Spanish Chicken and Rice
Chicken thighs and rice cooked with paprika, saffron, tomato and peas in a wide pan until the rice is tender and golden at the edges.
Photograph credit: Chicken Paella close-up - Colmao Flamenco by Alpha · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Flickr · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
Storing and Planning Ahead
Keeps in the fridge for 2 days. Reheat with a splash of stock.
Spanish Chicken and Rice: The Method
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Heat the oil in a wide, shallow pan. Brown the chicken, skin-side down, for 8 minutes. Turn and cook for 3 minutes. Remove.
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Cook the onion and pepper in the same pan for 6 minutes. Add the garlic, tomatoes, paprika and saffron and cook for 5 minutes until thick.
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Stir in the rice for 1 minute. Add the stock and salt, return the chicken and bring to a boil. Cover and cook on low heat for 18 minutes, scattering the peas on top for the last 5.
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Rest, covered, for 5 minutes and serve with lemon wedges.
Related guide: Choosing rice.
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Worth Knowing
- Do not stir the rice once the stock is in.
- Use hot stock so the rice cooks evenly.
- Let the base crisp slightly for the best flavour.
Some Background
The first sign it is ready is the smell: onions and peppers turned sweet in olive oil, then paprika and saffron joining them, then stock. Chicken and rice is a Spanish home dish, simpler than paella but made the same way: a sofrito, a measured amount of stock, and rice that is not stirred.
Brown the chicken first, skin-side down, until deep gold. It leaves behind fat and sticky brown bits that flavour everything. Remove it and cook the onion, pepper and garlic in the same pan until soft, then add the tomato, paprika and saffron. Cook the tomato until it forms a thick paste. A watery sofrito makes a bland rice.
Stir in the rice to coat it with the sofrito, add hot stock, nestle the chicken back, and bring to a boil. Then lower the heat, cover with a lid or foil, and leave it alone for 18 minutes. The peas go on top for the last 5 minutes.
Rest, covered, for 5 minutes. A thin golden crust on the base is a good thing. Serve straight from the pan with lemon wedges.
What to Put Next to It
Green salad · Lemon wedges · Crusty bread · Rioja
Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Espinacas a la Catalana, Judias Verdes con Jamon.
Changing the Recipe
- An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.
Nutrition per Serving
Per serving, an approximate calculation from the ingredient list. Treat it as a rough guide: weights that include bone are counted as if all of it were eaten, so the figures run high. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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