Cooking with chorizo

Last week as I was bemoaning the fact that cured and brined meats (including sausage, bacon, and deli meat) always contain sugar, a friend clued me into chorizo. You will still want to read the label if you are trying to go low carb, because some forms of chorizo do include sweeteners or carb fillings.

I found sugar-free chorizo at my local grocery store, and I have been amazed at all the flavor it packs. And at how affordable it is! I live in an area with a strong Hispanic population. My local grocery store has a Mexican section in the refrigerated deli case, where I found tubes of soft chorizo on sale for only $1 per 12-ounce tube. If you're shopping on a tight budget, chorizo is a lot of flavor for a low price.

Chorizo also comes in a hard form, something like pepperoni. For hard chorizo, simply dice it up the way you would a hard sausage, and add it to your recipes.

Wondering what to do with chorizo? It works best if you think of it as more like a condiment than a main dish. I started by cooking up an entire tube of chorizo and storing it it in the fridge. (Cooked chorizo will keep for 5-7 days in the refrigerator.)

The classic chorizo dish is chorizo and eggs. I start by scooping out a big spoonful of cold cooked chorizo and heating it in the pan. Once it is sizzling, crack in your eggs and mix it all up. 5-6 minutes over medium heat will be enough to cook the eggs, giving you an amazing amount of flavor in one lovely high-protein low-carb dish.

Chorizo is also a delicious addition to rice, pasta, potatoes, beans, soup, burritos and taco salads. This recipe for chicken chorizo rice casserole looks particularly delectable!

Image courtesy Flickr/Emily Barney