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 and
- Chourico 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 make homemade chourico.
Silva’s Mini Market in Lowell, Massachusetts is owned and operated by the same family for over 30 years and they make their own chouriço sausage and carne de vinha d’alhos.
Their version of chourico 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 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
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 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!
Thao @ In Good Flavor says
My family loves chorizo! I never thought of making my own, but I really want to make some now! I especially love the idea that you can have the same great taste without all the unwanted ingredients of packaged chorizo. Returning to real life after a vacation is always a downer, but a summer full of camper living and the great outdoors is definitely something to look forward to! Have fun!!
[email protected] says
Real life, especially after a vacation, is a total bummer Thao. Thanks for visiting and hope you are well xoxo