Chicken & Chorizo Paella

One pot dinners are my absolute favorite, especially when I can manage to get multiple components and have the end result be a really yummy dish. For this recipe, everything gets cooked in one pan! That means you only have to wash ONE PAN!!! haha yes, this gets me so excited because washing the dishes sucks lol.

So usually when I develop a recipe, I pull tons of recipes I can find online or in a book, to guide me as I try to build off of each of them, to develop my own dish to my liking. However with this dish, I didn’t do that at all! I think because I cook a TON of rice all the time and I just wanted to have fun with it. Immediately I wrote everything down on my iPhone because I knew I was going to love this and I didn’t want to forget one step, lol. So beyond glad I did that.

Little back story on this dish, my dad, when he was alive, made this amazing Puerto Rican inspired rice. He made it at every family function! I’m half hispanic, so typically the rice we eat is Mexican/Spanish styled rice. But my dad had a really good friend who was from Puerto Rico, and he shared his moms famous rice recipe with my father! Needless to say, from that point on, at every Sunday bbq, we had Puerto Rican rice lol, everyone loved it.

My dad passed away in the summer of 2014, and all the time I wish I had asked him to share his recipe with me. I wish I could continue sharing the wonderful dish that we all miss so much! I’ve tried several times to recreate it, and I just can not seem to perfect it like he could.

So when I ended up developing this dish, it turned out to almost (accidentally) taste just like my dad’s rice!! I don’t know how, because I wasn’t meaning for it to! Although I did add a bunch of extra things like chorizo, and chicken, (his dish was only rice, no meat) however the actual rice came out SO delicious and it reminded me so much of my father, that it truly just brings me so much joy!! I hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:

- 6-7 Chicken thighs with skin (can be bone 
  in or bone-less, *bone-in will be more flavor. 
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp paprika 
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 12-14 ounces chorizo
- 12 ounces Kiolbassa beef sausage
- 1 large tomato 
- 1 large yellow onion 
- 4 garlic cloves
- 2 cups long grain rice 
- 2 heaping TBS of Goya Sofrito
- 4 1/4 cups chicken broth
- 2 packets of Goya Sazon Coriander and 
  Annatto seasoning 
- 1 cup frozen corn 
- 1 can Goya green pigeon peas 
- salt/pepper to taste
- 2 tbs fresh parsley (optional)

Instructions

Sprinkle the chicken thighs with salt, pepper, paprika, garlic and onion powder. Sauté the chicken thighs in oil over medium to high heat in pan. Cook the chicken until golden brown, it does not have to be entirely cooked on the inside at this point. (The chicken will later boil in the rice) Once browned, set aside.

In the pan of chicken drippings, cook the chorizo and sausage through. Once done, add in diced tomato, garlic cloves and onion. Continue to cook for a few minutes until fragrant. Now add in the rice and sofrito, then stir to combine. Once stirred, pour in the chicken broth. Add the corn, peas and goya seasoning packets. Take a spoon and taste the broth, add the salt and pepper to taste BEFORE adding the chicken back into the pot. After salted, put the chicken skin side up, atop the rice mixture.

Bring rice to a boil. Once boiling consistently throughout the pan, cover and set heat down to a low simmer for about 30-40 minutes. Check the mixture at around 15 minutes to make sure the bottom isn’t burning or getting stuck to the bottom of the pan. Traditional paella will have a burnt crust at the bottom of the dish, if you want the bottom to crust, you don’t have to stir at the 15 minute mark.

When rice is entirely cooked, let it cool for a few minutes to let all the flavors sink in. Chop some fresh parsley over the dish and serve.

NOTES***

I apologize to anyone who comes across this recipe and does not recognize a few of these ingredients. I will link the ingredients below, so you can hopefully find and order them if you’re interested! I am a Texas girl, so I will link items to HEB’s website and for anyone who might not shop at HEB, I will also link to Amazon.

For this dish I recommend using a large shallow cooking pan!

Seafood is also typically added in Paella, my husband and I both do not like eating seafood. Shrimp is often added! I wanted to add the second component of beef (kiolbassa) along with the chorizo, but it is optional. Paella is a good recipe to play around with to your liking!!

Saffron is typically used in paella, and it gives the rice the beautiful yellow color. Saffron is one of the more expensive seasonings, so the Goya Sazon is a nice and cheaper alternative to using Saffron.

Sofrito*- Mixture of Green peppers, onions, culantro, and garlic in olive oil. For rice, beans, soups, chili & stews. Link will take you to HEB, if you are not from Texas, click here. 

Goya Sazon Coriander and Annatto seasoning- special blend of seasonings from Goya. For every 4 people your recipe serves, just add one packet of Sazon Goya. Two packets for a dish for 8.  Use it for meats, stews, soups, poultry, pasta, rice, beans, vegetables – everything.

For people not from Texas or for those who don’t shop at HEB click here.

Thank you so much for reading!!