Chicken and Chorizo Rice

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!

Jump to:

• Why You’ll Love This Chicken and Chorizo Rice Recipe: 
• Ingredients for Chicken and Chorizo Rice
• How to Make This Spanish Rice with Chicken and Chorizo:
• How to Store the Leftover
• How to Reheat the Leftover
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

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