My Mom makes the most amazing Chouriço & Peppers sandwiches. We just celebrated my son’s 3rd birthday and of course I asked my Mom to make this delightful treat. I also asked that she be sure I was there to document her exact steps with my trusty camera, so you get the recipe right from the source.
Five easy ingredients, one pot, and three simple steps make for a new favorite week night meal, pot luck contribution, tail gating staple or party request time and time again. I don’t think I can ever recall a Portuguese party that did not have some version of this sandwich piled up on a platter. But, I have to say every time I bring these little sandwiches with this specific recipe to a party, I hear nothing but compliments and requests for the recipe. This past weekend was no exception. People ate them right up and kept coming back for more! So here it is…
Here is the start.
This is ground chouriço… Most recipes involving chouriço that I have shared thus far have involved chouriço in its original form… but this is a version sold without the skin and ground up.
It’s the same price as regular chouriço and for this recipe we are starting with 3 lbs. because this is for a party.
A lot of people like to use green bell peppers for this recipe, but I am not a fan of the green, I prefer the sweeter red, orange and yellow. This is total personal preference. If you want to go the traditional route, go ahead and use green.
Three small cans of tomato sauce. We like to use plain Hunt’s… not ‘no salt added’ not ‘italian seasoning’ …just plain.
My mom likes to dice her onions pretty finely, she is not a fan of chunky onions in anything.
The peppers however, are diced up pretty big, each piece is roughly chopped to the size of between a nickel and a quarter. Saute both onions and peppers in a bit of olive oil for just a few minutes.
Add in all the tomato sauce and stir.
Now you want to add in about 8 oz. of beer per pound of chouriço.
Add in chouriço.
Stir. Notice how thick the consistency is when you start out.
Cover, lower heat to medium/low and allow to simmer.
As the cooking process goes on some of the fat is released from the chouriço and it becomes much more liquidy. Continue to cook until that liquid gets reduced by about half. In the end, you still want it moist.
Each brand of chouriço has a different level of fat, this recipe is based on Michael’s Provisions Chouriço which has a low fat content and so it produces less liquid when cooking… If you are using a chouriço with a higher fat content, you may need to cook longer to cook off some of the liquid.
Recipe for Mom’s Amazing Chouriço & Peppers:
(makes 30 party size sandwiches)
3 lbs. ground chouriço
3 bell peppers, large dice
3 onions, small dice
3 small cans tomato sauce
24 oz. beer
olive oil
30 mini portuguese sandwich rolls (or lg. rolls cut in half)
Directions:
Saute onions and peppers in olive oil. Add in chouriço, tomato sauce and beer. Cover and simmer over medium/low heat for about 1 hour. When liquid is reduced by about half, turn off heat and stuff sandwiches. (The meat should be very moist, but not soupy.)
Enjoy!
***NOTE: this recipe is a one to one ratio throughout, so if you want to cut it down or increase the amount, just do so in kind… for example to make for a family dinner use 1 lb. chouriço, 1 small can tomato sauce, one pepper, one onion and 8 oz. of beer 🙂
What brand of beer is best to use in this ??
Hey Wanda… any kind of domestic beer is fine. You just don’t want anything with a strong flavor one way or another, so no dark beers… In this tutorial my mom used Coors Light I believe.
This looks absolutely delicious! I am Portuguese and Cape Verdean, I love our food and I look forward to trying your authentic recipes! Yum :).
So glad to hear it India! I love sharing my families recipes so I hope you enjoy!
Hi Stacy … I made this recipe and followed it exact but found it very liquidy. Is that tge way it should be?
Nope… Did you let it simmer for an hour after adding in everything? How many pounds of chouriço did you use?
I did the 3 pounds followed it exactly .. let it simmer there was so much liquid I let it simmer longer than an hour .. and it was still liquidy I don’t know what was wrong used same ingrediants.
Hm… that’s so odd… we make this recipe quite often and it’s pretty well tested, the only think I can think is that you are using a super fatty chourico… Try reducing the amount of beer… if you are doing 3 lbs. of chourico, try just one can of beer instead of one and a half cans… simmer with the lid off. see if that helps …what brand of chourico are you using?
If you live in a God forsaken part of the country where you can’t get Portuguese sandwich rolls, what would be the closest substitute?
I would say an Italian bread or a country French. Just be sure it’s fresh. But you can also use finger rolls for these and they are great!
From my country in Ponta Delgada, Azores. They used Sagres or Super Bock. Delicious!
Very delicious where I came from and my mom always made it. Now i am making it too but beer ? Sound delicious and I am trying beer as an option for it. However, potato chip ? Ugh! Its so americanized. Portuguese culture doesn’t used this on side. 🙂
Ah… but if you make your own potato chips, then there you have it!
Maybe for you but I am sticking to where I grew up and potato chips to make your own or not doesn’t existed in our country. Today, they still don’t use the potato chip with it at all. I ate it with Sagres (A name of beer in Portugal) and so delicious!