Portuguese Roasted Chorizo & Potatoes

This is the last of my Portuguese series for awhile, that is until I cook more Portuguese food. I have a feeling it won’t be too long again before that happens. 🙂 I made some Portuguese roasted chorizo & potatoes, or batatas com chourico assado.

Batatas com chouriço assado (roasted potatoes with smoked sausage) is a traditional Portuguese comfort dish rooted in rural peasant cooking and a long Iberian tradition of pork curing, designed to make hearty, flavorful meals from pantry staples. This dish reflects a history of survival, resourcefulness, and the celebration of pig slaughtering (matança) as a community event. This dish, along with many others, grew out of a need to feed large families using available, humble ingredients like potatoes and cured sausages, often enhanced with olive oil, garlic, and onions. While popular nationwide, this style of dish is particularly tied to regions like Alentejo, Trás-os-Montes, and Beira Interior, where cured pork is central to the diet. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Historically, in rural Portugal, families raised pigs, which were slaughtered at the start of winter to provide meat for the entire year. Smoking and curing allowed them to preserve meat, making chouriço a staple ingredient available during winter months.

Unlike Spanish chorizo, Portuguese chouriço is typically smoked, fully cooked, and less spicy, providing a smoky flavor and a savory sauce as it cooks. It is commonly sliced into thick chunks or added whole into dishes. Portuguese chourico and Mexican/Spanish chorizo are both spiced pork sausages. However, Mexican chorizo is fresh and not fully cooked, and Spanish chorizo is cured. Portuguese chourico is a smoked sausage, so it is fully cooked and ready to eat.

Roasted Chourico and Potatoes

When I made my batatas com chourico assado, of course I added a little of my own personality to it, and made it my dish. That’s just what I do. 🙂

1 lb sausage or cooked chorizo, or chourico if you can find it

4-5 large potatoes, peeled and sliced thin

6 oz tomato sauce

6 oz beer

1 tsp kosher salt

*1/2 tsp Portuguese all spice

2 red chili peppers, seeded and diced fine

1 TBSP minced garlic

1 onion, sliced very thin

3-4 medium tomatoes, sliced or diced

fresh basil and/or parsley, chopped

*Portuguese all spice

1 TBSP orange zest

4 TBSP paprika

1 TBSP granulated garlic

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp white pepper

Mix everything together well. This will make about 1/2 cup and is good to store and use again later.

Preheat the oven to 375* F or 190-191*C.

Spray a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray.

Mix the beer, tomato sauce, salt, peppers and Portuguese all spice together and set aside.

Add a layer of the sliced potatoes on the bottom of the baking dish.

Then add a layer of onions on top.

Add the tomatoes.

Top with the sauce.

Add the sliced chourico. If you have enough left over of all the other ingredients, and room left in your baking dish, feel free to repeat the layering process.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake for between 2-2 1/2 hours, or until the potatoes are cooked. Remove the foil and continue to cook for another 15 minutes. Top with the chopped basil and or parsley and serve hot, with any of your favorite Portuguese side dishes and a Portuguese red wine. Enjoy.

Have a great day and make everyday great. Live life to the fullest and enjoy. ‘Til next time.