The Best Chorizo Quiche Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Is milk better than heavy cream in quiche? ›

Heavy Cream and Milk – For the best tasting quiche, use a combination of whole milk and heavy cream. (Or simply use half-and-half.) Using just heavy cream produces an overly thick filling. Whole milk is great, but a combo of heavy cream and milk is better.

Cured chorizo doesn't require any cooking at all: Simply slice and eat! For raw and semi-cured chorizo varieties, you'll generally want to remove the casing (if there is any) and fry in a hot, dry pan until the chorizo is cooked through and the fat has rendered out.

Blind Bake the Crust

One of the fool-proof ways to ensure a crisp bottom pie crust is to do what is called blind baking. This simply means that you bake the crust—either fully if you are adding a custard or cream that won't be cooked, or partially if the whole pie needs to bake—before adding the filling.

Wet fillings will produce a soggy quiche

These vegetables, while tasty, have a high water content when raw, which will weep into the quiche as it bakes.

The ratio maintains your custard's consistency. A good quiche custard typically features: 1 large egg to 1/2 cups of dairy. The dairy can be any combination of milk and/or half-and-half, for example: 1 large egg : ½ cup milk.

Mexican chorizo is typically seasoned with vinegar and chile peppers, while Spanish chorizo is made with garlic and pimentón (Spanish smoked paprika, either sweet or hot), which gives it its deep brick-red color and smoky flavor.

I love pairing chorizo with clams, bell peppers and, surprisingly, pears, which balance out the smoky heat of the chorizo with a fresh, sweet flavor. All of these types can be used interchangeably, but don't forget to cook the fresh Mexican variety before eating!

As you cook the chorizo, it will break apart similar to ground meat and produce grease. Consistently stir the chorizo until it has fully cooked, and drain any excess fat at the end of the cooking process.

And yes, as you'll see, you should always prebake quiche crust to avoid a gummy pastry. Preheat the oven to 450°F. Roll out your homemade or purchased refrigerated dough into a 12-inch circle.

The Kitchn cautions that using too many eggs can make the consistency of the quiche rubbery and tough, while using too few eggs can prevent the custard filling from setting properly, giving you a runny, soggy quiche. The recommended proportion is one egg to one-half cup of cream or milk.

Should vegetables be cooked before putting in quiche? ›

"Vegetables will take longer to cook than your egg custard, so always sauté onions, steam broccoli, etc. before you add them to your egg mixture to ensure every bite of quiche will be perfectly cooked," says Kristin Beringson, executive chef at Henley in Nashville.

Give yourself a smart head start

Blind-bake your base before adding a filling to help to firm the base and avoid liquid being absorbed into it. Prick the base with a fork to help steam escape, cover with foil or parchment, and weigh it down with ceramic baking beans, uncooked rice or white sugar.

The eggs need to be diluted with milk or cream, but if you use too much dairy, there will not be enough proteins from the eggs to set the quiche. The right ratio of milk to eggs allows the protein in the eggs to coagulate and set up a firm structure for the quiche.

Full-fat dairy products such as heavy whipping cream contain more of the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K than low-fat or nonfat dairy. Also, your body absorbs fat-soluble vitamins better when you consume them with fat.

Whole milk creates a nice texture to your quiche, but doing a combination of heavy cream and milk increases the fat content and creates a slightly richer texture.

Combing butter with milk is a great way to create a substitute for cream if you run out or don't have any on hand. If you need 1 cup of cream use 1/4 cup of butter and 3/4 cups of milk. However, this only works for recipes that need the cream for flavor or for making the dish more creamy.