Chorizo Verde: From Houston to Toluca to California
The first time I encountered Chorizo Verde or its preparation, it was when I was working in Houston, getting ready to open the acclaimed restaurant Caracol with my good friend Chef Hugo Ortega. A family friend that had known my mom for many years and visited our cooking school, probably remembered me when I was five or six years old.
Later on in my career, when I was eager to take the next step. My mom was having lunch in Houston during a layover, she got invited to have lunch at Hugo’s with Tracy Vaught and Chef Hugo.
During lunch, after many years of catching up, Hugo shared that they were going to open a new Mexican coastal restaurant. She happily shared that I was working in a seafood restaurant in San Antonio and that I was looking for my next endeavor. Hugo then graciously extended an invitation to be opening sous chef for their restaurant.
So there I was in Houston at 21 years old as my first sous chef job. Incredibly nervous.
While construction finished at Caracol. You know, the per usual contractors taking forever. I started working at Hugo’s. There, I had my first encounter to taste authentic Mexican food in the States that genuinely brought my palate back home.
When developing the menu, Chef Hugo had this idea of doing clams with green chorizo served in a broth like a pozole, which I thought was incredibly unique and I was so exited to try the final dish. After the in-house butcher gave us the freshly ground pork (80 percent pork butt and 20 percent fat back) we added a marinate, massaged it really well and allowed it to sit over night. The morning after, we fried a sample and that was chorizo verde. This was my first time tasting this bright green, quite herbaceous and sharp sausage, it was delicious.
After two and a half years, my time at Caracol came to an end and I moved to Nashville. The first time, as executive chef. I was doing research and development for ideas on specials and chorizo verde came to my mind. A first doing it on my own from start to finish.
Three years later, I had a rare week off and flew to Mexico City to visit my best friend Pedro. We planned on doing a road trip to some states in central Mexico: Michoacán, Guadalajara, Guanajuato and Querétaro. The first stop when we left Mexico City was Toluca. I continuously and obnoxiously was pushing Pedro to take me to eat there, even though, it wasn’t on our schedule.
The iconic chorizo verde that I've been making and heard of for many times but never been to the actual place that does it. Pedro being a good friend and a food enthusiast agreed to drive us to the center of Toluca, just an hour away from the west side of Mexico City.
Having left early morning, the green sausage would be our breakfast. We parked near by a market and found our way to a taco place. We put in our order as per usual “uno de cada uno”, meaning one of each kind.
The chorizo tacos arrived quickly and garnished with french fries. That was very new to me but apparently this is a very common way of eating tacos in this part of Mexico. A generous amount of salsa on them and there we were, quickly devouring these delicious tacos to calm our hunger due to common traffic congestion that is expected when leaving Mexico City.
We ordered a couple more.
This order was only our favorite, for myself three more and for Pedro as well, of course of chorizo verde. Off we went towards Michoacán.
Not long after, I moved to California, where I had the honor of working with Chef Thomas Keller to help open La Calenda.
One day working on specials, inspired by that taste in Toluca and my time with Hugo. I created something close to my memories: chorizo verde. This time instead of a taco, I served it in a sope with some beautiful purslane and wild greens from The French Laundry garden.
A memorable bite.
Buen provecho,
Kaelin
