How to Make Mexican Chorizo

A tutorial that shows you how to turn ground pork into chorizo with some fairly common spices.

When I lived in Houston, TX there were a ton of small, family owned Mexican grocery stores. Chorizo was so easy to find as well as dried chilies, and pre-marinated fajita meat. Now that I live in Hawaii, Mexican groceries are harder to find but I have Chinatown with new flavors and foods to explore. While I love experimenting with new food sometimes I like to revisit old comforting food and recipes. So when I wanted to make a dish that needed chorizo I set out to figure out how to turn ground pork (easily found in Chinatown) into chorizo. I found this recipe and was happy to note I had all the spices I needed.

Turn ground pork into chorizo [Tweet this]

What better recipe to repost for Cinco de Mayo. I hope this inspires you to try making your own chorizo.

Mexican Chorizo

Ingredients:
(recipe from Honest Cooking: Authentic Homemade Mexican Chorizo)

1 pound ground pork
1 Tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/8 tsp ground cloves
2 bay leaves, crushed
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 Tbsp dried minced garlic
1 tsp sea salt (coarse salt)
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 Tbsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne
3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

Place the ground pork in a large bowl while you combine the spices. You can use 2 Tbsp Ancho chile powder in place of the paprika and cayenne, but I did not have Ancho chile powder.

Sprinkle the spice mix on top of the ground pork and pour in the vinegar. Then get your hands in there and mix until all the spices are evenly incorporated. I keep latex gloves in my kitchen for activities like this so I don't make too much of a mess with porky paws (they're also are handy when cutting up hot peppers).

#Kitchentip use gloves to avoid porky paws [Tweet this]

Now you have chorizo. Refrigerate overnight to allow the flavors to meld or wrap and freeze. I separated half out to freeze and used half in my Black Beans and Rice.

If freezing separate into whatever size portion you like (this is 1/2 pound), wrap in plastic wrap and put in a zipper bag. Just thaw and use when ready. I plan to use my frozen 1/2 pound in Taco Salad.

Enjoy.

Repost of origial from 9/16/13 added new cover pic, 'check out' pics/links, click to tweet, minor editing.

For recipes using chorizo check out: