Gameday Chorizo Dip with Johnsonville Sausage

By Philip Van der Vossen on September 7th, 2016

It’s been a long hot summer, but finally Football has returned and we couldn’t be happier. Football season for us means gathering friends, whether it’s for a Fantasy Football draft or real-live college or pro action, and we’re going to need to feed those friends. So we were delighted when the folks at Johnsonville Sausage challenged us to create a gameday recipe which highlights their product. When presented with all of the tasty options on the Johnsonville shelf of our grocer, Chorizo spoke to us loudest, so we’ve constructed a recipe where Johnsonville Chorizo is the star. We call it Gameday Chorizo Dip, and you can see it just begging to be eaten in that photograph above.

The Ingredients

First, let’s be clear that we generally don’t believe in recipes for savory dishes. We may look to a recipe for inspiration, but we use ingredients we like, and quantity is subjective. If you want to add something to our ingredient list, do it. You’re not going to hurt our feelings or break the dish. We also believe in keeping things simple though, so for our Gameday Chorizo Dip we have seven ingredients :

Johnsonville Chorizo Sausage
Black Beans
Corn
Salsa
Mexican Cheese Mix
Tomato
Green Onions

We used fresh corn because it was on sale at the store (and it’s better), but if you want a bit less work you can clearly use canned corn. We also selected plum tomatoes for the same reason, but again feel free to use whatever tomato that makes you happy. Where we would definitely say not to stray from our ingredient list is when it comes to the sausage. Chorizo is definitely the star of this dish, and hot Italian just isn’t the same.

The Grill

Normally you’ll find us outside cooking on the grill, but the weather has been brutal recently, either hot or raining every day. So a complimentary Johnsonville Sizzling Sausage Grill to use for our dish could not have arrived at a better time, and it made cooking the sausage easier than ever. As you can see, it’s perfectly suited to the task and operating it is only a one button proposition. The Chorizo was cooked to perfection in less than 15 minutes, which allowed us the time to work on the other ingredients in our dish. You can get $20 off your own Sizzling Sausage Grill by using the code “sizzle2”. We can’t think of a better way to spend your Fantasy Football winnings.

The Dip

While the Chorizo is cooking, you’ll have time to prepare the other ingredients. First, make sure to pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees for the final bake. To make sure the fresh corn was cooked, we wrapped it in a moist paper towel and heated it in the microwave for 2 minutes. We then cut the corn off the cob, and combined it with rinsed (and drained) canned black beans and salsa. Again the type of salsa and measurements are up to you, do what makes you happy. When the Chorizo is done cooking, use a sharp knife to cut it into bit sized pieces to mix with the veggies. We then topped our dip with Mexican cheese and put it in the oven for about ten minutes to heat and melt the cheese.

Bake and Serve

For added flavor and presentation, we garnished the top of our Gameday Chorizo Dip with fresh tomato and green onion. Obviously since we’re calling this a dip, the intent is to serve it with Tortilla chips, but you could also wrap it in a tortilla or even eat it low carb style. As intended the Chorizo is definitely the star of this dish, and it has a unique flavor that is a welcome departure from the chicken and steak that we typically eat in Mexican dishes. Prep time was about half an hour and our ingredients yielded enough to serve four people, unless they are linemen. Serve our Gameday Chorizo Dip this weekend when you gather the guys for Football, and we guarantee they’ll love it.