Chicken Chorizo and Rice {And Two people who hate sweet peas…

Perfect for a weeknight meal, this chicken chorizo and rice come together in less than an hour. Chorizo and fresh lemon juice set this dish off!

I have magazines running out of my ears at home. My mama gives me all hers when she has finished with them (I think I mentioned that in the Bubba’s Sour Cream Pork Chop Post). I love the recipes I find in them. I tear/cut them out and put them neatly into a clear binder sleeve, then put them inside of a binder. I have quite the collection. Sometimes I don’t have the time to add the recipes I tear out to my binder, so I pile them up until I have tons to add.

I finally took the time to purge any recipes out of the binder I haven’t made or didn’t like and then added in the new recipes I found. As I was adding the new recipes to my binder, I found a few that I had gotten from my aunt’s copies of Food Network Magazine. She gave them to me since she knows I love to cook.

I found this recipe for chicken chorizo and rice I wanted to try right away. I had most of the ingredients for it already on hand without buying anything from the store. I had some chicken in the freezer and chorizo in the refrigerator. (I normally do not have chorizo sitting around waiting to eat. David and I planned on making breakfast burritos, but we forgot some of the ingredients and we nixed the idea.) And can you believe two sweet pea hating folks also had some sweet peas in the freezer? The peas were leftover from a chicken pot pie I made a while back. We won’t eat them by themselves, but we realize that some dishes need them for added sweetness to round them out. We just close our eyes and deal with it.

So here’s how you make the Chicken Chorizo and Rice:

Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven or pot over high heat. Add the chorizo, onion, and garlic to the pot and cook, until the sausage has browned and the onion is translucent; about 5 to 7 minutes.

Drain the grease, by dumping the sausage and onions into a large sieve. Set aside to drain while cooking the chicken.

Season the chicken with salt and pepper, to taste, and place it in the same pot used to brown the sausage, onions, and garlic.

Cook, turning occasionally, until the chicken starts to brown, about 5 to 7 minutes on each side. Remove the chicken from the pan; set aside.

Stir in the tomato paste, until browned and rust colored.

Once the paste has browned, add the rice and capers. Stir well to incorporate the paste.

Add the chicken broth; bring to a boil. Cook, about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir in the peas, reduce the heat to medium-low. Stir in the chicken and chorizo. Cover with a lid and cook until the rice is tender; about 15 more minutes.

Turn off the heat and let rest; keeping it covered; about 5 minutes. Fluff the rice with a fork, stirring to combine all the ingredients.

Serve with lemon wedges.

I could not believe how much flavor the chorizo gives this dish. What would be a very plain ordinary dish has so much added flavor. The splash of lemon juice just sets this chicken chorizo and rice over the top. It was even better the next day for lunch.

All this coming from two people who hate sweet peas…