Red Chorizo
Making a lot of chorizo at a time and freezing it is one of my favorite kitchen tricks. I can cut off a small piece to flavor any dish and I save so much money and time by not having to go to the store and buy the pre-made 8oz portions of chorizo.
I primarily use two chorizo recipes - a darker, robust Oaxacan chorizo and a classic red chorizo. This recipe is the latter, and by far the easier one to make without compromising flavor. It tastes like what you expect chorizo to taste like, and punches up anything it is added to.
As is the case for many Mexican households, I don’t make “links” with chorizo, as you might see hanging from stalls in the markets in Mexico. I opt to freeze in several smaller airtight bags, cutting on however much I need at a time.
Typically chorizo recipes use ground pork, but I prefer beef. In my (potentially controversial) opinion, the flavor is richer and it’s closer to what I grew up eating.
25 guajillo chiles, stemmed, de-seeded, de-veined
20 garlic cloves, skin on
1 Tbl black peppercorns
1 Tbl coriander seed
1 3-inch stick of Mexican cinnamon
3 Tbl dried Mexican oregano
2 dried bay leaf
2 whole clove
3/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup kosher salt
2 Tbl sugar
3 pounds ground pork or beef
In a large cast-iron skillet over medium heat, add chiles and toast, turning occasionally for about 30 seconds. Remove chiles from pan and transfer to a bowl, cover with very hot tap water, and set a heavy plate on top to keep chiles submerged for 30 minutes.
In the same pan on medium heat, add unpeeled garlic to pan and roast, turning occasionally until blackened in spots, about 5 minutes. Remove garlic from pan and let cool slightly. Peel cloves and discard skins. Add toasted garlic to blender.
In the same pan on medium heat, toast peppercorns, coriander, cinnamon, oregano, bay, and clove until fragrant, about 20 seconds. Remove from heat and add toasted spices to blender.
Transfer rehydrated chiles to blender, along with vinegar, salt, and sugar. Puree on high until completely smooth. If needed, add chile soaking liquid to release blades.
The chile mixture will still be quite warm, so transfer mixture to another container and let cool in the refrigerator until cold. If you add the hot mixture to your ground meat, the mixture can start cooking the meat and warm up the fat, resulting in an overworked or greasy-looking chorizo.
Place ground meat in a large bowl and add cooled chile mixture to meat. Mix chorizo with your hands until thoroughly combined.
I like to keep chorizo mixture in the refrigerator overnight to let flavors meld before transfering to smaller bags and freezing. You could skip this step.
Pro tip on freezing: add enough chorizo to bags so that you can flatten it out to ~1/2” thick. Freeze portioned chorizo flat so that you’re able to easily break up pieces and thaw quickly as needed.