Chicken and chorizo paella

There are so many reasons to love the colder weather: dragon's breath, proper coats, winter sunrises, Christmas food and drinks (acceptable from November), snuggling under blankets, bobble hats, sitting by the fire, ice skating, Christmas markets... to me, the list is endless and I am in my element. This time of year is made for hygge-esque chilling. However, even I have to admit there is nothing good to be said about having to tear yourself from your warm duvet in the cold and cruel mornings or finding the streets are already dark when you leave work in the evenings. These are the rare moments I long for sunshine. Do you have them too? If so, read on. This chicken and chorizo paella is summer on a plate. Warning: scroll to the bottom for the recipe as I'm about to ramble ;)

I know it's been a while since my last post. I don't know, for a while I fell into one of those uninspired ruts and I kept putting off blogging with the excuse of being busy at work. But recently, I've been a little sad. It's nothing major. There's this amazing Twitter account called VeryBritishProblems that aptly and hilariously translates the euphemistic nature of British speech. The other day I saw this:

It made me laugh as I think those were my exact words. 'Another dream crushed' sounds so over-dramatic but there are these points in all our lives, I think, where we encounter a dream or a person that seems to be instinctively, exactly right for us... and then somehow it unravels. I'm not an easy person to rattle or crush and yet, I was. So for the last few weeks, I've been taking a little more care of me. I don't know how you process feelings but I have a tendency to suppress any emotion that isn't happy and that really isn't healthy. Instead, I've been honest about it and allowed myself to do all the lame and cliched things people do in movies to feel better. I felt lame and cliched as hell doing them but sometimes that's okay haha.

In the midst of this, last weekend, I'd promised to have my family over for dinner. My aunt and uncle are staying here briefly with my cousins and I love them and I love hosting. So I got myself a massive paella pan and planned out a simple three-course dinner: an antipasto platter to start, chicken and chorizo paella as the main and then crema catalana, the orange-scented Spanish version of crème brûlée, to finish. You know I'm all about the easy life and this is easyyy. The antipasto platter went down a treat but it's no more than an assembly job, while crema catalana is really just delicious custard with a crackly burnt-sugar crust.

It was such a great dinner. We talked and laughed, swayed along with music and ate and drank copiously. I woke up the next day feeling renewed. I realised how much I love and had missed cooking and blogging. If, for whatever reason, you're feeling a little low, take my advice. Let yourself feel and have your alone time but don't forget to surround yourself with people who uplift you and to do the things that bring you joy. This too shall pass.

This paella is so good. Being South Indian, rice, in all its guises and origins, is my comfort food. And this is rice laced with juicy chunks of chicken, bright mixed peppers, little bursts of cherry tomatoes, nuggets of flavourful chorizo, fresh and fragrant parsley and a few zingy squeezes of lemon. It's delicious. There's no need for expensive saffron in this simple recipe, which is adapted from HelloFresh* and I use basmati rather than arborio or 'paella' rice because I'm lazy. It may not be super authentic but I have no doubt at all this will quickly become your new dinner party fav.

Serves 6. Adapted from HelloFresh's The Birthday Boy's Chicken Paella.

INGREDIENTS

3 bell peppers (I used red, orange and yellow for their pretty colours)
2 punnets or cups of cherry tomatoes
4 cloves of garlic
12 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
300g diced chorizo
1 bunch fresh parsley
6 sprigs of rosemary
2 lemons, cut into wedges
1 tablespoon paprika
1-2 teaspoons chilli flakes (optional)
3 chicken stock cubes
1.2 litres boiling water
3 cups basmati rice
Oil, for frying

METHOD

Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and the bell peppers into thin strips. Finely chop the garlic, parsley and rosemary. Dice the chicken thighs into bite-size pieces. Dissolve the chicken stock cubes in the boiling water.

In a large pan, heat two tablespoons of oil over high heat. Season the chicken generously with salt and pepper and then fry, in batches to prevent overcrowding, until browned on all sides. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Drizzle some more oil into the pan and then add the cherry tomatoes and mixed peppers and sauté for 3 minutes until they've softened. Add the garlic, rosemary, paprika, chill flakes (optional) and chorizo. After 2-3 minutes, add the rice and half the parsley and stir well for a few more minutes until the rice is well-coated and absorbs the oil.

Add the chicken stock and chicken. Give everything a good stir. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 15-20 mins. Tip: Don’t stir - a good paella always has a crusty bottom!

Once the liquid has soaked up, take the paella off the heat. Cover with a clean tea towel or aluminium foil and leave for 5 mins. Serve with the remaining parsley and big wedges of lemon.

Notes: This might seem like a lot of chicken but it's in proportion with the amount of rice, so you get a bit of juicy chicken with every bite. A large paella pan (Lakeland has a great one for £20) is your best bet for cooking the paella evenly and getting that slightly charred crusty bottom.

*This (sadly) isn't a sponsored post. However, if you're a busy professional who wants to cook and experiment but doesn't have the time to plan and buy ingredients, I'd really recommend HelloFresh's food boxes. Three recipes per week, all the ingredients in the right quantities and a lot of fun. I used HelloFresh when I first started living alone and if I didn't have the blog now to tinker with, I'd use it again for sure.

Hi.

Nov 6 Chicken and chorizo paella