Spanish Mussels with Chorizo and Cream

Why you’ll love this recipe: Spanish mussels with chorizo and cream makes a quick and easy meal for one or two people, with a smoky, flavorful broth with crusty bread or as a sauce for pasta.

There are only two people in our household, and I’m the only one of us who eats seafood. That’s not the only reason I love to cook mussels and other bivalves, but it’s certainly a plus.

Mussels are ideal for those of us who are looking for small-batch seafood meals, with the super bonus that they’re an environmentally sustainable seafood choice.

And, like my beloved clams, the basic technique of cooking mussels is simple, but it offers a lot of room for variation.

When I was testing recipes for my Acadia National Park artist-in-residence project, Maine Ingredients, I went down a little bit of a rabbit hole thinking of all the ways one could flavor mussels and clams.

I kept it simple for my Acadia recipe, but I couldn’t get this version off my mind.

This recipe for Spanish mussels with chorizo and cream uses about five ingredients to give you loads of smoky richness, with a broth that’s tailor-made for serving with lots of crusty bread.

How to clean and prep mussels

The most time-consuming part of making mussels is checking and cleaning them before they’re cooked. And even that doesn’t take too much time if you’re buying your mussels from a good seafood market.

Most of the time, mussels come pre-weighed in a 2-pound bag, which is ample for two people to eat as a main course or for four people to split as an appetizer.

You can buy your mussels the day before you want to cook them, but don’t just leave them in the bag.

Transfer the mussels to a large bowl. As you gently move them, look at each mussel shell individually.

Discard any mussels with cracked shells or any that are stuck open. Those are already dead, and you want your mussels live until the moment they’re steamed.

Cover the bowl with a damp towel and keep in the coldest part of your fridge until the next day.

Then rinse and scrub each mussel under cold running water with a vegetable brush or other bristle brush. You can even use an old, clean toothbrush as your scrub brush.

If any mussels have “beards,” which, yes, is the technical term for the little gray fuzzy bits peeking out between the shells, just yank them off.

Place in a clean bowl and continue prepping the rest of your ingredients.

Spanish chorizo: salty and spicy

In this recipe, I use Spanish hard chorizo to give the broth a distinctive smoky, garlicky flavor and ruddy color.

Spanish chorizo is a cured sausage, like a hard salami, so you’ll find it either sliced in the deli section of the market or sold in packaged links at room temperature.

Fresh chorizo, on the other hand, is typically known as Mexican chorizo. You’ll find it in the butcher case or meat department, where it comes in refrigerated linked casings.

Both are spiced and often spicy, but for my Spanish mussels, I like the cured version.

Diced and sauteed in olive oil, it lends so much aroma and savoriness to the broth. It’s like using pancetta or guanciale in spaghetti carbonara, or using bacon in… well, pretty much anything.

What if I can’t find Spanish chorizo?

If you can’t find hard Spanish chorizo in your market, you can substitute fresh chorizo, though the flavor profile and texture will be slightly different.

You’ll only need about 1 link of sausage for the mussels recipe. Remove from its casing and saute in olive oil until browned.

If you’d like to avoid pork altogether, you can substitute a few other spices in place of the diced chorizo. Here’s a quick swap-in:

• Increase the amount of olive oil in the pan to 2 tablespoons.
• Add 1 teaspoon Spanish pimenton or smoked paprika and 1 large garlic clove, minced, with the shallot.
• If you want it to be a little spicier, add a pinch of cayenne pepper too.

Spanish Mussels with Chorizo and Cream

Yield: 2 servings

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Spanish mussels with chorizo and cream makes a quick and easy meal or appetizer for a party. It's served with a smoky, flavorful broth for crusty bread or as a sauce for pasta.

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Ingredients

• 1 (2-pound) bag of mussels
• 1 baguette
• 2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 3 ounces hard Spanish chorizo, roughly diced (see Notes)
• 2 medium shallots, finely chopped
• 3/4 cup dry Spanish white wine
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped (about 1 tablespoon chopped)

Instructions

1. Rinse the mussels well under running water and scrub with a bristle brush or old (clean!!) toothbrush to remove any grit.
2. If any mussels have little fuzzy gray "beards" sticking out of the shells, yank them off.
3. If any mussels are cracked or won't close, discard them.
4. Set the mussels aside in a bowl while you prep the rest of the meal.
5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
6. Slice the baguette and arrange the slices in a single layer on a large sheet pan.
7. Brush the slices with 1 1/2 tablespoons of the olive oil.
8. Toast the baguette slices for 7-10 minutes, until golden brown at the edges.
9. Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large (5- to 7-quart) Dutch oven or other heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat.
10. Add the chorizo and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the pieces are starting to crisp up.
11. Add the shallots and cook for about 3 minutes more, stirring frequently, until they're translucent and starting to soften a bit.
12. Add the wine and bring to a simmer.
13. Add the reserved mussels, cover the pot, and cook for 6-8 minutes to let the mussels steam.
14. You can start to peek and check the mussels after 6 minutes. Remove any opened mussels with tongs and transfer to a clean bowl if you're using a smaller pot and the mussels feel a little crowded.
15. If any mussels remain stubbornly unopened, discard them.
16. Add the cream and bring to a simmer. Cook for 1-2 minutes more.
17. Stir in the parsley.
18. Divide the mussels and broth between 2 large bowls. Serve with the toasted baguette slices for dipping.

Notes

Spanish chorizo, like other varieties of hard salami, is aged in a protective papery casing that needs to be removed before slicing and eating the sausage. It's easy to do: just slice a bit down the side of the salami and peel it away.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 2 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 1071Total Fat: 50gSaturated Fat: 17gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 30gCholesterol: 95mgSodium: 1691mgCarbohydrates: 100gFiber: 6gSugar: 13gProtein: 41g

The nutritional information above is computer-generated and only an estimate.

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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in December 2010 and completely updated in March 2023 with a new recipe, text, and photography.