Chorizo Tomatillo Sauce is a spicy, tangy sauce with little chunks of chorizo – wonderful on eggs, burritos, enchiladas, nachos, all sorts of dishes.
I really love this sauce! In the photo, I served it over scrambled eggs. This was inspired by a sauce I had this past week at Freshies in Steamboat Springs. I ordered the Southwestern Benny (2 eggs benedict, one smothered in green chili and the other in red enchilada sauce) and there were 6 other sauces to choose from … and this was one. The chef would not give me the recipe, but I took some home to recreate the recipe. This isn’t an exact copy but it’s at least as good and is pretty close.
A lot of the spiciness comes from the chorizo. I chose to blend in most of the chorizo and just save a quarter cup to provide interesting lumps. When you blend it in, you don’t see it, but it flavors the sauce dramatically. You might choose to blend all the chorizo in or none of it … this will still be good with all the chorizo in the form of lumps in the sauce. Personally, I prefer some blended and some not.
You can also adjust the heat with the jalapeno. It is already medium-spicy without the jalapeno, and you can add more jalapeno to make it really hot. I’m planning to make a large batch to freeze in 16-oz containers. I’ll probably leave the jalapeno out and as I pull a container out to use I can add jalapeno to adjust to the desired heat at that time.
This recipe’s a real keeper, so I’ll be cooking with it a lot and experimenting further. I’ll be making enchiladas with it, smothering burritos, pouring it over nachos, and serving it along with just about any egg dish. Do you have ideas about how to use it? Share them!
- 2 lb tomatillos
- 1 medium jalapeno
- 1 cup cilantro (including stems)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tbsp chicken bouilion
- ½ lb chorizo (I used King Soopers chorizo)
- 2 - 3 tbsp green chiles
- 2 tbsp honey
- salt to taste
- Brown the chorizo in a large skillet, breaking it up as it cooks so you end up with chorizo crumbles. Set aside.
- Remove the papery husks from the tomatillos and rinse with water.
- Cut the tomatillos into quarters and cut the jalapeno into quarters lengthwise, removing the seeds and veins.
- In a large dry skillet over medium heat, cook the tomatillos, garlic cloves, and jalapenos until tomatillos are soft and have black scorch spots on them. Garlic cloves and jalapenos will also have black scorch spots. This gives an added slightly smokey taste. (See notes for alternative ways to cook this.)
- Set aside about ¼ cup of the browned chorizo, then dump all ingredients (including the rest of the chorizo) into a blender and blend till nearly smooth. Add water to get the desired consistency (probably about ½ cup)
- Add salt to taste and the chorizo crumbles and stir in.
- Serve hot or cold over eggs, chicken, burritos, enchiladas, nachos, whatever.
- Place the quartered tomatillos, garlic and jalapeno in a baking dish and roast at 400 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes or until tomatillos are completely soft.
- Or, you could cover them with water and simmer until soft. Retain the water to add in after blending to desired consistency.
(The scorching on the stove is to add a bit of smokiness, but this sauce is so flavorful, I'm not sure this touch is really noticeable.)
Freezes well - will keep up to 6 months in a well-sealed container in the freezer.
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