Migas de Pastor
Crisp fried breadcrumbs with chorizo, garlic, and paprika.
Discover smart recipes
Sign up on Homecooked to cook this recipe as the chef intended, with parallel steps and built-in timers guiding you along the way. Stock your pantry to discover more recipes you can cook with the ingredients you have at home.
Join HomecookedIngredients
- 1 Baguette
- 150 g Cooking chorizo
- 4 cloves Garlic
- 1 tsp Pimenton dulce (sweet smoked paprika)
- 4 tbsp Extra-virgin olive oil
- ½ tsp Salt
Method
- Tear the bread into small crumbs, dampen them lightly with a little water, and let them rest so the crumbs soften through.
- Slice the chorizo and smash the garlic.
- Cook the chorizo and garlic in the olive oil over medium heat until the chorizo releases its fat and the garlic is fragrant, then lift them out, leaving the flavoured oil behind.
- Fry the damp crumbs in the flavoured oil with the paprika and salt, stirring, until golden and crisp.
- Fold the chorizo and garlic back through and serve hot.
Nutrition per serving
Estimated from ingredients; varies with exact portions and brands.
About Migas de Pastor
Migas de pastor — "shepherd's crumbs" — is a rustic Spanish dish built to rescue stale bread, and it remains one of the great examples of Iberian thrift cooking. Traditionally a shepherd's or laborer's meal from the interior regions like Extremadura, La Mancha, and Aragón, it turns day-old bread into something crisp and savory by tearing it into crumbs, dampening them, and frying them slowly in fat perfumed with chorizo, garlic, and sweet smoked paprika. The pimentón is essential: it dyes the crumbs a warm brick-red and gives the dish its unmistakable smoky depth.
What you get is a plate of golden, craggy crumbs — crisp at the edges, tender within where the dampening step keeps them from going to dust — shot through with rendered chorizo and soft garlic. The trick is rendering the chorizo and garlic first, then lifting them out so the crumbs fry in that flavored oil before the meat is folded back through at the end. Migas is hearty, humble food, eaten hot straight from the pan; in Spain it often shows up at breakfast or as a shared dish, sometimes crowned with a fried egg or paired with grapes to cut the richness. This version keeps it honest and fast, leaning on the paprika and chorizo fat to do the heavy lifting.
Migas de Pastor: frequently asked questions
How many calories are in Migas de Pastor?
One serving of Migas de Pastor has about 440 calories, with 15g of protein, 37g of carbs, 26g of fat and 2g of fiber. These are estimates based on the ingredient amounts in this recipe and will vary with your exact portions and brands.
Is Migas de Pastor gluten-free?
As written, no — it contains Baguette. You'd need a certified gluten-free swap for that ingredient to make it gluten-free.
How long does Migas de Pastor take to make?
About 30 minutes start to finish, but only around 19 of those are hands-on — the rest is cooking time. In the Homecooked app the timers and parallel steps are sequenced for you so the hands-on part feels even shorter.
How many servings does Migas de Pastor make?
This recipe makes 4 servings. In the app you can scale it up or down and the ingredient amounts adjust automatically.