Chorizo de Oaxaca Casero

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for toasting chiles and cooking chorizo
• •Spice grinder or volcanic stone molcajete for the spice blend
• •High-powered blender for the chile paste
• •Large mixing bowl

Instructions

1. 1

   Toast the chiles

   Heat a dry comal or heavy cast iron skillet over medium. Toast the guajillo and ancho chiles one or two at a time, pressing them flat with a spatula, about 30 seconds per side. They should puff, darken slightly, and release a warm, rounded smell that fills the kitchen. Do not blacken them. Burned chile makes bitter chorizo and there is no fixing it. Set them aside.

   The ancho is thicker and more forgiving. The guajillo is thinner and can turn on you fast. Watch the guajillo. If a piece goes black, toss it and toast another.
2. 2

   Soak the chiles

   Place the toasted chiles in a heatproof bowl and cover with hot tap water. Hot water, not boiling. Boiling cooks the skin and gives the paste a harsh, acrid edge. Let them soak for 20 minutes until they are soft and pliable. Drain and discard the soaking water.

3. 3

   Toast and grind the spices

   On the same dry comal, toast the cloves, peppercorns, cumin seeds, and canela stick over medium-low heat for about 90 seconds, shaking the pan once or twice, until the cumin darkens a shade and the kitchen smells like the spice stalls at the Central de Abastos. Transfer to a spice grinder or molcajete and grind to a fine powder. Add the crumbled bay leaves and the dried oregano to the grinder and pulse twice to combine. Do not over-grind the oregano. You want it broken, not dust.

   Mexican canela is softer than the hard Ceylon or cassia cinnamon sold in most American supermarkets. If yours does not break apart easily in the grinder, use a microplane to grate it instead.
4. 4

   Build the chile paste

   Combine the drained chiles, vinegar, garlic, ground spice mixture, salt, and grated piloncillo in a blender. Blend on high until you have a smooth, deep red paste. It will be thick. If the blender stalls, add vinegar a tablespoon at a time, just enough to get the blade moving. You want a paste, not a sauce. Taste it. It should be sharp from the vinegar, earthy from the chiles, and warm from the clove and canela. The sharpness will mellow overnight. Trust the cure.

5. 5

   Mix the chorizo

   Place the ground pork in a large bowl. If you are hand-chopping, cut the shoulder into small dice first, then mince it with two heavy knives until the texture is coarse but uniform, like a rough grind. Spoon the asiento over the meat. Add the chile paste. Mix with your hands for three to four minutes, squeezing and folding, until the paste is evenly distributed and the meat has turned a uniform deep red with no white streaks. La manteca es el sabor. The asiento carries the flavor into the fat and binds the paste to the meat in a way that plain oil never will.

   Use your hands, not a spoon. You need to feel when the paste has worked into every part of the meat. If there are pale spots, the chorizo will cook unevenly and taste different in every bite.
6. 6

   Cure overnight

   Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap pressed directly against the surface of the meat. Refrigerate for at least 12 hours and up to 48. The vinegar cures the pork, the chile paste stains it through, and the spices deepen. This is not optional. Freshly mixed chorizo tastes raw and sharp. Cured chorizo tastes like chorizo. Overnight is the minimum. Two days is better. No me vengas con atajos.

7. 7

   Cook on the comal

   When you are ready to cook, heat a comal or cast iron skillet over medium-high. Pinch off the amount of chorizo you need for breakfast, about a quarter pound per person for a generous serving. Crumble it onto the hot, dry surface. No oil. The asiento and the fat in the pork will render as it cooks. Spread the meat into a thin layer and let it fry without stirring for two minutes until the edges crisp and darken. Then stir, break up any clumps, and cook another three to four minutes until the fat has rendered out and the chorizo is deeply browned and slightly crisp at the edges. The comal should be stained red. That is how you know it is right.

   Do not crowd the comal. If you pile the chorizo too thick, it will steam instead of fry and you will get soft, pale meat instead of the crisp, caramelized crumbles you want. Work in batches if you are cooking for a crowd.
8. 8

   Serve for breakfast

   Slide the chorizo onto a warm plate or straight into a tortilla. Serve it with fried eggs, frijoles negros de olla, and a stack of warm corn tortillas. In Oaxaca, this is Tuesday morning. Cada estado, su propia cocina.

Chef Tips

• •Ask your butcher for pork shoulder with the fat cap still on and have them grind it on the coarse setting. If they have already trimmed it lean, ask for extra pork back fat ground in. The ratio you want is about 70 percent meat to 30 percent fat. Lean chorizo dries out on the comal and tastes like seasoned sawdust.
• •Asiento is sold in Oaxacan markets from clay jars, dark and thick like a savory caramel. Outside Oaxaca, look for it in Mexican grocery stores or online from Oaxacan suppliers. If you truly cannot find it, render your own lard from pork fat trimmings and scrape up the dark sediment at the bottom of the pot. That is asiento. Plain manteca de cerdo will work in a pinch, but you are losing the depth. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •This chorizo freezes beautifully. After the overnight cure, portion it into half-pound parcels, wrap tightly in plastic and then foil, and freeze for up to three months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Do not microwave it. You will cook the outside and leave the center raw.
• •Oaxacan chorizo is not the same as Toluca chorizo. Toluca's version is green, heavy with herbs and tomatillo. Both are excellent. Both are correct. They are from different states and they taste like different states. Do not confuse them.

Advance Preparation

• •The chorizo must cure for a minimum of 12 hours and improves at 24 to 48 hours in the refrigerator. Plan accordingly. This is a make-ahead dish by nature.
• •Portioned and tightly wrapped, the cured chorizo freezes for up to three months without losing flavor. The vinegar and salt act as preservatives. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before cooking.
• •The chile paste alone can be made up to three days ahead and refrigerated. Mix it with the pork and asiento when you are ready to start the cure.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 100g)