Chicken, Chorizo & Chickpeas – a Perfect Winter Warmer
When we are huddled up hiding away from the Troll of Trondheim, or whatever the latest chilly blast from the East is called, we want comforting, warming food and this chicken dish with chorizo and chickpeas ticks those boxes. It will happily feed 4 people, probably 6, and uses chicken quarters which are always a bargain piece of meat but packed full of flavour. It’s also got some lovely sunny flavours inspired by travels in Spain so brings some summer cheer when we need it most. Hope you like it!
What to buy (or dig out of your cupboards and fridge) –
4 chicken quarters or 8 chicken thighs, with skin and bone
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 red pepper, deseeded and finely chopped
1 medium carrot, peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
100g cooking chorizo, sliced into pieces about the thickness of a £1 coin
1tsp smoked paprika, hot or sweet
1 x 400g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
80g olives, green or black, pitted or not, whatever you have – or leave them out if you aren’t olive lovers
1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
300ml chicken stock
Salt and pepper
3tbsp olive oil
What to do –
- Heat the oven to 190C/Gas 5/fan 170C.
- Slash the skin of the chicken quarters, about 3-4 cuts in each one. Don’t go right into the meat, just through the skin if you can.
- Heat 2tbsp of the oil in a wide ovenproof frying pan (or similar) and when it’s hot, add the chicken quarters skin side down and let them brown over a medium heat for a few minutes. When they are a good golden brown, taken them out of a pan using a pair of tongs and put them on a plate.
- Heat the rest of the oil in the same pan and add the onion, red pepper and carrot with a large pinch of salt. Turn the heat down once the veggies are sizzling and cook them slowly for around 5 minutes so they are starting to soften but not colouring. You may need to stir them from time to time but not all the time.
- Stir in the garlic, the sliced chorizo and the smoked paprika and let them cook for another couple of minutes until the aromas are hitting your nose and the oils in the chorizo are starting to run.
- Add the chickpeas, the tinned tomatoes, the olives and the chicken stock and stir altogether. Bring to the boil and cook over a medium heat for 3-4 minutes until hot.
- Place the chicken pieces on top of the chickpea mixture, skin side up.
- Put the pan in the oven and bake until the chicken is cooked through. If you are using a probe thermometer, it should read 73C and if you haven’t got one, the chicken should be piping hot with no redness or raw meat around the bones. This will take around 2o-25 minutes depending on your oven.
- Serve with a green vegetable – wilted Savoy cabbage is a big favourite here. It’s a pretty filling dish so you probably won’t need extra carbs but if you want it to go a little further, serve it with some rice, quinoa or couscous.