Spanish Chicken with Chorizo and Potatoes
Recipe from Nigella Lawson's Spanish Chicken with Chorizo and Potatoes from her book Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home.
Serves 6.
Note: I added salt and used a little more oil than the recipe called for. I would add the zest of another orange the next time, finding the citrus flavor of just one orange slightly lost in all that chorizo. Refrain from using the juice as you want your chicken to roast, not braise. Recipes as simple as this will depend much on the quality of your ingredients so get the best quality of chorizo you can from your trusted butcher. Depending on the efficiency of your oven, the chicken may be done in less than an hour, since they're cut pieces - I'd check at the 45 or 50 minute point.
Halal options: I have been told by a trusted sources (one halal food dealer and the guys from Las Vacas) that it's possible to get halal chorizo from the cold cut section/deli of Cold Storage at Bangsar Shopping Center specifically. Failing that you can use any beef sausages and add some smoked paprika when seasoning the chicken.
- 3 tablespoons regular olive oil
- 12 chicken thighs (bone in, with skin)
- 750 grams chorizo sausages, whole if baby ones, or cut into 4-cm chunks if regular-sized
- 1 kilogram baby potatoes, half the larger ones
- 2 red onions, peeled and roughly chopped
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- grated zest of one orange
- salt to taste
Preheat the oven to 220°C/gas mark 7 and place 2 wire racks on the upper and lower thirds. Put the oil in the bottom of 2 shallow roasting tins (I used jelly roll baking trays), about 1 1/2 tablespoons in each. Rub the skin of the chicken in the oil, season with salt accordingly, then turn them skin-side up, 6 pieces in each tin. Divide the chorizo sausages and the new potatoes between the 2 tins.
Sprinkle the onion and the oregano over, then grate the orange zest over the arranged contents of the 2 tins. Cook for 30 minutes, then swap the top tray with the bottom tray in the oven and baste the contents with the orange-colored juices. Continue cooking for about 30 minutes or till chicken is done.
