Chicken and Chorizo Paella

Keep a packet of chorizo in your fridge and you’ll never have to fret about dinner again. Chorizo sausage is delicious in just about everything... tossed through a green salad with grilled haloumi, pan-fried and served with a spicy pasta sauce or thinly sliced atop a pizza. In this Spanish paella, chorizo turns a simple chicken and rice dish into something magical. There are many different opinions about what defines a paella, but this version is easy to make for a weeknight dinner, and cost-effective. Add prawns, mussels and squid to ramp up the wow factor. Find more of these delicious recipes in my cookbook My Underground Kitchen. 

Serves: 4

Takes: prep 10 minutes | cook 30 minutes

Gluten Free l Dairy Free

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cured chorizo sausages, sliced

4 chicken drumsticks, skin on

1 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 large fresh red chilli, finely sliced

2 red capsicums, chopped into strips

2 teaspoons sweet smoked paprika

1 teaspoon turmeric (or saffron threads)

½ cup dry white wine

1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes

300g Arborio rice

600ml chicken stock

½ cup frozen peas

handful fresh parsley leaves, roughly chopped

lemon wedges to serve

Method:

Heat the olive oil in a paella pan or a large frying pan over a medium heat and pan-fry the chorizo until lightly browned. Remove and set aside.

Using the same pan and residual chorizo oil, brown the chicken drumsticks on both sides until lightly browned. Remove and set aside.

In the same pan, sauté the onion, garlic and chilli for 2–3 minutes until softened. Add the capsicum, paprika and turmeric (or saffron), and cook for a further minute. Add the wine and reduce for 1 minute. Stir in the tomatoes. Return the chorizo and chicken to the pan, sprinkle over the rice, and pour in the chicken stock. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat to low and cook for 15–20 minutes, uncovered, until the rice is tender and the stock has been absorbed.

Scatter the peas over the rice, cover and rest for 10 minutes.

Sprinkle with parsley and serve with fresh lemon wedges.