Adventures in cheap packaged food: Chata Chilorio de Pavo

This food series started after grocery shopping in Mexico. There was a lot of unfamiliar stuff, but I decided to give it a try. Today’s food sort of brings things full circle, because it’s a producto de México.

I was in the Mexican foods aisle, trying to choose refried beans when I saw some stuff in a foil pack. I’ve had pretty good luck with packs of flavored tuna and chicken, so I checked out the Mexican offerings. Chilorio sounded vaguely familiar. Chili river? 

I read the ingredients. Okay, nothing surprising or off-putting. I says it’s on the mild end of the scale. And there’s a photo. So like the package says, shredded, seasoned turkey thigh meat. I can do that.

Chilorio is traditionally a pork dish, and that version was also available. I got turkey because I already had some pork chops in the cart and didn’t want to overdo pig.

I tasted some straight out of the package. It was okay, but I jazzed it up a little with some Salsa Huichol (my favorite). That did the trick. So did the avocado salsa.

I’d buy this—and the pork version—again.

UPDATE: Since I first wrote this, I’ve tried the pork version of chilorio. It’s great, because pork is more flavorful than turkey, of course.