Chicken & Chorizo Paella

You might recall me mentioning sometime ago the cooking class I attended in Barcelona last year, and my accompanying promise to share with you the recipe for the Seafood Paella that we made.  This is not that recipe.

I am always very reticent about sharing "traditional" recipes from cultures other than my own, since you're almost guaranteed to get it wrong, and at this very moment there are probably dozens of Spaniards throwing up their hands in horror at my audaciousness in calling this a paella.  (Actually, I just did a quick check on Stat Counter and right at this moment there is no-one visiting from Spain, so perhaps I'll get away with it.)

By and large the technique or method involved in this doesn't seem to depart too much from the version we made at that Barcelona cooking class (which I do still promise to share with you at some stage), but I don't know how likely you would be to find this combination of ingredients for example in a genuine paella.

This recipe was adapted from one by Thomasina Mier's, for which I can no longer seem to find the original link.  Thomasina's original version had lots of seafood, which I swapped out for the chorizo;  I also left out onions, while the olives and smokey paprika were my own additions.

This dish may be lacking a little in authenticity (and I trust you'll forgive me for that), and it doesn't even look too beautiful, but it more than makes up for its shortcomings with loads of great flavour.  This is a great dish for a family meal or to feed a crowd - quantities could easily be doubled to feed more people.  I hope you'll give this a try - I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Chicken & Chorizo Paella Recipe

Adapted from a recipe by Thomasina Miers

Serves 4

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

2-3 tablespoons olive oil

2 cups cooked chicken, shredded

approx 120g chorizo sausage

1 fennel bulb

1/2 red pepper

1/2 yellow pepper

small bunch fresh thyme

2 cloves garlic

6 artichoke hearts, bottled (I use roasted)

2 tomatoes

generous handful black olives

2 teaspoons smoked paprika

pinch saffron

250g Calasparra rice

500ml chicken stock

75ml white wine

flaky sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

Put saffron strands in a small cup of hot water, and leave to infuse while you prepare the other ingredients.

First the chorizo - I like to remove the casing, and then break up into bite-sized pieces.  That said, if that seems like a bit too much trouble, just cut the sausage into slices.

Next the fennel - remove the base, any tougher outer "leaves" and tops (don't throw these away - I put them in a bag in the freezer and pull them out later for making soup or stock), then cut the bulb into pieces.

Cut the peppers into similar sized pieces, and cut the tomatoes into 1/8ths.

Cut the artichokes into 1/4s.  Chop the garlic finely.  If you can be bothered, remove the thyme leaves from the stalks - though I generally just drop the whole stems in - during the cooking the leaves tend to come away from the stems and then the stems can simply be discarded before serving.

Add about 1 tablespoon olive oil, along with the chorizo sausage, to a large skillet, then place the pan over high heat and begin to heat the chorizo, which will render a lot of its own fat in the process.

Add a little more oil to the pan, and add the fennel, peppers, and thyme to the pan.  Sautee until the vegetables are just starting to caramelise - 5-10 minutes.

Add another good dash of oil to the pan, and add in the tomatoes, garlic, olives and artichokes, a sprinkling of flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Cook for a couple of minutes, then add the rice and sprinkle over the paprika.  Stir constantly for 2-3 minutes to coat the rice well with the oil and paprika.  Add the chicken and stir again.

Add the saffron and its soaking water, the white wine, and chicken stock. Stir to make sure all the ingredients are evenly distributed around the pan, and then no more stirring.

Bring to the boil and cook over high heat for about 10 minutes until the rice has started to swell.  Turn the heat down to low and simmer for another 10 minutes, until the rice has absorbed most of the liquid.

Remove from the heat, cover and allow to rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.  I like to serve this with a fresh, crispy, green salad.

This post is a contribution to Make it with ..... Mondays challenge paprika - the linky is still open until Monday 7 February, so keep your paprika posts coming, and don't forget to check out this week's special ingredient which is Nutella.

I'm also sharing this post at Food on Friday hosted by Carole at Carole's Chatter.