A little Sunshine on your plate

Chicken, Chorizo and New Potato Stew

It’s very cold today, I feel like something warming that makes me dream of warmer climes and higher temperatures. This is a Spanish inspired dish but I have used my favourite chipotle chillies to heat things up a little, it’s not too spicy for those of you who are scared off by their frequent appearances in my recipes, they just give a lovely warming kick, not too brutal if you remove the seeds.

The joy of this dish is you can make a small pack of chicken thighs go an exceptionally long way, just up the amount of new potatoes if you are feeding more than 3 people. I don’t usually serve this with anything else but some nice crusty bread to soak up the sauce would go very well.

Ingredients

1 pack chicken thigh fillets, chopped into rough large chunks
1 chorizo, sliced
1 chipotle chilli
1 large onion, sliced into half moons
4 garlic cloves, crushed
200g new potatoes, sliced into halves
1 pepper (your choice of colour, sliced into strips)
Pinch of saffron, soaked in warm water
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 pint chicken stock
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp cornflour (mixed with a little water to thicken)

Method

• Soak chipotle chilli in a little warm water for 20 minutes, remove seeds and chop very finely.

• Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large frying pan. Add sliced onion and fry for 5 minutes on a medium heat until the onions are slightly coloured. Add crushed garlic and fry for a further 2 minutes.
• Add chorizo and chicken and continue to fry for a further 5 minutes. Add halved potatoes, saffron and the water it was soaked in, the chopped chipotle and the pepper and stir well.
• Add the chicken stock, oregano and tomato puree. Stir and place a lid on the pan. Simmer for 35 minutes.
• About 5 minutes before serving, season with salt and pepper and use the cornflour to bring the sauce together.

Chorizo and Chickpea Soup

This is such a simple recipe, so cheap to make too I hesitated to add it to the blog but as I await my online shopping delivery the contents of my fridge is currently somewhat limited, half a chorizo sausage, onions, garlic and tomatoes. With a few basic ingredients you can cook this up in under 30 minutes and it costs about £0.50 per portion, perfect for a not-quite-pay-day-recipe. Top with some grated cheese of your choice and eat, it's delicious, warming and for my non chilli eating friends, deeply flavoured with smoked paprika rather than my kick-ass levels of chilli.

Ingredients

100g chorizo, chopped into bitesize pieces
1 large onion, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, grated
3 tsp smoked paprika
1 red chilli, whole, spiked to release flavour without heat
1 tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 large potato, cut into chunks
750 ml chicken stock
1 tbsp tomato puree
2 fresh tomatoes, chopped
1 red pepper
Handful of chopped parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
Grated cheese to taste

Method

• In a tiny amount of oil fry off chorizo until crispy around the edges and remove from the pan.
• In the residual oil fry off the onion until translucent, then add garlic and smoked paprika, fry for a further 2 minutes.
• Add the cubed potato, whole red chilli, red pepper, tomato puree, chickpeas and tomatoes, cook on medium heat for 5 minutes.
• Add chicken stock and half the chorizo and let simmer for about 30 minutes or until potatoes are fully cooked.
• Remove whole chilli and discard
• Season to taste, top with remaining chorizo, add herbs and serve in bowls with grated cheese.