This oven-baked chicken and chorizo rice recipe is absolutely tasty and easy to make. The chicken, chorizo, and rice are baked together in one pot and perfectly seasoned with aromatic spices. It's a good chicken recipe that you will cook over, and over, and over again!
If you are looking for easy one-pot chicken recipes or don't know what to cook with Spanish chorizo, try this recipe!
This chicken and chorizo rice dish is so flavorful and filling. It has all the components of a perfect meal in one pan! The chicken is so tender and the Spanish rice is so fluffy and not mushy!
This oven-baked chicken and rice recipe taste similar to Arroz con pollo and paella! Simply delicious!
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Why You'll Love This Chicken and Chorizo Rice Recipe:
- It's a simple dish that cooks all in one pot. Cooking meals in one pot saves lots of time! You will also have fewer pots to wash for after dinner!
- It's an affordable meal. This dish uses inexpensive bone-in chicken thighs and rice.
- It's loaded with the Mediterranean and Latin American flavors!
Ingredients for Chicken and Chorizo Rice
This dish is made with basic ingredients and seasonings that you can easily find in your pantry!
To make this Chicken and Chorizo rice dish, you will need; bone-in and skin-on chicken thighs, Spanish chorizo, long-grain white rice, Trader's Joe fire-roasted red bell pepper, tomato sauce, onion, chicken broth, garlic powder, smoked paprika, thyme, black pepper, and salt.
- Smoked paprika, also known as pimenton, is the secret spice of Spain and a popular ingredient in many Mediterranean recipes. Pimenton is made from peppers that are smoked, dried, and ground into powder. It's a powerful condiment to add intense red color, aroma, earthy complexity, and smoky flavor to any dish.
- Smoked paprika is a widely used condiment in many traditional Spanish dishes, including paella, all types of stews, and as an essential ingredient to make Spanish sausages.
- Bone-in and skin-on chicken thighs. They are an incredibly versatile, cheap, fattiest, juiciest, and most flavorful part of the chicken. Bone-in and skin-on chicken thighs crispy up perfectly and cook at the same time as rice which makes them the perfect protein choice for this recipe.
- Spanish Chorizo. It is a dry-cured sausage made from coarsely chopped pork and pork fat. The sausage is seasoned with garlic, pimentón (smoked paprika), and salt. It also has a deep brick-red color and smoky flavor. The dry-cured sausage can be sliced and eaten without cooking.
Now, let's talk about the preparation and cooking process.
How to Make This Spanish Rice with Chicken and Chorizo:
The preparation is pretty simple. You only need to pat the chicken dry with paper towels, chop an onion and mix all dried spices; garlic powder, smoked paprika, thyme, black pepper, and salt together in a small bowl.
The cooking process takes about an hour but the result is phenomenal, and it's worth it!
So here are some important cooking steps to follow:
- First, season the chicken with 1 tablespoon of dried spices mixture. Cook chicken thighs, skin side down, until fat renders and skin starts to brown for about 5 minutes then flip over and cook for 3 minutes.
- Second, keep about 3 tablespoons of rendered fat in a small bowl and discard the remaining. Clean the skillet to remove any unwanted residue to prevent burning if necessary. Add the reserved render fat back into the skillet, cook the onion until translucent for about 3 minutes.
- Third, add chorizo and fire-roasted red bell pepper. Stir for about 1-2 minutes.
- Fourth, add rice and the remaining dried spices mixture to the skillet and stir for about 2 minutes or until it smells fragrant, nutty, and looks slightly toasted.
- After that, add the tomato sauce then put the chicken on top of the rice, and pour the chicken broth around the chicken.
- Now, it's time to bake the chicken and chorizo rice dish in the oven, covered for about 30 minutes then uncovered for about 20-25 minutes or until the rice is fully cooked.
How to Store the Leftover
Discard any cold leftovers that have been left out for more than 2 hours at room temperature or 1 hour when the temperature is above 90°F. You can learn more here.
Here's how to store leftover cooked chicken and rice:
- Let the hot chicken and chorizo rice cool to room temperature before refrigerating.
- Transfer the leftover to an airtight container. Properly stored, it can last 3-4 days in the fridge or 3 months in the freezer.
How to Reheat the Leftover
- Place a single serving of chicken rice in a microwave-safe bowl. Cover the dish with a microwave-safe lid.
- Microwave in 30-60 second increments until warm in all parts.
- Alternatively, you can reheat a large portion of leftovers, covered, in the oven at 350°F for 20 minutes or until warm in all parts.
Check Out More Delicious Chicken Recipes
- Chicken Paprikash
- Hainanese Chicken Rice
- Chicken Piccata
- Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken Stir Fry
- Baked Honey Mustard Chicken Thighs
- Harissa Chicken
- Chicken Chasseur
- Chicken Shawarma
- French Tarragon Chicken
I hope you'll enjoy this Oven-Baked Chicken and Chorizo rice recipe! If you try it out, please don't forget to come back and rate the recipe card!
📖 Recipe
Chicken and Chorizo Rice
Ingredients
- 5 bone-in and skin-on chicken thighs
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil (divided)
- 1 large onion (diced)
- 4 oz dry cured Spanish chorizo (fully cooked, dice into ½ inch pieces)
- 4 oz fire-roasted red bell pepper (slice into thin strips)
- 1½ cups uncooked long-grain white rice
- 1½ cups tomato sauce (heated)
- 1¼ cups chicken broth (heated)
- 1½ teaspoons garlic powder
- 1½ teaspoons dried thyme
- 1¼ teaspoons salt (use more according to your liking)
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika (+ ¼ tsp)
Method
- Pat the chicken thighs dry with paper towels and transfer to a bowl. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, stir together the smoked paprika, garlic powder, dried thyme, salt, and pepper until evenly blended. Set aside.
- Rinse the rice under cold running water until the water runs clear; drain well.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Season the chicken thighs with 1 tablespoon of the dried spices mixture and 1 tablespoon of oil. Set aside.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in an oven-safe skillet, braiser or dutch oven over high heat until hot but not smoking. Place the chicken thighs in the skillet, skin side down, and cook 2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-high; continue cooking skin side down, occasionally rotating the chicken to evenly distribute heat, until fat renders and skin starts to brown for about 3 minutes. Flip over the chicken thighs and cook for an additional 3 minutes.
- Remove the chicken from the pot and pour the rendered fat into a bowl.Reserve about 3 tablespoons of the fat to cook the onion, chorizo, and rice. Discard the remaining rendered fat and clean/wash the oven dutch/skillet to remove any unwanted residue to prevent burning.
- In the same dutch oven or braiser or oven-safe skillet, heat 3 tablespoons of rendered fat over medium heat. Add the diced onions and stir for about 2-3 minutes or until translucent.
- Add the chorizo and stir for about 45 seconds. Add the fire-roasted red bell pepper and stir for 45 seconds.
- Add the remaining dried spices mixture and stir for 30 seconds. Add the rice and stir for about 1-1½ minutes or until it smells fragrant, nutty, and looks slightly toasted. Turn off the heat.
- Add tomato sauce into the skillet and spread it all over the rice.
- Add the chicken thighs back into the pan, skin-side up then pour the hot chicken broth around the chicken.
- Cover the dutch oven and bake for 30 minutes then uncovered for 20-25 minutes or until the rice is fully cooked and liquid is fully absorbed.
- Remove from the heat, wait for about 5 minutes then stir the rice.
- Serve and enjoy!
Nutrition
Notes
- Spanish Chorizo from Vons/Safeway - it's fully cooked and dry-cured.
- Trader's Joe Fire-Roasted Red Bell Pepper
- Kirkland Organic Chicken Stock
- Hunts Tomato Sauce
Swathi says
Chicken Chorizo rice looks delicous love to try this for dinner. perfect recipe.
Nathalie Porbes says
I love chicken and I'm so happy to found some new recipes for me to cook.
Margarita Ibbott ~ DownshiftingPRO says
This sounds absolutely amazing. It looks pretty straightforward also. I'll be passing this recipe on to my daughter. She's the chef in this house.
Rika Livingston says
Let me know how it goes, Margarita!
Ruth I says
Oh how delicious this looks! Now I need to find the ingredients and try this!
Nyxie says
I love chorizo so, so much! This honestly looks like heaven in a bowl to me. Defintly something I'm going to have to try and make!
Catalina says
Oh my goodness! I am drooling over this chicken rice! It's so flavorful and delicious!
Rika Livingston says
Thanks for sharing your feedback, Catalina!
Amber Myers says
I've always liked rice, so this is a perfect meal for me.
Rika Livingston says
I am glad to hear that, Amber!
Best,
Rika
Daizy Abraham says
Hi..love the recipe but the only issue I had was that the rice wasn't cook. So I had to take out the chicken ( didn't wanna overcook it) and then pour more liquid into the rice and cook it longer in the oven. Any idea how to avoid this in the future? Maybe my cup amount and yours isn't the same? Could you provide the gram for rice and ml for the chicken stock pls.
Thank you.
Rika says
Hi Daizy,
Thank you for trying out the recipe and sharing your honest feedback. I'm glad you enjoyed it, although it seems like the rice didn't cook fully according to the recipe's recommendation. For your next attempt, consider adding an extra 2/3 - 3/4 cup of broth to ensure the rice cooks thoroughly. Also, check that your baking pan isn't too large; it should just have enough space for the rice and chicken to sit comfortably to prevent the liquid from evaporating too quickly.
I highly recommend using a heavy Dutch oven with a tight lid for better results. Dutch ovens are great at trapping moisture and steam, which can greatly enhance the cooking process.
Hope these tips help improve your dish next time! If you have any more questions or need further assistance, feel free to reach out.
Best,
Rika