Chouriço Assado
Portugal's flame-grilled chouriço: a whole smoky sausage doused with aguardente and lit at the table. Charred, sliced thick, eaten with bread.
Overview
This is the sort of thing you'd order in a Portuguese tavern after the third glass of wine, when the host decides you need a bit of theatre. A whole smoky chouriço sits in a small clay dish (a pig-shaped one if you're being properly Portuguese about it, or any heat-safe dish with high sides), gets drenched in brandy, and is lit with a long match at the table. Blue alcohol flames lick at the sausage for eight or ten minutes, the paprika caramelises into the rendered oil, and the kitchen fills with smoke. Then the flames die, the chouriço gets sliced thick, and you mop up the oil with a basket of bread. You can do this at home in an iron skillet. Light it carefully, mind the your eyebrows, let it burn out on its own, and serve hot with bread, olives, and another glass of whatever you're drinking.
Ingredients
- 1 whole Portuguese chouriço (A few small slits in the skin)
- 60 ml rum (40% or higher)
Equipment
- 1 heavy iron pan
- A long match or BBQ lighter
To serve
- Crusty bread (slices of rustic country loaf)
- Olives (Portuguese black)
- Pickled chillies
- A dish of olive oil (small)
- A glass of vinho verde (chilled) or a young red
Method
Stage 1 - Score the chouriço
- With a sharp knife, make 4-5 shallow slits along the length of the chouriço (1 cm deep, about 4 cm apart). These let the flames penetrate and the fat render.
Stage 2 - Set up the dish
- Place the chouriço in the assador or heat-safe dish.
- Pour the aguardente / spirit over to a depth of about 1 cm in the dish bottom (the chouriço should sit in a small pool).
Stage 3 - Light (carefully)
- At the table for theatre, with care: turn off any nearby gas; ensure no flammables overhead; have a saucepan lid nearby to smother flames if needed.
- Hold a long match or lighter to the spirit; light it.
- Blue flames will rise - they're hot but controlled because the alcohol level is low and the dish contains them.
Stage 4 - Cook in the flames
- The flames cook the chouriço over 8-10 minutes.
- As the alcohol burns off, the flames die down.
- Use tongs to turn the chouriço halfway through (carefully - flames can flare).
- The skin should char in patches; the fat should render and pool below the sausage.
Stage 5 - When the flames die
- Once the flames extinguish completely (about 8-10 minutes), the chouriço should be hot through, with charred skin and a pool of paprika-orange rendered fat below.
Stage 6 - Slice and serve
- Lift the chouriço onto a board.
- Slice into 1 cm coins.
- Arrange on a plate with bread, olives, pickled chillies.
- Drizzle some of the dish oil over the slices.
- Mop the rendered oil from the dish with bread - that's the best bit.
Stage 7 - Serve immediately
- Eat warm, with the fingers.
- Pair with vinho verde, a young red, or a glass of Madeira.
Notes
- Don't substitute fresh chorizo: Portuguese chouriço is cured (dried, smoked, sliceable raw). Fresh / raw paprika chorizo (the soft cooking kind) doesn't work for this dish - it'll cook unevenly and lose its shape.
- Safety: Lighting alcohol at the table is dramatic but requires care. Don't pour MORE alcohol onto an already-flaming dish (a flame can travel up the stream into the bottle). Use a long match. Have a saucepan lid nearby to smother flames.
- The rendered fat is the best part: Don't waste it. Mop with bread, drizzle over the slices, or pool a small spoonful onto each slice.
Storage
- Eat immediately. Doesn't store.
- An un-flamed chouriço keeps cured for weeks/months wrapped in butcher's paper in the fridge.
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