An Asturian tapa of fresh cooking chorizo braised in natural apple cider until the liquid reduces to a glossy, faintly sweet sauce. The whole or sliced sausages are first browned, then simmered in cider that part-evaporates and part-soaks into the meat. It is a cider-house staple, served hot in a small earthenware dish with bread to mop the sauce. Simple, fast, and built on the two pillars of Asturian larder: pork and cider.
Asturias, the cool, misty north of Spain where apple orchards blanket the hills and the sidrería (cider house) is a social institution; the region presses a dry, still natural cider poured from height to aerate it. The dish is unrecorded as a formal invention — it is a tavern tapa born of the two things every Asturian cider house already has on hand, cooking chorizo and cider, and it spread through Spain as a quick bar plate.
Plump rounds of chorizo, the cut faces lightly seared, glistening in a thin syrupy sauce stained orange-red by the sausage's own paprika fat. The bite is rich, smoky and savoury, with the dry cider cutting the fat and leaving a clean, faintly tart-sweet finish rather than heaviness. Served sizzling and eaten on bread that has soaked up the reduced cider. Best hot, when the fat is still soft.
Two things happen in the pan. First a brief sear browns the cut faces and renders some fat through Maillard reaction, deepening the smoky-savoury flavour. Then the cider goes in: as it reduces over moderate heat for 15-20 minutes its water boils off and its sugars and acids concentrate into a light glaze, while the alcohol cooks away and the sausage releases pimentón-stained fat that emulsifies into the syrup. Pricking the skins first lets fat and steam escape so the casings don't burst. The cider's acidity also balances the chorizo's richness.
Variations
Some cooks slice the chorizo into coins, others braise whole links and slice at the table; a few add a bay leaf or a thin disc of apple to the cider; outside Asturias the dish is sometimes made with red wine instead of cider; the same technique is applied to morcilla (blood sausage) a la sidra. In a sidrería it arrives alongside other small plates of cheese, tortilla and cured meats.
On the Palate
Where Chorizo a la Sidra sits in the Spanish flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4How it's made
5 steps · 5 min
- 12 min
Prick the chorizo sausages all over with a knife tip so they do not burst.
Watch outPrick the skins all over first — trapped fat and steam burst the casings otherwise, spitting hot oil as they cook.
- 25 min
Heat a little olive oil in a wide pan and brown the chorizo, whole or sliced, on all sides.
- 36 min
Pour in enough natural dry cider to almost cover, bring to a boil over high heat for about 5 minutes.
- 418 min
Lower the heat and simmer 15-20 minutes, turning the sausages, until the cider reduces to a glossy sauce.
Watch outSimmer 15-20 minutes until the cider reduces to a glossy glaze — the pimentón fat emulsifies into the syrup as it concentrates.
- 52 min
Slice if cooked whole, tip into a warm earthenware dish, and serve hot with crusty bread.
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