What is the difference between longaniza de Toluca and Mexican chorizo?

Longaniza de Toluca is a red sausage from Estado de Mexico made with a coarser pork grind, more vinegar, and guajillo chile. Mexican chorizo is finer ground and less acidic. The vinegar tang and rough texture of Toluca longaniza are what set this dish apart.

Why do you parboil the potatoes before frying them with longaniza?

Parboiling the diced yellow papa for five to six minutes in salted water cooks the interior so frying only has to crisp the outside. Spread the drained potatoes on a tray until matte and dry. Wet potatoes steam in the pan and never catch that dark golden crust on the edges.

Should I drain the fat after rendering longaniza de Toluca?

Never drain the fat. The red rendered lard from longaniza de Toluca is the cooking medium for the potatoes and carries the guajillo color and flavor of the dish. Lift the meat out with a slotted spoon, leave every drop of fat in the pan, and fry the parboiled papa directly in it.

What can I substitute for longaniza de Toluca?

If you cannot find longaniza de Toluca at a Mexican carniceria or mercado, a good Mexican-style red chorizo is the closest compromise. It will taste like chorizo rather than longaniza because it lacks the vinegar bite and coarse grind. Buy by the meter when possible from a butcher stocking central highland products.

How do you store leftover longaniza de Toluca con papas?

Refrigerate cooked longaniza con papas in an airtight container for up to three days. Reheat in a hot cast iron skillet, not the microwave, to crisp the potato edges again. Raw longaniza de Toluca keeps in its butcher paper for five days refrigerated or two months frozen, thawed overnight before cooking.

How do you serve longaniza de Toluca con papas for breakfast?

Serve straight from the cazuela with warm hand-pressed corn tortillas, frijoles refritos, salsa verde cruda, chopped cilantro, raw white onion, and lime wedges so each person builds their own taco. For a torta, pile it into a split telera or bolillo smeared with refried beans and topped with avocado.

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Longaniza de Toluca con Papas

Name: Longaniza de Toluca con Papas
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients: 1 pound longaniza de Toluca, casings removed and meat broken into rough pieces; 1 1/2 pounds yellow papa or papa alfa, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice; 1 medium white onion, diced small; 2 tablespoons manteca de cerdo (pork lard); 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped; 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste; Hand-pressed corn tortillas, warmed, for serving; Frijoles refritos, for serving; Salsa verde cruda or salsa de chile de arbol, for serving; Chopped cilantro, for serving; Diced white onion, for serving; Lime wedges, for serving

Created by

Estado de México's coarse-ground red longaniza, fried in its own rendered fat with diced papa and white onion until the potatoes catch on the edges and the chorizo crackles. Breakfast the way they eat it in Toluca.

Breakfast & Brunch

Mexican

Weeknight

Comfort Food

Budget Friendly

15 min

Active Time

35 min cook•50 min total

Yield4 to 6 servings

This is from Toluca, capital of the Estado de México, where the longaniza has its own protected reputation and the carniceros hang the long red coils in storefront after storefront along the Mercado Juarez and the Mercado 16 de Septiembre. Toluca's longaniza is not Spanish longaniza and it is not the same animal as chorizo. It is coarser, redder, soured with vinegar, deeply seasoned with chile guajillo and a little ancho, and it cooks differently. The fat that renders out of it is the cooking medium for whatever goes in the pan next. In this case, papa.

The combination of longaniza and papa is breakfast across the Valle de Toluca and into the surrounding villages, eaten at small fondas that open at six in the morning to feed people on their way to work. The technique is simple and the technique is also where most cooks go wrong. You render the longaniza first, alone, until its red fat pools in the pan. You lift the meat out and fry the parboiled papa in that fat. Then you return the meat. If you throw everything in at once, the papa never crisps and the longaniza overcooks. Two stages. No me vengas con atajos.

My mother did not make this dish. She was from Jalisco and her sausage was chorizo. But the first time I drove into Toluca with a notebook, the woman who sold me a kilo of longaniza at the Mercado Juarez took the trouble to tell me how to cook it, in detail, while she wrapped it in butcher paper. Render first. Lift the meat. Fry the papa in the fat. I have not improved on her instruction in fifteen years. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.

Longaniza arrived in Mexico with the Spanish in the 16th century as a pork sausage seasoned with garlic and black pepper, and over centuries the Estado de México adapted it into a regionally distinct product: longer, coarser-ground, and colored deep red by guajillo and ancho rather than the paprika of its Iberian ancestor. The town of Toluca became synonymous with longaniza in the 19th century as the city's slaughterhouses and butchers refined a recipe heavy on vinegar, which both preserved the sausage in the days before refrigeration and gave it the tang that distinguishes it from chorizo verde de Toluca, its green herbal cousin. Mexican law and trade practice now recognize 'longaniza de Toluca' as a regional product, and the Mercado Juarez in central Toluca remains the reference point for sourcing.

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Ingredients