. OTOH, buy fresh pork sausage--even Jimmy Dean--and mix in the spices yourself; it's quick and easy. ;-)
OK, I just puked in my mouth a bit when I read the "salivary glands" line.
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