ottawa foodies

Found a recipe on Washington Post web site for a rice & beans dish with chicken and andouille. No andouille! Can I use chorizo? What do you think?

you can use whatever sausage you like.
chorizo would make a great substitution, though.

Perfectly acceptable substitution - go for a spicier chorizo if you have the option.

On that note, if you ever find yourself in France, be aware that andouille sausage is a very different and far less pleasant food item. You have been warned.

Differently pleasant... Garlicky and Tripe-y

Each to their own, but I find food that smells like recently produced excrement to be somewhat offputting. The French, much as I love their country, culture and food, seem to take great pleasure in watching the reaction of neophytes.

Andouille sausage at the Sausage Kitchen is very good.

Johnny English, you might be confusing andouille and andouillette here.

Andouillette contains tripe and has an intestine casing, so it has the reputation of being stinky (I've never tried it myself...).

Aundouille is a smoky, garlicky pork sausage.

So, Patricia, if you want to keep your recipe close to the original, a smoked pork sausage with garlic should do.

Though I think chorizo is a great idea if you don't really care about reproducing the same result and just want something tasty. I love chorizo ;-)

Clarification: Andouillette is definitely a chitterling sausage in France, and it is not to my taste either. Andouille in France refers to a variety of sausages also involving entrails. I only ever saw one type in Paris (distinct from the to-be-avoided Andouillette), the Andouille Gémené, recognizable by its sort of spiral pattern of wound up intestines (pictured). I never liked that one either, but it is better than the Andouillette, which sort of spills out the chitterling bits when you cut it. More info on the French Wikipedia: fr.wikipedia.org

Confusingly, Andouille is also a Cajun smoked pork sausage, free of entrails. Very similar to Spanish chorizo.

Thanks, all, for your very detailed information! Much appreciated!

As a french quebecer, "andouille" was a popular and comically mild insult/pejorative when I was a kid. Now I understand why ;)