To be honest I didn’t actually cook this for the Grand Prix. I was planning tom but Rich & I went to one of his friends for his Birthday, one drink led to another and the thought of driving back from St Albans to London for 12 o’clock did not sound that fun! I did make this for the Spanish Grand Prix (Rich only finished the frozen leftovers last week) but was planning to recreate it for Valencia and take some photos of it – I had bought the chorizo and everything. Instead I made this on Wednesday night after flying in from Eindhoven. Next season I will do better and make a paella (apparently it originated in Valencia), although it’ll have to be a shellfish free zone as I am allergic, which is the original.
Incidentally, I also made another banana cake as I had brought some bananas home from the office on the Friday but of course could make it on Sunday!
Recipe: Spanish Chicken
Summary: As this dish takes a bit of time I always cook a big batch of this and freeze some. It’s one of those dishes that matures and gets better at least a day after you have cooked it. It’s also one of the few “slow-cooked” dishes that works equally well in the summer as in the winter.
Ingredients
- 4 x Cooking Chorizo
- 8 x Chicken Thighs
- 2 x Large Onions Sliced
- 1 x Chilli Finely Chopped (optional)
- 2 x Red Peppers Sliced into Strips
- 1-2 Cloves of Garlic Crushed
- 1 tsp Cumin Seeds
- 1 tsp Coriander Seeds
- 1 tsp Smoked Paprika
- 2 Tins of Chopped Tomatoes
- 1 Tin Chickpeas
Instructions
- Chop the chorizo into small bit size chunks and fry in a heavy casserole dish on a medium heat; I always use my oval le cruset but to be honest a shallower, wider one would be better – unfortunately I don’t have the funds for one of those yet…There is no need to add any fat as the chorizo already contains plenty of delicious, smoky red oil. Once it is slightly browned, lift it out of the pool of oil and set a side in a bowl.
- Turn the heat up and add the thighs, skin side down, to brown – you don’t need to cook them through all you want is a golden skin. Also, be careful not to put too many in at once – I always do it in a least two batches. Once the skin is a golden brown, take out of the pan and put onto a plate for later.
- If you want to be healthy you can tip some of the fat out of the pan now, otherwise use all of the juices and fats that have collected from the meat for the next stage. Turn the heat down low, add the onions and put the lid on. Cook for about 10 minutes until the onions soften, stirring every so often.
- Once the onions have soften, add the peppers, chilli and garlic. Continue cooking for another 10 minutes until the peppers are beginning to soften.
- Add the spices – cumin, coriander and paprika – cook through for a couple of minutes.
- Next add all of the browned meat (at this stage I usually steal a piece of the chorizo just to check that it’s ok…), tomatoes and chickpeas.
- Bring the stew up to a boil and then reduce the heat to low so that bubbles break the surface every so often. Cook for at least 45 minutes and ideally 1 1/2 hours, stirring once in a while to make sure that it doesn’t catch. If stirring is too much like hard work, put the whole thing in the oven on a low heat.
Quick notes
I tend to serve this with bread as it’s the perfect thing to mop up the paprika tinged juices. A green salad always goes well – as does a nice bottle of Spanish red wine.
Variations
You can use chicken breast which decreases the calories but also the flavour so you need to add in some stock at the same time as tomatoes. You can even take the chicken out completely but you can’t really make it vegetarian as the chorizo gives the whole thing structure.
As with most of my dishes, it is very flexible, you can add spinach at the end or replace the chickpeas with any other beans.
Preparation time: 20 minute(s)
Cooking time:
Number of servings (yield): 8
My rating
One thought on “European Grand Prix”
Comments are closed.