L.A.-Style Chorizo Recipe (2024)

Ingredients

Yield:Makes 14 sausages

• Approximately 8 feet sausage casing, packed in salt optional; see note
• 2pounds pork belly, rind removed, cut into 1-inch chunks, well chilled
• 1pound lean beef, cut into 1-inch chunks, well chilled
• 3slices white bread
• ¼ cup guajillo chiles, deseeded, rehydrated and puréed with 3 tablespoons simmering liquid
• ¼ cup tomato paste
• 2tablespoons kosher salt
• 1½ tablespoons crushed garlic
• 2teaspoons dried Mexican oregano
• 2tablespoons cumin seed, toasted and ground
• 1teaspoon coriander seed, toasted and ground
• 1tablespoon cayenne
• 1teaspoon white vinegar

Preparation

1. Step

   1

   If you are making sausage links, thoroughly rinse the casing of salt and soak it in a large pot of cold water overnight. Thoroughly rinse the casing again and place it in fresh, cold water until ready to use.

2. Step

   2

   Attach the knife and grinding-plate attachments to a stand mixer. Run the pork and beef through the grinder into a large bowl, followed by a slice of bread to push out any bits of meat stuck inside the works. Discard any ground bread. Add the remaining ingredients and mix together with your hands. Knead the meat until it seizes up and holds together, about 2 minutes. At this point you can shape the sausage mixture into patties.

3. Step

   3

   If you are making links, replace the grinding plate with a stuffer attachment with a ¾-inch opening. Select a length of casing and run water from the tap through it in order to clear out any excess salt and spot any holes, which you should trim out. Cut a length of casing at least 3 to 4 feet long; tie it off. Run the casing between your fingers to remove excess water. Stretch the open end of the casing around the attachment’s nozzle and gradually slide the rest of the casing onto the nozzle, an inch or 2 at a time. Leave about 3 inches at the knotted end dangling free. Put the sausage in the hopper of the grinder and turn it on (Speed 4 tends to work best). Hold the dangling casing with one hand, and with the other, feed the sausage mixture into the hopper with a wooden pestle at an even pace. When 2 inches of casing are empty at both the knotted and free ends, stop stuffing and slowly pull on the casing to free it from the stuffer nozzle. Run your fingers over the casing to distribute the sausage evenly. Pinch the middle of the sausage and gently twist it to form two long links. Keep pinching and twisting to form links 4 or 5 inches long. Repeat this process until all of the sausage meat has been used, pushing out the last bits of meat with another slice or two of bread.

4. Step

   4

   Whether you’ve made patties or links, refrigerating the sausage overnight, wrapped in wax paper, will help it hold together as it cooks. To cook, snip off a single length containing as many individual sausages as you like. Don’t separate the links until they have been cooked (in an oiled skillet, on the grill or under the broiler). Any uncooked remainders will freeze well.

Tip

• Sausage casing can be bought from most sausage-making butchers or ordered online at Amazon.com.