Chori-Chicharron: mixing a Toluca style chorizo with pork cracklin

Having recently received a package of Toluca Mexican Style Food Products from their base in Baltimore, Md., I started by experimenting with the Salvadoran and Argentinian brands.

I was saving the Mexican style pork product for later.  And having built up my sense of anticipation, I have not been disappointed.

So many chorizo products on the market stuff the casing with byproducts and melt away when cooked.  That has not been there case here. 

Que Rico brand Mexican Uncooked Chorizo holds up in the skillet as well as the Kiolbassa Provision Company products found in Texas.  That is high praise.  I can assure customers in the Que Rico markets (Northern Virginia to New York) that they are purchasing a high grade product.

This recipe mixes the Mexican style with pork cracklin.  You can use pork rind but then you'll probably want to crumble it first by lightly crushing it in your fist.

Some cooks just throw the pork rind in whole, but that isn't my personal preference. I think the pieces are too big when they soften.  However, pork rind softens faster than cracklin, so if you're in a hurry go for it.

What we have here on the right is a package of Que Rico chorizo with a couple of cups of cooked white rice, cracklin, onion and poblano.

If you follow my blog, you know that I rarely mention exact portions.  You know how fond you are of onion, or poblano pepper or anything else.  I'll leave it to you to decide how much you want.

I like a lot of vegetables, so the portions are similar in my dishes to what you might expect to find in a serving of Chinese stir fry.  Chop however much onion and poblano you want and set it off to one side.

For this dish, I pressed one link of chorizo onto a medium hot skillet and mashed it down with a fork, but making sure to keep it in one piece.  This chorizo can take the heat.  It's not like some cheap chorizos that burn easily, so don't worry too much about how long it's on the skillet.

Once it's burn turned over a couple of times, pour out the excess grease. Now pin down and tear up the chorizo into small pieces.

Lower the heat, pour in a third cup of water and two handfuls of pork cracklin and put a lid on.  Let it simmer for a few minutes so that the cracklin softens.

Raise the heat a little, until most of the water has evaporated.  Put in an tab of butter to make sure the vegetables and rice don't stick.  Stir in the vegetables and rice, stirring frequently until they vegetables are slightly cooked and the rice has evenly turned color by soaking up the spices and grease that have been released from the chorizo.

You should end up with this, a Mexican-style stir fry of chorizo, softened cracklin and vegetables with rice.

It makes a tasty, nutritious entrée for lunch or dinner.

Of course, chorizo is more commonly considered a breakfast food.

One of our favorite and simplest recipes for a breakfast chorizo is to mix it with a can of RoTel diced tomatoes and green chiles.  I also crush a couple of chipotle chiles and mix that in.

Let's get started!

I was making breakfast for three, so I used two links of the Que Rico Toluca style Mexican and mashed them into a medium to low heated skillet.

I opened a can of RoTel and emptied the water.  You may want to keep the water, depending on how juicy you like your topping.

Break up the chorizo into small chunks and then pour in the RoTel and chipotle flake and stir until evenly mixed.

Set it aside or keep a lid on it and leave it simmering on very low heat.

Now start another skillet on heat and spread butter on the surface.

Crack an egg into the skillet.  Cook it to your preference and flip.  We're making eggs over easy.

While this is going on, heat some corn tortillas on a comal, or not.  I prefer to have a side of tortillas myself.  We also had a side of refried beans with this meal, but that's also optional.

This is what the diced chorizo and RoTel should look like in the skillet:

Slide the eggs over easy to a dinner plate and top them with as much chorizo and RoTel as you want!

I like to heap the toppings on generously.

This was my breakfast plate on the left below:

Buen provecho!