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!

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 1 10

Equipment

A Dutch oven or braiser or oven-safe deep skillet

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)

Spices:

▢ 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)

Instructions

Preparation:

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.

Brown the Chicken:

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.

Sauté the Onion, Chorizo, and Rice:

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.

Oven-Baked:

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!

Notes

I used the following products:

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

Use a large baking dish (10” x 15”) if you don't have any Dutch oven or braiser. Simply brown the chicken, saute the onion, chorizo, and rice in a skillet. Transfer the rice mixture into a baking dish, add tomato sauce, broth, then put the chicken back on top of the rice, skin side up. Cover the baking pan with foil and bake 350°F for 30 minutes then uncovered for 20-25 minutes or until the rice is fully cooked and liquid is fully absorbed.

*The cooking times may vary slightly based on the pan and oven being used.

Nutrition

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