One Pot Spanish Chicken and Rice

There is something very satisfying about cooking a meal that's all in one pot. No side dishes and once it's cooking you can relax with a nice grape juice and just wait to get fed. This is enough to feed the whole family too.

- tbsp olive oil (not extra virgin)
- 8 chicken pieces or a whole chicken jointed (4 legs cut into thighs and drumsticks works well)
- 1 large onion chopped
- 1 red pepper deseeded and chopped into large chunks
- 3 cloves of garlic crushed
- 225g chorizo skinned and sliced
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- 1 tbsp of fresh thyme leaves chopped
- 150ml/14 pint white wine
- 850ml/1 1/2 pints chicken stock
- 400g/14oz long grain rice
- 2 tbsp chopped parsley

Heat the oil in a large flameproof casserole dish and brown the chicken on all sides. you may have to do this in batches, then put to one side.

Lower the heat and add the onion and red peppers and cook gently for about 10 minutes until softened. Add the garlic and chorizo and cook for a further 2 minutes until the chorizo has released some of its juices into the dish. Then add the tomato puree and cook for another minute stirring it in.

Return the chicken to the pan along with the thyme wine and finally the stock. Bring to the boil then lower the heat and cook for 30 minutes covered with a tight fitting lid.

Tip in the rice and cook for a further 15 minutes then remove from the heat and leave to sit with the lid on for 10 more minutes so the rice can soak up more of the liquid. Season to taste, sprinkle with the parsley and serve.

Another painfully bad picture I am afraid. It was that grape juice sorry.

I have a mental list of things that life is just to flipping short to be doing and cleaning the bit from a garlic crusher is near the top of it, even my dishwasher can't be bothered. Squash the garlic cloves under the flat side of your knife then chop it up.

I can't see why you couldn't do this dish in 2 stages stopping the cooking after the pot has been boiling for 20 minutes, then once reheating cook for 5 mins before adding the rice and carrying on from there.

Time taken     1 hour 20 mins
Effort     3/5
End result 3.5/5