Sausage Ranchera

Lamb, goat, wild game, sausage, any other meats.

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mgwerks USER_AVATAR
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Sausage Ranchera

Postby mgwerks » Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:23 am

Here’s a little piece of Tex-Mex cooking I haven’t seen or heard of outside South Texas. I adapted it from
an old Mexican cook that worked in the cafeteria kitchen at my place of employment. He was a little vague
on some things, but after much experimentation I think this is about a perfect copy of the dish. He tasted
it and thought it was great – that makes it good enough for me! It's a great option to regular old breakfast
tacos, but is good anytime. It is served especially at our New Year's Day cowboy breakfasts.

INGREDIENTS:
2 lb. smoked pork sausage, cut into 3/8” medallions, halved
1 T real lard or highly filtered bacon grease
1 lg. white onion (or 2 medium), cut into 2” strips
1 lg. green bell pepper, cut into 2” strips
1 lg. red bell pepper, cut into 2” strips
3 lg. Hatch chiles, , cut into 2” strips
1 14.5 oz. can stewed tomatoes, chopped
3 8 oz. cans tomato sauce
1 T tomato paste

SPICES:
2 T round chili powder
1 T round black pepper, coarse-ground
1 T round paprika
1 T round cumin
1 T round garlic powder
½ t level cayenne pepper

METHOD:

Place lard into a large skillet and melt over medium heat. Add cut-up sausage, stirring often and frying
until sausage develops a crust (some blackening is okay!).

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Add onions and cook until translucent.

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Add next 6 ingredients and cook, stirring occasionally until softened.

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Add spices, stirring to incorporate. Mix in some water (about 8 oz or so) and reduce to a low simmer.
Cover and simmer (without boiling) for 2 hrs. This is really necessary to incorporate flavors and remove
the acidity of the tomatoes. Remove cover and cook to desired consistency. You don’t want it too liquid,
as it is served in tortillas and you don’t want it running down your arm!

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I like to serve it with salt and more pepper, chopped white onion and cilantro, and maybe a dash of lime
juice. Feel free to adjust heat factors, but try it this way first as a baseline.
Last edited by mgwerks on Sat Dec 19, 2009 12:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby JamesB » Wed Dec 31, 2008 6:32 am

Bring it and the flour torts on! That's a meal right there. Thanks for sharing.
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Postby OSD » Wed Dec 31, 2008 6:44 am

That sounds really good. :thap: If you add black-eyed peas to that recipe it's very close to a recipe I got from a friends mom from Louisiana. :D
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Postby bowhnter » Wed Dec 31, 2008 8:02 am

Man, that sounds good!
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Postby JaCK2U2 » Wed Dec 31, 2008 9:36 am

That will certainly be on my list of "soon to do" meals. That sounds really good. Looks like I may have next Saturdays meals taken care of. Thanks for posting that!
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Postby tex_toby » Wed Dec 31, 2008 10:51 am

Looks great, mgwerks! I beleive I could handle some of that! :wink:

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Postby Papa Tom » Wed Dec 31, 2008 11:44 am

I'm on ta that one....Thanks
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Postby DATsBBQ » Thu Jan 01, 2009 1:25 pm

This is on my to do list for next week! Would whole canned green chiles work? Haven't seen any Fresh hatch chiles around here for a couple of weeks.
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Postby mgwerks » Fri Jan 02, 2009 8:47 am

Thanks for all the kind words.

Yes, about 2 small cans of whole peeled Hatch chiles would work just fine. You could even use jarred roasted red peppers if you like.
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Postby Rich777 » Sat Jan 03, 2009 4:38 pm

That looks goooooooood. On the to do list for sure!
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Postby DATsBBQ » Sun Jan 11, 2009 10:16 am

mgwerks,
Thinking about making a up a batch of this today. Do you serve it over rice, in a bowl or what?
Thanks
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Postby Gator » Sun Jan 11, 2009 10:27 am

I would slap it on some warm flour tortillas... :wink:

Man-o-Man does it look good.
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Postby DATsBBQ » Sun Jan 11, 2009 5:43 pm

Got a half-batch on the stovetop right now. I did add a touch of salt, subbed chipotle pwd for the cayanne. Smells pretty good!
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Postby mgwerks » Sun Jan 11, 2009 7:11 pm

I am looking forward to your review of the dish. Nothing wrong with tweaking a recipe to make it the way you like!

My favorite way to eat it is on a nice warm flour tortilla - to which I add a dash of salt, a LOT of black pepper, a dash of garlic powder, and either chopped onions and fresh cilantro or pico de gallo (recipe on my blog). Two of those make a great breakfast to start the day.

I don't add those seasonings during the cook so each diner can do it their way. However you have it, enjoy!
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Postby DATsBBQ » Mon Jan 12, 2009 2:41 pm

Like a said earlier, made up a half batch. Did drift off course a little in that I subbed chipotle for the cayanne. At the end of the simmer thought it tasted a little flat so I added some Kosher salt, maybe a tsp. The Mrs suggested that we put a can of corn in, which we did. It added a little crunch.

Heat level approached the Mrs's upper limit. I thought it had a bite but it didn't bring a sweat to the forehead. We served it with shredded cheddar on top, rice on the bottom with tortia chips and a flour tortia on the side.
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The Mrs must have liked it, cause she broke out the fancy china bowls. :wink:

First time I've ever had this, so I don't have a point of reference to "judge" it. That said, the recipe has been added to our 3 ring binder of recipes.

A half batch made about 4 servings, so a full batch would be good to serve when there is a bunch of folks to feed.
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