This Homemade Chorizo Sausage recipe is so delicious and simple to make, you'll never buy the pre-made store version again! Use in recipes for quick and easy meals or freeze for up to 4 months.
What is fresh chorizo sausage?
Fresh chorizo is a raw Mexican style pork sausage that can be used in a variety of quick and easy recipes. It's an uncured sausage made with chiles, garlic, and paprika.
The fresh sausage mixture can be stuffed in casings to grill them. Or leave the mixture loose and fry it in a pan to then use in recipes.
All these photos of this homemade chorizo sausage recipe is when it's raw, not cooked, so it's easy to see how all the seasonings in Mexican chorizo contribute to it's beautiful color and intense, delicious flavor.
What's the difference between Mexican chorizo, Spanish chorizo, and Portuguese chouriço
- Mexican chorizo is fresh and uncooked ground pork (or sometimes beef) flavored with chilies, garlic, and paprika, with other spices. The ground meat is available either loose or in a casing.
- Spanish chorizo and Portuguese chouriço are both made with pork, garlic, and spices, but are cured in a casing. Both can be eaten as-is or lightly fried or grilled to just heat through.
- Spanish chorizo is made with white wine and heavy on smoked paprika.
- Chouriço is made with less paprika, more garlic, and a Portuguese red wine.
Speaking of Portuguese chouriço, I am lucky enough to live close to an unbelievable Portuguese grocery store that makes their own homemade chouriço and carne de vinha d'alhos.
Their version of chouriço has big pieces of pork in it that have been marinated in a wine, garlic, and paprika mixture. It's cured in a natural casing in a long rope fashion.
It's seriously the best I've ever had!
Absolutely perfect sausage for quick and easy meals
Homemade chorizo is perfect for throwing together a quick weekday meal at home. Make a big batch ahead of time and freeze 1 pound packages for later use.
Just take out a package from the freezer, thaw, and sauté the chorizo in a pan. Here's some ways to use it:
- Add it to scrambled eggs and potatoes for breakfast (or do breakfast for dinner).
- Put it into corn or flour tortillas for burritos, quesadillas, and for Taco Tuesday.
- Make a 4 bean chili.
- Add it to a cheese dip.
- Top a pizza.
- Put in a Mexican rice dish.
- Mix it into a creamy cheese sauce and toss with noodles.
We are getting ready to go camping again at Little River State Park in Vermont in the pimpin' camper. This fresh chorizo will definitely be coming with us on the trip for some tasty meals!
Quick and easy tasty meals is my thang when I'm camping and frying this chorizo up in a cast iron pan over a campfire is perfect.
I think I could live out the rest of my life in my camper, traveling around the US, with a big batch (or two) of fresh chorizo.
A homemade chorizo sausage recipe made the all-natural way
It may seem like making homemade fresh chorizo sausage is too time consuming, but it's really not.
It's super easy to mix the cubed pork and spices together, then place in the refrigerator overnight to bind all the flavors together.
The next day, just run it all through your meat grinder and store the ground mixture in a covered container in the refrigerator until ready to use in recipes.
The wonderful thing about making your own homemade sausage is it's easy to control the quality of meat and ingredients.
Leave out all those unnecessary ingredients in pre-made sausage, like sugar or nasty preservatives.
Try this easy homemade Chorizo sausage recipe and leave the processed stuff behind in the grocery store. PIN it for later to use it in this Beef and Chorizo Chili recipe too!
Homemade Fresh Chorizo Sausage
Ingredients
- 3 pounds boneless pork shoulder or butt cut into 1' cubes
- 3 tablespoons chili powder
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 3 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon dried coriander
- 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ⅛ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ cup apple cider vinegar
Instructions
- Place pork cubes in a large bowl and set aside. In a small bowl, mix together all spices (chili powder through cinnamon). Pour mixed spices and apple cider vinegar over the pork cubes, mixing well with your hands until all cubes are coated. Cover and place in refrigerator for at least 8 hours or overnight.
- After the 8 hours, set up a food grinder with a medium grind attachment and grind the chilled seasoned pork cubes. Store the ground pork mixture in a covered container in the refrigerator until ready to use.
Recipe Notes & Tips:
- Store the chorizo in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days or freeze for up to 4 months.
- Use the chorizo to make this 4 bean homemade chili!
Kylie
Can’t wait to try this. Do you think using already ground pork would work too? I don’t have a meat grinder. Thank you.
Karrie
Yes Kylie, you can use ground pork for this recipe. Let the mixture sit for as long as possible before using it, so the spices work into the meat. Please let me know how you like the chorizo!
Kaye
I'm going to try this seasoning on tofu as I don't eat meat. Thank you for creating this recipe.
Karrie
That sounds wonderful Kaye and please let me know how the tofu turns out!
Keto
Darn chorizo is pretty simple to make! I didn't know until i made this. So delicious. Thank you for posting!
Karrie@tastyeverafter
Thanks Keto!
Maria C.
Got to this recipe from your beef chorizo chili recipe and it's awesome! Never thought about making my own and thanks for the recipe.
Karrie@tastyeverafter
Thank you Maria
annie
I keep telling my hubby we need to make sausage from scratch and we made this after I saw it on Pinterest. So simple and was great in tacos. Will make again soon!
Karrie@tastyeverafter
So happy you both enjoyed it and thank you for taking the time to leave a review!
Kathryn
I love chorizo and the amazing flavor it brings to pretty much any dish (totally with you on having it for breakfast, lunch or dinner) but I do NOT love being unsure of what's really lurking in those store-bought varieties. Thanks for the recipe!
Karrie@tastyeverafter
Store bought stuff is always scary Kathryn. Yikes!
demeter | beaming baker
Okay... but we missed you. Like, for real. However, I'm so happy to hear that you went on vacation girlie! Especially if it entails you getting to enjoy New England. Woot woot! How as Vegas? I saw a couple fun-lookin' photos on IG. And omg... y'all did an awesome job on the camper makeover. Love the aqua tones. How soothing is that? I can just imagine the perfect lunch being had with camper in tow. Lol. Also, did I tell you? My sister is a HUGE camper! She would be all over this right now.
Great recipe--as always, happy to see your kitchen genius at work. Happy camping!
Karrie@tastyeverafter
Thanks Demeter. Vegas was awesome. It was a girls trip so we had lots of fun. Thanks on the camper reno. I love that thing so much. We got it ready this weekend and I just sat it in for awhile. I could def live in that thing and travel all around. No, you didn't tell me your sister is a huge camper! Does she live in California? I'd love to know where she camps too.
GiGi Eats
I'm not a pork girl, although I do love wild boar - TOTALLY DIFFERENT in my eyes for some reason, lol - But I could easily make this with ground beef!
Karrie@tastyeverafter
Yeah, isn't wild boar just a wild pig? Which would mean it's pork...but that's okay if you want to see it differently. hahahaha. I think ground beef is a fine substitute!
Cheyanne
I think most people need a vacation from their vacation... at least I know I always do! Maybe I should use that as my excuse as to why Boy and I haven't taken a vacation in 5 years - because we don't have time to take 2 vacays. Anyways, I'm glad you had fun in Vegas! Next time I'm going with you! And super glad you guys are going out on the road in the pimped out camper soon! It's official - I'm going to vicariously live through you, #bestie! Anyways, chorizo! Hellllzzzz to the yes on this homemade fresh chorizo! This looks absolutely delicious and full of fabulous flavor! Store bought can't hold a candle to TEA chorizo! Totally making a few pounds of this - some for now and some for the freezer! Pinned! Cheers, doll! xo
Karrie@tastyeverafter
Hahaha! You need to go on vaca girl and relax with Boy! I'll go with y'all too Thanks for your support too Bestie