Monday, January 27, 2014

Recipe: Nigella Lawson's Spanish Chicken and Chorizo & Roasted Asparagus

I'm a little bit in love with Nigella Lawson.

She's talented.

She's funny.

She's gorg, obvs.

*Via www.mirror.co.uk. Gorgeous.

When I was in London, the TV in my flat got 2 channels that weren't the news or weather. Of course I didn't spend that much time watching TV, but when I did work in the evenings, I would turn it on for noise.

One of those channels was sort of like TBS - lots of Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother reruns.

The other was a cooking channel.

In between shows about slaughtering sheep and THE WORST SHOW ON TELEVISION, Bitchin' Kitchen (I have a lot of hate), there were a lot of episodes of Nigella.

No seriously. Bitchin' Kitchen is the worst.


*I'm sure she's lovely in real life. Just that show grates on every nerve I have.

But the highlights on TV were definitely anytime I got to see Nigella. I love her attitude, and her food is amazing.

She's delightfully dirty. I love it.

She loves food, and isn't afraid to have fun and say funny things and take delight in food, all while being a great cook.

One night, I saw her make Spanish Chicken and Chorizo. It looked great, and I kind of kept it in the back of my mind, but I didn't really think about it after that.

I mean, I wasn't cooking so much since this is where I was:





But a few days ago, I was working procrastinating working and I saw the episode again.

It was fate.

So I asked my roommate, his friend Julie, and our neighbor Troy what they thought, they all seemed to think me cooking this for dinner was a good idea, so I went to the store and bought the stuff to make it.

And holy wow.

Fantastic.

Here is her recipe, and here's how I did mine:

12 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (my Kroger didn't have any bone in or with skin)
Olive oil (enough to coat 2 cookie sheet pans)
2 packages chorizo (I had to use beef chorizo, but either the kind that's ground or the little sausage kind will work)
2 1/2 lbs potatoes, chopped to about 1/2 - 1 inch cubes (I used golden yukon ones, and left the skin on)
1 1/2 red onions, diced roughly
2 teaspoons dried oregano
zest of 1 orange
salt
pepper

Preheat oven to 425. Put oil in the bottom of pans, then chop the potatoes and onions. I did mine in about 1/2 - 1 inch cubes for the potatoes and a rough chop for the onions. put them in the pans, dividing equally between each.

Salt and pepper each chicken thigh and nestle the thighs on the pan. Just kind of squish them down in between.

(Yes, I know I'm putting raw chicken on potatoes. If this freaks you out, sear the chicken for a second first.)

Nigella calls for just putting the chorizo on the same way you do the chicken. But all I could find was the ground beef chorizo. So I cooked it up a little first, because straight out of the packaging, it's gross. I basically just broke it up a bit and sprinkled/drizzled it all over each pan.

Sprinkle the oregano over, and zest the orange (I used two little cuties actually) over each pan.

Cook for 30 minutes, then switch the pans if you've put one on top and one on bottom, and cook for 30 more minutes.

The chicken will definitely be done. Make sure the potatoes are fork tender and you're golden!

Here is what Nigella's looks like:

*Via nigella.com
**You can see the small chorizos she used. I like the look of those, but mine tasted fine. I think it's a flavor thing, even if mine wasn't quite as pretty. 

And here's mine: 

*Right after it came out of the oven. You can see the chorizo that I sprinkled on rather than chopping up.

*Here it is served up, with my roasted asparagus in the background.

Everyone seemed to love it, and I thought it was fantastic. Spicy, cooked well, nice combo of flavors, and the orange zest really brightened it up. Julie brought white wine, Moscato I think, and that was great with this. With the leftovers I had blood orange San Pellegrino and that was great too. 

Honestly, it wasn't even a difficult dish. Lots of chopping, some time in the oven, but very little actual time standing over the stove.

And, since I put foil down on the pans, I just peeled the foil off and stuck them in the dishwasher.

I kind of struggled with what to serve this with. I usually do potatoes, but this has potatoes in it. Or broccoli, but I do that just with garlic and it seemed kind of starchy and I wanted something really light and roasted and flavorful. 

So I decided on asparagus. 

This is literally the easiest recipe ever. 

1 - 2 bunches asparagus (I used 2. My friends are vultures. But I love them.)
About 3 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt
Pepper

Cut the bottoms off the asparagus. Lay foil over cookie sheet for easier cleanup and drizzle some of the olive oil over it. Lay the asparagus out in a single layer and drizzle the rest of the olive oil on top. Then put a generous amount of kosher salt on top of the asparagus and a little pepper. 

Roast at 425 - 450 for about 30 minutes or until they are a little shriveled and have some blackened edges, then stir them around and roast another 10 or so minutes. They get cooked, have a great roasted flavor, but don't get squishy. 

Here's Nigella making her Spanish Chicken and Chorizo. So good, and she's so great!


Enjoy!





1 comment:

  1. Good post. But I have to say I am a big BK fan! I watch the re runs just for laughs, I rejoyce at how much Nadia is willing to laugh at herself whereas Nigella -gorgeous as she is- takes her own glossy Lawsoness too seriusly.

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