What Is Portuguese sausage and How Can I Use It?
Wondering what to do with portuguese sausage? This guide covers how to pick it, cook it, store it, and swap it, plus 3 recipes to put it to work.
Key Points
- Smoked pork sausage cured with garlic and paprika; linguica is milder, chourico fatter and spicier.
- Both are pre-cooked; brown the cut faces to render the paprika oil before building a soup or stew.
- A Hawaiian breakfast staple; swap with Spanish chorizo, the closest match for the smoke and paprika.
What is portuguese sausage?
Portuguese sausage usually means linguica or the spicier chourico: smoked pork sausage cured with garlic and paprika, often with a splash of wine or vinegar. It is deep red and firm, intensely savory, with a smoky garlic punch that flavors a whole pot.
Linguica is the milder, leaner one. Chourico runs fatter, coarser, and hotter. Both are smoked and pre-cooked, so they only need heating through.
In the United States, it is also a Hawaiian breakfast icon, sliced and griddled alongside eggs and rice on countless plate lunches and morning plates.
Using and Swapping
Slice it into coins and brown the cut faces to render the paprika oil, then build soups and stews on that flavored fat. It anchors Portuguese Kale Soup and Portuguese Spicy Bean Stew, along with Princess Poopoalis Portuguese Soup.
Add it early enough to flavor the broth but go easy on extra salt, since the sausage is already well-seasoned and salty.
For a swap, Spanish chorizo is the closest match for the smoke and paprika. Andouille works when you want more heat, and a good kielbasa stands in if you add a pinch of smoked paprika to make up for the missing color and warmth.
Quick facts
- In Chinese
- 葡萄牙香肠
- British (UK) term
- Portuguese sausage
- en français
- saucisse portugaise
- en español
- salchichas portugués
Recipes using portuguese sausage
There are 3 recipes that contain this ingredient.
Portuguese Kale Soup
Portuguese kale soup (caldo verde-style) with linguica or chourico, kidney beans, cabbage, and potatoes. A hearty New England-Portuguese immigrant classic.
Princess Poopoalis Portuguese Soup
Hearty Portuguese soup with smoked ham shanks, linguica sausage, kidney beans, cabbage, and potatoes in a tomato broth. A loaded one-pot meal built on smoky ham stock.
