Chorizo Pizza with Caramelized Onions and Goat Cheese
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My chorizo pizza uses cured Spanish chorizo, sliced thin so the edges curl and crisp in the oven. Caramelized onions, goat cheese, and peppery arugula balance all that smoky paprika heat.
There are two very different pizzas hiding behind the words chorizo pizza. Most versions use fresh Mexican chorizo, cooked and crumbled like ground beef. Mine uses cured Spanish chorizo, sliced thin like pepperoni.
Cured chorizo is already cooked, so it never goes grey and crumbly in the oven. The slices curl at the edges and release paprika-stained oil into everything around them, which is most of why this chorizo pizza tastes the way it does. Against all that smoke and salt, there are sweet caramelized onions, tangy goat cheese, and a handful of arugula added after it comes out of the oven. You won’t find mozzarella anywhere, and that’s deliberate. I find that a blanket of melted cheese flattens the toppings into one flavor, and I’d rather taste each one.
The sauce earns its ten minutes too: tomato sauce simmered down with garlic, oregano, a little sugar, and a teaspoon of balsamic that quietly does a lot of work.
Twenty minutes of prep, ten in the oven. I use my homemade pizza dough when I’ve planned ahead, but store-bought crust holds up fine under these toppings.
What kind of chorizo to buy
Chorizo is two mostly unrelated products sold under one name, and my recipe only works with one of them.
Cured Spanish chorizo is what you want. It’s firm, deep red, and hangs in a dry casing like salami. It’s already cooked and cured, so you slice it thin and eat it as is. On the pizza the slices curl up at the edges, crisp a little, and release paprika-stained oil into the onions underneath. That oil is doing half the flavor work here. Look for it near the deli counter or the cured meats, not with the raw sausages. Portuguese chouriço works the same way.
Fresh Mexican chorizo is the other one. It’s soft and raw, usually wrapped like an Italian sausage, and it’s ground rather than sliceable. It has to be cooked and crumbled before it touches the dough. It’s a good product, it just gives you a completely different pizza, closer to taco flavors than what’s happening here.
If fresh is what you’ve got, cook it in a dry skillet over medium heat until it’s crumbly and cooked through, about six minutes, then drain off the fat and scatter it over the sauce. You’ll lose the crisp curled edges, and it pairs better with something sharper than goat cheese, so I’d reach for a crumbled cotija or queso fresco instead.
A note on heat. Cured Spanish chorizo comes in sweet (dulce) and hot (picante), both made with smoked paprika. Picante is what I use. If you can only find dulce, the chili flakes in the sauce will carry the heat.
Chorizo Pizza with Caramelized Onions and Goat Cheese
Ingredients
The Sauce
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- 1 small garlic clove (finely minced)
- 1 ½ teaspoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon oregano
- 1 pinch sea salt
- Optional: ¼ teaspoon chilli flakes
Chorizo Pizza
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 2 large yellow onions (thinly sliced)
- 1 pinch sea salt
- 2 pizza crusts (12-inches each)
- 10 ounces curred chorizo (casing removed and sliced thinly)
- 2 ounces goat cheese (or more)
- 2 handfuls baby arugula
- A drizzle of olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Add the pizza sauce ingredients to a small pot with high sides and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and let it simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, or until thickened. Whisk the sauce every few minutes while it is cooking. When it starts to splatter a lot, cover the pot halfway with a lid. DO NOT cover it all the way, or the sauce won't thicken.1 cup tomato sauce, 1 small garlic clove, 1 ½ teaspoons sugar, 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar, ¼ teaspoon oregano, Optional: ¼ teaspoon chilli flakes, 1 pinch sea salt
- While the sauce is boiling, make the rest of the pizza. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the onions and salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and brown, about 15 minutes.2 tablespoons cooking oil, 2 large yellow onions, 1 pinch sea salt
- Put the pizza dough on 2 large baking sheets and spread the sauce on both. Top with the caramelized onions, chorizo, and goat cheese.2 pizza crusts, 10 ounces curred chorizo, 2 ounces goat cheese
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the pizza is hot, bubbling, and the crust is golden. When the pizza is cooked, remove it from the oven and top it with some arugula and a drizzle of olive oil.A drizzle of olive oil, 2 handfuls baby arugula
Notes
Nutrition
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Delicious! I swore I would not be one of the people who change about everything that you created. One tiny change – I swear. I made my own dough. I have an easy recipe. I have made pizza before and thought my sauce was great until I did yours. Adding the balsamic vinegar was a game changer for me – YUM. Thanks – a keeper.
Hi Kristen, this looks delicious so I’m keen to try it with fresh pizza dough from my new Panasonic bread maker. Just wondering if there is any particular reason you use brown onions over red onions? I find the red ones have much more flavour when fried down so I’m interested to know if there was any specific reason for using brown/yellow.
We use yellow/brown onions because they are more common and we always have some in our fridge. But red onions will work just as well!
This sounds just as wonderful as your other super pizza recipes I have made. Yum: roasted Brussels Sprouts and blue cheese, summer Caprese among many others. Can’t wait to make this. Question: smoked or fresh chorizo?
So happy that you like the pizza recipes! For this one, I use cured chorizo – the type that you can slice and eat.
Love this pizza! I only have it once in a while but when I do I just enjoy it sooooo much 🙂
I have a wood pizza board/paddle I move the crust to after I have it rolled/stretched out. I then build the pizza on the board. Before I move the dough to the board I sprinkle some corn meal on it which allows the pizza to slide off into the oven..
I always use the parchemin paper and take it off half way thru. I cook my pizza on a pizza stone, 550 degree for 9 minutes almost on top of my oven. I finish with broil for the last min. Delicious!!
Good call on the parchment!
Wow!! This is the best pizza I’ve ever made and actually probably had anywhere. It’s so worth doing the tomato sauce base and the onions. I also used some buffalo mozerrella on the pizza before it went into the oven (not too much though – I hate pizzas drowning in cheese) but other than that I followed the recipe and it was so good I scoffed the lot in record time 🙂
I’m so happy you liked it! Spicy chorizo rules the world, doesn’t it?:)
Wow, this looks great – I have two chorizo sausages in the freezer so I’m cooking this tonight!
FWIW, I’ve never had an issue with pizza bases sticking to my pizza stone – I just sprinkle flour over the cold stone before putting it in the oven and heating it up. I prepare the pizza on a largish chopping board scattered with flour and then slide it straight on to the stone in the hot oven – really not sure why you’d need a tool (even if it’s less than $20) to do this for you, but each to their own.
Btw Kristen, I love your recipes – just on this page alone I have pinned 4 other recipes I want to try 🙂
I’ll have to try flouring the cutting board next time. I don’t know why but the pizza always seems to stick to mine. Maybe I don’t add enough flour. 🙂
I sprinkle a small amount of finely ground corn meal onto the tray before laying the stretched dough down. I believe this is a traditional Neapolitan thing. I also love the added crunch.
That’s a great idea!
The best way to get pizza on a stone is to buy what is called a pizza peel – basically the wooden paddle looking thing that pizza places use to do the same thing – take pizzas in and out of the oven – less than $20 solves the problem. There is a simple trick to using them – rub flour into the top of the peel and then sprinkle a little more all over it. Put your dough on top and add your toppings. It also helps to give the peel a little shake every ten or so seconds while you’re building your pizza, so as to keep the moisture from transferring to the flour between the pizza and the peel. Then when ready, ‘shimmy’ the pizza off of the peel and onto the stone (that little shaking motion). When it’s done, you just slide the peel under the pizza and lift it out, as it was a big spatula!
Hey Mig,
I had thought that might be the only solution to my pizza sticking problem. My place is so tiny that I cringe at the thought of having to store anything other than absolute necessities. I think a pizza peel might have to be considered a necessity though. Thanks for letting me know!
A cookie sheet with no sides could be used instead of a peel and can be used for other things.
That’s a great idea!