Homemade Mexican Chorizo

This recipe for Homemade Mexican Chorizo is a lovely combination of ground pork and spices. Not the same as most of the packaged chorizo, made from lymph nodes and such. YUCK! This recipe is so easy to make you won't ever have to buy pre-made again. And it freezes beautifully, so you will always have some waiting for you to create your next best dish

The making of Homemade Mexican Chorizo

How does one make Homemade Mexican Chorizo look pretty in a picture? Well, you really can't. It's just a big ball of red meat. But you can make pretty pictures (well, mostly pretty) with what deliciousness you can make with your own homemade Mexican chorizo.

Like this beautiful and elegant Mexican Eggs Benedict or

This recipe for a simple Chorizo and Eggs with Crispy Tortilla.

So easy to put together once you have your homemade chorizo.

I've eaten chorizo and eggs since I was a little girl. We would pull that tube of Mexican chorizo out of the refrigerator, sauté in a pan until it dissolved into nothing but fatty flavor, add some scrambled eggs that would turn red from the spices, mix it up and serve it up with warm tortillas. I loved the spiciness of the eggs.

Then one day I read the ingredients.

Glands and nodes and lips...oh my. Stuff I would think would go better into dog food or the trash. No wonder the stuff melted into nothing, it was made from fatty glands.

Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Because once you know the truth, you might have to change your ways.

So I went in search of meat markets that made their own, fresh, chorizo - which in the Los Angeles area was not all that hard to find. But in Tulsa OK - impossible.

So I started making my own. And over the years, I think I make a damn fine homemade Mexican chorizo - for a gringo.

The Difference between Chorizos

Mexican chorizo is different from Spanish or Portuguese chorizo's which is a chopped, dry-cured meat. Mexican chorizo is not cured, and not dried. It's moist meat, generally, pork, mixed with chili and other spices to create a reddish ball of delicious meat.

In Mexico chorizo is used in many ways. Simmered with potatoes and onions in a tomato sauce, in tacos or enchiladas, sautéed into scrambled eggs...so you know they are making their chorizo with meat - not glands. And it's really easy to make.

Chorizo freezes beautifully, so make a batch, portion it out, and you will have some in the freezer whenever you want to have a little 'Ole in your day.

Yes, it does seem like a lot of spices. But they are not unusual or exotic so I suspect you have many of them in your cupboard already. Maybe used for that pumpkin or apple pie, or that big pot of chili. And you do need ways to use them up right? I mean, we all need to use and replace our spices on a regular basis.

I like to use my mortar and pestle to finely grind my dried oregano. If you are using any other whole spices, add them and grind them up too. I go through cumin so fast, as I do most of my spices, that I generally buy ground. But whole spices do hold their flavor longer, and really, fresh is best (I know, sometimes I'm just lazy like that)...so whatever you use grind to as fine a powder as you can.

I used ground pork butt because of the fat-to-meat ratio. If you want to try this recipe with ground chicken or turkey, I'm sure it would work - but I would use dark meat rather than breast, and add some skin to it. I think chorizo needs some fat to carry the flavor to the food, and not just the meat. But maybe that's just me. I suppose bite for bite you would get the whole enchilada.

Once you've added your spices, mix, mix, mix with your hands. Oh, and the vinegar is key. The first time I made chorizo I didn't add any vinegar and it makes a big difference. I call for cider vinegar, but you could also use a white balsamic (not regular balsamic as that is too sweet) or even good old distilled white vinegar.

As with all things, taste and adjust for seasoning.

How? Well, take a bit of your chorizo, put it on a plate, zap it in the microwave for about 30 seconds, and taste it ... see that red oil on the plate? Yep, that's pure flavor.

(It may not be pretty, but it sure is good)

So how about it? Ready to add Homemade Mexican Chorizo to your cooking arsenal? Once you do, you won't look back.

'Ole!