Smoky Chicken & Chorizo Rice

Ingredients

• 700 g chicken thigh fillets, boneless, skinless, cut into chunks
• 200 g cooking chorizo, sliced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 400 ml chicken stock, hot
• 300 g long grain rice
• 2 red peppers, deseeded, diced
• 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp sweet paprika
• 150 g frozen peas
• fresh parsley, to serve
• lemon wedges, to serve
• Crusty bread, to serve
• Simple green salad, to serve
• Garlic aioli, to serve

Method

1. Fry the chorizo slices in a large, wide, lidded pan over medium heat for about 3 minutes until the fat runs orange and the edges are crisping. Lift out with a slotted spoon and set aside, leaving every drop of rust-coloured fat behind — that is your cooking medium for everything that follows.
2. Season the chicken chunks generously with salt and pepper before they hit the pan, then brown them in the chorizo fat in two batches over high heat for 4–5 minutes per batch, turning until golden on all sides. Don't crowd the pan — all at once and the chicken steams instead of browns. Lift out and set aside; it will finish cooking in the rice.
3. Drop the onion and peppers into the same pan and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, until the onion is translucent and the peppers are starting to slacken at the edges. Stir in the garlic and cook for just 30 seconds until fragrant — don't let it catch, burnt garlic turns the whole pan bitter.
4. Add the smoked and sweet paprika and bloom them in the hot oil for 30–60 seconds until fragrant and the oil runs deep red. Raw paprika tastes dusty; bloomed paprika tastes of itself. Tip in the rice and stir for a minute to coat every grain in the spiced oil.
5. Pour in the chopped tomatoes and the hot chicken stock — the stock breaks the tomatoes down so they taste of summer fruit, not tin. Season well, bring to a gentle simmer and taste the liquid. Adjust now — once the rice goes in, you can't fix it.
6. Return the chicken and chorizo to the pan with any resting juices, nestling them into the rice. Clamp on a tight-fitting lid and cook over very low heat for 18–20 minutes, until the rice is tender and has drunk up the liquid. Resist lifting the lid — the steam is doing the work.
7. Scatter the frozen peas over the top, replace the lid and leave off direct heat for 3 minutes so they steam through and turn vivid green. Taste, season, taste again — a final pinch of salt ties the smoke and tomato together.
8. Bring the pan straight to the table, scatter generously with chopped parsley, tuck the lemon wedges around the edge for squeezing over, and serve with crusty bread, a simple green salad and a bowl of garlic aioli alongside.