These Chorizo and Potato Tacos are made with a fresh homemade chorizo and roasted potatoes. They are perfect served with my sweet and spicy tomatillo salsa.
Taco City
San Diego holds a really special place in my heart. So many great things came to me there. Two of my three daughters were born in San Diego. I met The Boy in San Diego. I became a taco addict in San Diego. I grew up in Texas and they have amazing Tex-Mex food, but as the daughter of a Korean mom in the 70’s, there weren’t a lot of Taco Tuesdays in my Texas childhood.
These chorizo potato tacos are a combination of so many of the flavors I came to love during my twelve years in San Diego. I love experimenting with the tastes and aromas of different spices and herbs.
I love making my own salsas and trying new meats. I'm all about discovering new combinations of flavors. I bought my own meat grinder. With all of this, I thought, why not make my own chorizo and turn it into delicious chorizo and potato tacos 🌮?
Is it hard to make chorizo?
I’m not a trained Salumist (sausage maker), so I’m not going to go into intricate details about making sausage or meat grinding. It’s just something I’m playing around with and loving! This chorizo recipe is simple, and although I give a few grinding tips in this recipe, you do not need to grind your own meat to make delicious chorizo. Using well marbled ground pork from the Mega Market will give you a great chorizo. I just like to be a little extra 😬.
What else can I do with my chorizo and potatoes?
Want more from your Chorizo? Add fluffy scrambled eggs, Monterey Jack cheese, and the salsa, and wrap it all up in a warm flour tortilla for the best Breakfast Burrito you've ever had (that's a quote, from this morning's breakfast!)
Looking for more Latin flavors?
Chorizo and Potato Tacos
Ingredients
Tomatillo Salsa
- ½ lb tomatillos husks removed and washed
- 1 Jalapeño cut in half lengthwise and deseeded if desired (some like it hot🔥. Also, this is the first place you can really adjust your heat. Add or take away peppers at will, depending on your heat preference)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- ½ cup water
- 2 teaspoon honey (made your salsa too spicy? Add a drizzle more honey to counteract the heat)
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Roasted Potatoes
- 2 lb potatoes cut in ½ inch cubes
- 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
Chorizo
- 2 lb ground pork (or nice fatty pork shoulder if you’ll be grinding your own sausage)
- 4 tablespoon chili powder (a little less if you don’t like it too spicy. You can always add more)
- 2 tablespoon smoked paprika
- 2 tablespoon chipotle powder (pretty spicy stuff. Like the chili powder, if you are unsure of how hot this will be, add less. You can always add more during the cooking process if you want more 🔥)
- ⅛ teaspoon cinnamon
- ⅙ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoon cilantro finely chopped
- 2 tablespoon dried oregano (Mexican, if you can find it. It has great citrus and floral notes, but regular will do fine.)
- 4 cloves garlic grated
- 2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
Finishing touches
- Chopped cilantro and white onion, a traditional Mexican taco topping 😋
- Sliced and seared jalapeño slices (optional, but SO GOOD. Searing them gives them a more smoky flavor and kind of tames the heat a bit)
- Slices of lime
- Corn tortillas, warmed by heating in a dry pan until lightly charred.
Instructions
Roasted Tomatillo Salsa
- Spray sheet pan with non-stick spray. Place tomatillos, jalapeños, and garlic on sheet pan. Drizzle with the oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place under broiler with the rack on the second level. Keep and eye on them and turn them over when the skins of the tomatillos start to brown and sizzle. When they are all brown or even close to blackened and the juices are running out of the tomatillos, remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes. This shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes.
- Place all the vegetables and their juices in your food processor with the water, honey, and salt. Purée until smooth and put into a container and put in the fridge to cool completely.
Making Chorizo
- Place all your spices and ground pork together in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Don’t be shy, get in there with your hands and mix it all up. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow chorizo to chill for at least an hour, so the spices can all marry together. If you can make the mixture the day before, even better, but not essential. I’ve cooked mine right after mixing and it was still delicious!
- An extra note for overachievers: You can grind your own sausage. I’m not going to go into the nitty gritty of meat grinding because I’m by no means an expert. These are just some of my tips and preferences 😊 If you have a meat grinder, you know the drill, use extremely cold meats (even partially frozen) and keep your grinder attachment very cold. Some people like to season their meat after grinding. I prefer to mix my spices with the meat before grinding so that the spices get really pushed into the meat. I also tend to use the coarse grinding plate more than any other because I like the texture of the meat better.
Roasting Potatoes
- Pretty simple. Preheat your oven to 425°. Lay your cut potatoes on a sheet pan that has been sprayed with non-stick spray (I really should own stock in a non-stick spray company, I use it so much). Drizzle with canola oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through, turning once. Set aside until your chorizo is cooked and ready to make friends.
Let’s Make Tacos!
- Cook the chorizo over medium high heat until the meat is thoroughly cooked and has crispy bits throughout, about 8-10 minutes. There will probably be less fat than you think, but if there’s more than you want, just drain some off or blot with paper towels. You’ll want to leave some fat in there to finish the potatoes, and everyone knows there’s flavor in the fat!
- Add the roasted potatoes into the cooked chorizo and stir together until the potatoes are caramelized and covered in the juices and fat from the chorizo. Oh, yeah. We aren’t making Spa food here, get that fat on them potatoes! Serve on warm corn tortillas, with your tomatillo salsa, cilantro, onion, and jalapeños. Add a squeeze of lime. Eat too many because they’re delicious and be okay with that. Unbutton your pants and sigh. Great job 👊
Notes
Nutrition
The nutritional and caloric information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It does not assert or suggest that readers should or should not count calories, and should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s or doctor’s counseling.
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