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Our Country Kitchen brings you amazingly tasty recipes each week, using Goodparla’s finest Missouri pasture raised beef.
Ya’ll…. We totally did a thing this past week in Our Country Kitchen, and we couldn’t be more excited to share this insanely easy Goodparla pasture raised ground beef recipe with our community. So, grab your chef hats, tie your aprons & get ready to whip up our stunningly simple, explosively flavorful, authentic homemade beef chorizo!
This dish is a big hit, and for more reasons than one! First off, this recipe & its ingredients are so incredibly simple and easy to follow and takes all of 15 minutes to prep. Second, when made with our lean beef, it’s not only less greasy but also healthier than your standard chorizo which is typically made with pork. This, of course, is always a big win in our recipe book! Lastly (but most definitely not least) once you’ve made your beef chorizo, you’ve literally just turned one recipe into one hundred recipes – and boy oh boy, do we have some ideas for you!
Think of the multitude of ground beef recipes you know of. It’s a lot, right? Well with a few alterations to your recipes, you can substitute out your ground beef for your homemade beef chorizo and have a brand new, flavorful dish! Some great examples are chili, breakfast tacos (or really, any kind of taco!), stuffed bell peppers, chorizo pasta sauce (goes A-MAY-ZING-LY with ravioli), burritos, nachos, pizza and so much more!
Lets talk about ingredients! Remember when we said this was a simple recipe? Well, that’s because all you need is Goodparla ground beef, hot water, vinegar, dried peppers, and a mix of spices – ones that you probably already have on hand in the pantry. The dried peppers that you will need for this recipe are pasilla peppers and Guajillo peppers, which can also be called California peppers. If you find yourself a nice little Mexican grocery store, you’re good to go – however, you can also find them online for a great price as well!
This recipe isn’t just simple because of the ingredients, its also simple to prepare. Here’s the quick rundown: you’ll need to remove the stems and seeds from the dry peppers and soak the peppers in hot water for about 10 minutes. Next, take the peppers out of the water and reserve ½ cup of the ‘chile water.’ Put the peppers, the ‘chile water,’ vinegar, and spice mix into a food processor and blend. This will make a thick paste that you then thoroughly mix into your ground beef before storing it in the refrigerator to cure. Easy peasy, right?
Moving on to our spice mix! While we are talking about spices, we are not talking about spicy – this is not a spicy dish; rather it is bold and flavorful! This chorizo recipe is optimized for authentic bold flavors, so we most definitely recommend utilizing all of the spices – even though some of the spices, such as the ground cloves and cinnamon are optional. Many authentic Mexican recipes contain these spices in savory dishes such as al pastor, mole sauce, and barbacoa. Don’t be afraid to try it out!
Tips for making your homemade beef chorizo a success:
- You will need either a food processor, immersion blender, or regular blender to make this recipe. We recommend and used our food processor to make ours
- You must soak the dried peppers first! If you skip this step, your spice mix will not properly blend.
- Don’t forget to keep ½ cup of the water that you soak the peppers in. You will use this in the food processor to make your paste!
- While we suggest using 6 Guajillo peppers & 2 pasilla peppers, you want the combined weight of the peppers to be about 55 to 60 grams
- It is important to refrigerate the chorizo for at least 12 hours so that it can properly cure. Time allows the spices to infuse the ground beef with its flavors and it deepens the overall flavor of the dish.
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After the meat is cured, you will be able to portion the chorizo into smaller batches if needed. Refrigerate in an airtight container and use within 10 to 15 days. Alternatively, you can freeze this chorizo for up to six months if placed in freezer bag with the excess air removed from it.
Homemade Beef Chorizo Recipe
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Chill Time: up to 2 days
- Cook Time: 7 – 10 minutes
Ingredients:
- 6 large Guajillo (California) dried peppers
- 2 pasilla dried peppers
- 1 cup of hot water
- 2 tablespoons smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves (optional)
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 large garlic gloves
- ¼ cup vinegar (white or apple cider vinegar)
- 1 pound Goodparla ground beef
Instructions:
- Remove the stems and seeds from the Guajillo & pasilla peppers. Pour the cup of hot water into a medium bowl and soak the dried peppers for about 10 minutes. *Reserve ½ cup of this water!
- In a food processor, add the dried chiles, the ½ cup of reserved chile water, garlic cloves, vinegar, and spices. Blend well until a paste-like consistency has formed.
- Add the chile paste to the ground beef and mix thoroughly. You can use a wooden spoon, a rubber spatula or your hands – just make sure the paste is mixed throughout.
- Form into a ball and place meat into a strainer and then place the strainer over a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. (By putting the chorizo over a strainer, it allows for any extra juices to be released. Discard any extra juices)
- Allow the chorizo to cure for a minimum of 12 hours or up to 2 days. You can then cook it, portion it or freeze it.
To Cook:
- Put a medium pan over medium-high heat and add chorizo.
- Cook the chorizo for 7 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently and breaking it up as you stir (much like you would for browning ground beef). The chorizo is cooked through once the meat mixture becomes more ‘crumbly.’
- Enjoy as is, or add to your favorite dishes!