Casa M Chorizo Rojo

As is usually the case for many Mexican recipes, there's a red version and a green version depending on what color chiles you use. Chorizo is no different. While the red version (this one) is much more widespread and well-known, don't miss out on the incredible flavors in our Chorizo Verde recipe.

Guajillo chile is very commonly used in Mexican cuisine. It's very easy to source in the Southwest US, but if you can't find it at your grocery store, it is easy to get from Amazon. If you have ground cloves, feel free to use them here too, just make sure they're fresh as this is a background flavor that really makes this recipe stand out. Packaged ground pork from the grocery is shown here in the photos and that's fine. If you have time to ask the butcher if he will grind a pork shoulder for you, that's even better. Tell him you want a coarse grind and only one single pass through the grinder. Feel free to experiment with what vinegar you use. The recipe calls for plain white vinegar, but we've made this with apple cider vinegar and it is great. Same for white wine vinegar. I haven't tried red wine vinegar yet, but want to, so if you do, please let us know what you think.

As always, from our table to yours... #SpiceConfidently #EssenceOfFlavor #ChemistryInTheKitchen #CasaMSpice

— Mike Hernandez

ingredients

For the Adobo de Chiles Rojos:

1-1/2 cup Casa M Spice Co® Uncontrolled Chain Reaction®
1 cup ground guajillo chile
1/2 cup ground chipotle chile
1/2 cup ground ancho chile
10 whole cloves
2 teaspoons allspice
2 Tablespoons salt
6 bay leaves

Pulling It All Together:

4 cups white vinegar
4 pounds ground pork

FEATURED QUOTE

Using your fingers, poke holes in the pork layer. As many as you can. This creates more surface area for the pork to dry while it's pickling in the refrigerator over the next 3 days.

- Mike Hernandez

LET’S GET COOKING

1.
Grind the cloves and powder the bay leaves in a grinder and put them into a large mixing bowl. Add all the other ingredients in the "For the Adobo de Chiles Rojos" section above and mix everything well.
2.
Add the vinegar into the mixing bowl and using a hand mixer, mix well to form a uniform paste.
3.
Add the ground pork and using your hands (use gloves if you've got sensitive skin) mix everything together to fully incorporate the adobo into the ground pork. It should look uniform and very red throughout.
4.
Transfer the whole mixture to a cookie sheet or other container that allows you to spread the pork out in a single, thin layer. Using your fingers, poke holes in the pork layer. As many as you can. This creates more surface area for the pork to dry while it's pickling in the refrigerator over the next 3 days.
5.
While it's not necessary, you can mix everything together every day, smooth it out into a uniform layer, and then poke holes in it again, but with this volume on a standard cookie sheet, you should not need to. With larger batch size, this step becomes important because the layer isn't so thin and proper aeration helps to dry the chorizo.
6.
After three days the chorizo is ready to use. You can fry up what you need then or keep it in the refrigerator (in a closed container) for up to a week. It also freezes quite well, so we usually make a big batch, then put it into freezer bags in 1 pound increments, squeeze them super flat and get all the air out, then seal them up for future use. Keeping them super flat means they will thaw quickly. This is a very traditional flavor profile for Mexican red chorizo. It can be used in many things, but makes a really mean breakfast taco combined with eggs and potatoes.