Most people outside Spain know chorizo as a cured sausage you slice thin and eat cold. In Spanish bars it is just as often a hot dish: chunks of chorizo simmered in cider or wine and served in a clay dish with bread for the sauce. This guide covers the cooked versions, what to ask when you order, and where to find them abroad. For the cured side, see our Spanish cured meats guide.
What makes chorizo Spanish
Spanish chorizo is made from chopped pork and pork fat, seasoned mainly with pimentón (Spanish paprika) and garlic. The pimentón gives it its red colour and most of its flavour. It can be smoked or unsmoked, and sweet or hot.
Chorizo comes in two broad kinds. Chorizo curado is dried until firm and eaten sliced. Softer, fresher chorizo, often sold as chorizo para cocinar or chorizo fresco, is meant to be cooked. Two regional chorizos have protected status in the EU: Chorizo Riojano and Chorizo de Cantimpalos, from Segovia.
The cooked chorizo dishes to know
- Chorizo a la sidra. From Asturias. Chorizo is simmered in natural Asturian cider until the cider reduces into a thin, slightly sharp sauce. It usually comes in a clay dish, cut into chunks.
- Chorizo al vino. The same idea with wine, red or white. It is common in bars all over Spain.
- Huevos rotos con chorizo. Fried eggs broken over chips with chorizo on top. Our post on huevos rotos explains the dish.
- In stews. Chorizo goes into fabada asturiana with morcilla, into lentil stews and into cocido. Here it cooks with the beans or chickpeas and colours the broth.
- Bocadillo de chorizo. A bread roll with sliced chorizo, sometimes grilled. It's a cheap, filling snack.
How to order it
Ask whether it's dulce or picante. Sweet chorizo is made with sweet pimentón and hot chorizo with hot, and menus don't always say which. A tapa is a few pieces; a ración is a full plate for sharing.
Most of the flavour ends up in the cider or wine sauce, so keep the bread. Chorizo a la sidra goes naturally with a glass of cider, and chorizo al vino with a glass of the same wine. Our guide to ordering drinks in a Spanish bar covers the rest.
Common mix-ups
Mexican chorizo is a different sausage. It is usually sold fresh and raw, and it's cooked crumbled. In Mexico, Spanish-style chorizo is often labelled chorizo español. If you want the Spanish version in a Mexican restaurant, that's the word to look for.
Cured chorizo isn't the cooking kind. Firm, dried chorizo is made for slicing. Recipes like chorizo a la sidra use softer chorizo that releases fat and pimentón into the sauce.
For a comparison with Thai sausages, see chorizo and sai ua.
Where to try cooked chorizo abroad
These restaurants in our directory name a cooked chorizo dish in their own records:
- El Sella, Mexico City (Polanco): lists chorizo in cider next to Galician octopus and chamorro.
- Bar El Sella Doctores, Mexico City: more than 73 years of history, with chorizos in cider on the menu.
- Poster Bar by José, London: José Pizarro's café at the Royal Academy of Arts serves chorizo al vino with quince.
- ¡Ay Manuela!, Xiamen: lists huevos rotos con chorizo among its Spanish dishes.
- Como Tapería, Vancouver: chorizo comes hot from its open kitchen.
