05/23/2018 – This was our first ever batch of Chaurice (pronounced shore-EESE) sausage and it was great. Far more flavorful than andouille although need to try John Folse’s andouille as this followed fairly closely John’s recipe for chaurice here. Be sure to read the notes from when we tried it in August. It was good AND spicy.

His intro “Comment” below was interesting and helpful.

COMMENT: Chaurice is a spicy pork sausage used extensively in Creole cooking. One of the few sausages seasoned with fresh vegetables, it is seen time and time again in different presentations on the Creole table. It is related to the Spanish chorizo which is commonly used in paella, the forefather of our own jambalaya. Chorizo was also used to flavor garbanzo beans. Today in South Louisiana, chaurice is seen most often as a pan-fried side dish for white or red beans. Although much more common in Creole cooking, chaurice is used from time to time by the Cajuns as well.

We followed his recipe and method below with the exceptions as noted.

Needed more green onion

INGREDIENTS:

4 pounds pork butt
2 pounds pork fat
2 cups onions, finely diced. [One large red onion]
1 cup celery, finely diced
1/2 cup garlic, finely diced. [Req’d 2 average cloves]
A little less than 2 cups green onions, finely chopped
1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped
1 tbsp dry thyme
1/4 cup cracked black pepper
2 tbsps cayenne pepper
3 tbsps salt
1/2 cup ice water
12 feet pork casing

METHOD:
Cut an 8 lb. pork butt into 1 1/2-inch pieces that ended up about 6 lb.12 oz. Chilled the pork for about an hour in the deep freezer then mixed in the spices. Returned it to the deep freezer where the grinder was chilling. Should have mixed in the spices before it went into the freezer although Folse added the seasoning with the veggies after grinding the meat.

After about 1.5 hours ground the meat/fat and seasoning with a coarse chopping plate. In a large mixing bowl, combine all remaining ingredients. Blend well to ensure that all pieces are evenly distributed throughout the sausage. Add ice water to keep fat in sausage congealed. This will also add moisture to the sausage. Once ingredients are well blended, use the sausage attachment on your meat grinder to stuff into casings. You should section the sausage at 1-foot intervals by twisting the casing as it fills. Tie off the sausage at each end using a heavy gauge twine. The sausage may then be frozen. Mixed in the diced veggies with our hands then packaged it in vac bags in 1 lb and 1.5 lb lots.  Saved 1.3 lb. to try tomorrow evening.

Folse said: To cook, place chaurice in a heavy-bottom sauté pan with approximately 1/4 cup cold water. Bring to a low simmer and cover. Cook approximately 30 minutes, adding water if necessary. Uncover pan and raise the temperature to medium-high. Continue cooking until sausage is brown on all sides, approximately 15 minutes. Note – Simmering in water did not sound good to us so we did essentially the same thing but cooked in slowly in hot oil until almost to 160 then seared them; i.e. a reverse sear.

5/24/2018 – Made two large, thick patties about a half pound each. Heated a CI skillet with oil and added the patties to sizzle slowly. When their IT was 155 and 160 Mary: removed the patties; poured off the oil and melted fat; heated up the skillet to sear the patties; after a few minutes it was hot and so seared the patties until there were brown, grilled spots on each side.

Served them with our homemade red beans and slaw. VERY good patties with a nice texture of chewy tender meat chunks that were spicy hot but not too much. My concern that the veggies were not diced evenly or small enough was not an issue. What was essentially a reverse sear worked out great.

8/10/2018 – Thawed 1.5 lb. vac pack portion and browned 1 lb. to use in our Shrimp & Chaurice Etouffee. Had to add a couple tablespoons of bacon grease as the sausage did not make its own.  The flavor was mild. The large chunky bits were ok in this dish but if they had been smaller it would have been better.

8/12/2018 – Made the 1/2 lb. left from the etouffee into two large patties and fried them for breakfast with fried eggs. They were very spicy hot and Mary could not eat hers. Mine had a good flavor along wth the heat.