Longaniza substitute

Best substitute

Spanish Chorizo (dry-cured)

Use the same amount as the longaniza you are replacing

Best for lentil and bean stews

Different taste

Which substitute you want depends on which longaniza your recipe means. For Spanish dry-cured longaniza, use Spanish chorizo or a peppery salami 1:1 and expect a smokier, redder dish. For Puerto Rican or Dominican longaniza, use fresh Mexican chorizo 1:1, or build it from mild fresh sausage plus annatto, oregano and garlic. For Filipino longganisa, take plain fresh pork sausage and add brown sugar, garlic and cane vinegar. The giveaway is in the recipe: annatto and sour orange means Caribbean, sugar and cane vinegar means Filipino, thin slices and pimenton means Spanish dry-cured.

Other longaniza substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Fresh Mexican Chorizo
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight
The best swap for Mexican, Puerto Rican or Dominican longaniza, all of which are fresh sausages.
What changes
It is much softer and crumbles into the pan rather than holding a link shape, and it carries far more chile and vinegar tang, so rice or beans made with it taste sharper and hotter than the original. The bright orange fat it releases is close to the annatto fat longaniza gives off, which is why it works.
Best for
arroz con longaniza and rice dishes, beans and stews, breakfast with eggs, tacos and fillings
Squeeze it from the casing and brown it in a dry pan. If your dish needs whole links rather than crumbles, this is the wrong choice; use fresh sausage seasoned yourself instead.
3Mild Fresh Pork Sausage, Seasoned Yourself
Close match
Use the same amount by weight
The most useful option on this page, because it is the only way to actually match the version your recipe wants.
What changes
Start with plain fresh pork sausage or ground pork shoulder, remove any casing, and season it. For Puerto Rican or Dominican longaniza, per pound add 1 teaspoon ground annatto or achiote, 1 teaspoon dried oregano, 2 teaspoons minced garlic, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 tablespoon sour orange juice, or orange and lime juice mixed. For Filipino longganisa, per pound add 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 1 tablespoon minced garlic, 1 tablespoon cane vinegar, 1 teaspoon salt and plenty of black pepper.
Best for
any longaniza recipe, Filipino breakfast longganisa, Caribbean rice and bean dishes, when you want whole links or patties
Let the seasoned mixture rest in the fridge for a few hours or overnight; the garlic and vinegar need time to work through the meat. Form into fat links or patties and pan-fry.
4Fresh Mild or Sweet Italian Sausage
Different taste
Use the same amount
A convenient base with the right fat content and casing behavior.
What changes
The problem is fennel: even sweet Italian sausage usually has it, and that faint anise note is not something any longaniza has, so the dish picks up a flavor that reads Italian. Buy a fennel-free breakfast sausage if you can find one.
Best for
rice and bean dishes, grilling whole links, stews, dishes with strong sofrito or tomato to cover the fennel
Add the missing seasoning from the option above, and either accept the fennel or pick out visible seeds if the sausage is loose.
5Portuguese Linguica or Chourico
Different taste
Use the same amount
Garlicky, paprika-forward and lightly smoked, these are the closest smoked links in most US supermarkets.
What changes
They are firmer and smokier than a fresh longaniza and less peppery than a Spanish dry one, so a stew made with them tastes more barbecue-adjacent, but the garlic and paprika direction is right.
Best for
bean and rice dishes, stews and soups, grilling, breakfast hash
Already cooked or semi-cured, so they only need heating through. Slice on the bias and brown to render some fat before adding the rest of the dish.
6Peppery Dry Salami or Salchichon
Close match
Use the same amount sliced
For Spanish dry-cured longaniza specifically, a black-pepper-heavy salami is closer than chorizo because it is peppery rather than smoky, which is the actual character of the Spanish sausage.
What changes
It is less garlicky and usually finer-textured, so it tastes cleaner and less rustic.
Best for
tapas boards, sliced into lentils or chickpeas, sandwiches, cold plates
Only use this for the cured Spanish style. It is entirely wrong for Filipino or Caribbean recipes, which need a fresh sausage that cooks in the pan.

What is Longaniza?

Longaniza is Longaniza, spelled longanisa in the Philippines, is a long thin pork sausage made in Spain, across Latin America and in Southeast Asia, and the name covers several genuinely different sausages rather than one product.

Cooking tips

Work out which longaniza you need before you shop, because the four main versions do not substitute for each other. Annatto, achiote and sour orange point to Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic; brown sugar and cane vinegar point to the Philippines; smoked paprika and thin slices point to cured Spanish longaniza; brick-red, loose and vinegary points to Mexico.
Fresh longaniza and every fresh substitute must be cooked all the way through. Dry-cured Spanish longaniza does not, and should not be hard-fried, because heat makes cured sausage rubbery and tight. Add cured sausage to a stew for the last ten minutes only.
Sweet Filipino longganisa burns before it cooks because of the sugar. The standard method is to put the links in a pan with about a quarter inch of water, cover and let them steam until the water is gone, then let them fry in their own rendered fat for the last few minutes.
The orange-tinted fat that renders out is part of the recipe, not something to throw away. In arroz con longaniza, habichuelas or a Filipino garlic-rice breakfast, that fat is the seasoning, so cook your rice or beans in it rather than draining the pan.
If you are seasoning your own from ground pork, do not skip the acid. The vinegar or sour orange is what makes longaniza taste cured and tangy rather than like plain sausage meat, and one tablespoon per pound makes an obvious difference.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave longaniza out?

Rarely, because longaniza is usually a main component rather than a seasoning. In arroz con longaniza or a Filipino breakfast plate it is the dish. Where you can skip it is a big stew such as a cocido or a pot of beans that already contains other pork; there you lose some richness and peppery depth but the dish holds together. If you want the flavor without the sausage, a teaspoon of smoked paprika plus extra garlic gets you part of the way.

What is the difference between longaniza and chorizo?

In Spain, longaniza is longer, thinner and seasoned mainly with black pepper, while chorizo is defined by smoked paprika and is much redder. In Mexico both exist as fresh vinegary chile sausages and longaniza is essentially chorizo in a longer casing, often with a bit more vinegar and less chile. In the Caribbean, longaniza is seasoned with annatto and oregano rather than paprika. So the answer depends on the country, but the shorthand is that chorizo tastes of paprika and longaniza tastes of pepper and garlic.

Is longanisa the same as longaniza?

Yes, longanisa is the Filipino spelling, and longganisa is also common. It descends from the same Spanish sausage but has taken its own direction: Filipino versions are fresh, often sweet, heavily garlicky, and sometimes sour, with regional styles such as the garlicky-sour Vigan and the sweet hamonado. If your recipe says longanisa and involves garlic rice and a fried egg, you want the sweet Filipino style, not a cured Spanish one.

Can I use kielbasa or Italian sausage instead?

Both will work as a vehicle in a rice or bean dish, but neither tastes like longaniza on its own. Kielbasa is smoked, garlicky and mild, so the dish reads Eastern European; Italian sausage brings fennel, which reads Italian. The fix in both cases is to add the missing seasoning yourself: annatto and oregano for a Caribbean recipe, brown sugar and garlic and vinegar for a Filipino one.

Do I need to remove the casing?

For fresh longaniza it depends on the dish. Leave the casing on if you are grilling or pan-frying whole links; take it off and crumble the meat if it is going into rice, beans or a sauce, since crumbled sausage releases more fat and flavor into the dish. For dry-cured Spanish longaniza, peel the casing off before slicing if it is tough, and slice thin.

Related substitutes

More meat & protein substitutes

Longaniza substitute

Other longaniza substitutes

2Fresh Mexican Chorizo

3Mild Fresh Pork Sausage, Seasoned Yourself

4Fresh Mild or Sweet Italian Sausage

5Portuguese Linguica or Chourico

6Peppery Dry Salami or Salchichon