I have a recipe that calls for ground chorizo, but I don't own a meat grinder and my local grocery store only sells chorizo sausages. Now, I guess I could mince the sausages and maybe achieve the same effect, but my question is, if I remove the casing from the sausage, will the insides essentially be ground chorizo?
edit: here's the recipe, http://www.johnsonville.com/recipe/chorizo-mac-skillet.html, it specifically calls for Johnsonville brand ground chorizo, so I'm unsure if it's Mexican or Spanish chorizo. That brand unfortunately isn't sold at my grocery store.
Best Answer
Assuming that the "chorizo sausage" that you are referring to has some manner of skin on the outside (and is "Mexican Chorizo" - see comments), you can do what I have done on occasion, slice lengthwise down one side of the sausage and turn it inside out, and discard the skin. Voila, instant 'ground chorizo'. You might need to squeeze the sausage together and then break it up as it cooks, but it should work out fine.
In one case (with Italian sausage links) I had to run the meat through a food processor for just a few moments to thoroughly break apart the sausage form, just don't over do it if you need to do this.