Arroz con Pollo

Ingredients

• 8 bone-in chicken thighs
• 320 g paella or short-grain rice
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 red pepper, sliced
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 tbsp smoked paprika
• a pinch of saffron
• 200 g passata
• 700 ml hot chicken stock
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 150 g frozen peas
• 1 lemon, in wedges

Method

1. Brown the chicken

   Season the thighs and brown them skin-down in the oil in a wide shallow pan, then set aside. Bone-in and skin-on: the bones flavour the rice from underneath as it cooks.

   12 min

2. Sofrito

   Cook the onion, pepper and garlic in the chicken fat until completely soft and sweet. A rushed sofrito leaves the whole pan tasting sharp.

   12 min

3. Paprika and saffron

   Stir in the paprika and crumbled saffron for 30 seconds, then the passata, and cook until it darkens. Paprika burns fast, so it goes in with liquid close behind.

   5 min

4. Rice and stock, then hands off

   Stir the rice through to coat it, pour in the hot stock, nestle the chicken back in skin-up, and do not stir again. Stirring releases starch and turns it into risotto.

5. Simmer and add peas

   Cook at a steady low simmer until the liquid is absorbed, scattering the peas over for the last five minutes.

   20 min

6. Rest

   Take it off the heat, cover with a cloth and rest for 10 minutes before serving with lemon. The rest evens out the grains at the top and bottom of the pan.

   10 min