Substituting fresh/dried chorizo or fresh chorizo recipe recommendation?

As mentioned, the fresh chorizo oozes pooles of spiced fat when cooked (so does dried, but to a lesser degree). This is actually very flavorful so one of my favorites is the traditional chorizo con papas, which makes great use of this flavor. I usually eat it in tacos, but occasionally make it a skillet scramble, by scrambling in a couple eggs in the last step. Just fry the chorizo, microwave an equal volume of potatoes until cooked, then chop and cook in the chorizo juices. Both the chorizo and the potatoes will crisp up a bit, and you won't have pools of fat in you tacos. Serve with chopped onions, cilantro, and lime.

As ChefJune points out, they are very different creatures with different flavor profiles so I don't think they sub out easily in recipes. However, I think you can use it in empanadas, cooking first as suggested above.

However, fresh chorizo is great in many applications. It is great scrambled with eggs (remove the casing and saute the chorizo, then add in the eggs). I've also removed the casing and sauteed it with onions and then added it to fresh bread crumbs and herbs to make a filling/stuffing that I've used to stuff mushrooms or a deboned leg of lamb. Both turned out delicious. Good luck.

Spanish and Mexican chorizo are two very different products, as you've found out. The fresh likely can be subbed for the cured sausage, but I would cook it first. Otherwise you're likely to have fat pools in your empanadas. Not a good thing.