Chorizo potatoes. This is a riff on patatas bravas – one of the most famous tapas dishes of all time. It’s famous for a reason. It’s really good. But jack up the flavour with some chorizo. Drizzle it with some homemade aioli or garlic mayonnaise. That’s great.
This is comfort food really. Potatoes. Sausage. Mayonnaise. How can you go wrong? Delicious. Familiar. But different. Special.
There’s really only three things in this dish. A bit of spice. But the potatoes are roasted. The little bits of chorizo are bursts of flavour. And texture. Garlicky mayonnaise brings it all together.
Chorizo potatoes are about the chorizo
To get this right you have to get the chorizo right. Funny thing. You need to cook the chorizo to death for this to work. Seriously. It’s completely counter-intuitive.
Somewhere along the way it goes from bits of sausage to these little nubbins of concentrated flavour. Sausage flavour bombs. I don’t really understand why. But it works. Taste it along the way. You’ll see.
Boil the potatoes first
I use this trick often. For duck fat roasted potatoes. For any roasted potatoes really. It’s simple. Boil your potatoes before you roast them. Don’t boil them to death. Just enough.
That way you don’t have to worry about cooking the potatoes through. You can focus on getting the outside just right. The inside is already taken care of. Twice cooked potatoes. Works every time.
chorizo potatoes
Ingredients
Chorizo potatoes
- 1 lb small new potatoes - cut in big bite size pieces.
- 8 oz spanish chorizo sausage - diced
- 1 or more large shallot - sliced thinly
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika - hot or mild
- salt to taste
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
Aioli
- 1 clove garlic - well crushed
- An egg yolk - coddle your egg if safety is a concern
- 1 Tbsp sherry vinegar
- Juice of 1/4 lemon
- 1 Tbsp of plus 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
Aioli
- In a small food processor or blender combine the egg yolk, garlic, sherry vinegar, lemon juice and one Tbsp olive oil. Pulse a couple times.
- Mix the olive oil and vegetable oil in a container well suited to drizzling. A measuring cup or drinking glass is not the answer here… You will curse.
- Run the processor continuously while drizzling in the oil. You are making mayonnaise. It will thicken up nicely.
- Add the salt and taste. If it’s not quite right add a bit more salt or lemon. Your call.
Chorizo potatoes
- Pre-heat your oven to 375F.
- Boil the potatoes in well salted water until a knife slides into a potato easily. Drain.
- Heat the olive oil in an oven-proof frying pan over medium heat.
- Add the chorizo and cook for 3-4 minutes.
- Stir in the shallot and cook until soft, another minute or so.
- Now add the potatoes and mix until the potatoes are well coated with oil. Sprinkle them with paprika and season with salt.
- Place the skillet in the oven and roast for 10 minutes. Stir and roast another 10 minutes.
- Serve with aioli on the side or drizzled overtop or both.
Notes
Nutrition
Carolina mustard sauce is the perfect accompaniment to any BBQ that features pork. Pulled pork. Smoke roasted pork. Sausages. Whole hog. It just works.
The tang of the vinegar, the mustard and that hint of heat from the chili powder. Perfect. Carolina mustard sauce is a fantastic alternative to tomato based sauces.
Carolina mustard sauce is perfect with pork
I don’t really get the tomato sauce and pork thing. In general I don’t really get it for anything but chicken.
Mustard and pork. That makes sense to me. Or no sauce at all. If you nail your BBQ why hide it?
I don’t put ketchup on my roast pork. Not on my ham sandwiches either. Never on a sausage.
Why hide your perfect pulled pork?
And yet BBQ some pork shoulder, pull it and suddenly everybody wants to drown it in BBQ sauce. See how I might think this is a little strange?
I get it if you are serving overcooked pork make in a slow cooker. Then it makes sense. Liquid smoke and BBQ sauce is where your flavour is coming from. Otherwise it’s just boiled pork shoulder.
But if you’ve worked hard to make perfect pulled pork. If you’ve smoked it carefully until it’s just right. If you have that beautiful bark and meltingly tender pork. Why hide it?
You shouldn’t be tossing your pulled pork in sauce. You worked way too hard to just drown it. Serve Carolina mustard sauce as a condiment.
