Recipe: Open Fire Chicken & Chorizo Paella

Serves: A hungry family, a friend gathering or 6-8 people

Paella is a great dish to enjoy all year round due to its warming and fresh flavours. You can cook it inside, preferably over a gas burner or, ideally outside on the BBQ or firepit. But beware – your neighbours may pop their head over the fence after catching a waft of this dish’s delicious aromas – so make sure you make a big batch!. I always cook Paella over the open fire because it’s nice and hot from the beginning and nothing beats the unique smoky flavour it gives this dish.

Ingredients

• 1kg Nomad Farms chicken legs (bone in) or boneless chicken thighs for the less adventurous

  1. 1/2 a bunch of thyme

  2. 5 ripe vine-ripened tomatoes

  3. 2 small zucchinis (diced)

  4. 100ml of Two Hill and a Creek extra-virgin olive oil 

  5. 2 Little Acre Chorizos (diced) 

  6. 2 large brown onions (coarsely chopped)

  7. 4 heads of garlic (cut in half) 

  8. A good pinch of saffron threads (add to 200ml water and let sit)

  9. 4 fresh bay leaves

  10. 1kg of red capsicums (diced)

  11. 135ml fino sherry

  12. 500gm bomba rice (see note) 

  13. 750ml Little Acre Bone Juice (one bottle)

  14. 250g green peas

  15. 1 tbsp Spanish smoked paprika (we suggest pimenton AKA the good stuff. You can grab it from Bottega Rotolo.

  Optional: 300g of Goolwa pipis and/or mussels

  To serve: lemon wedges and coarsely chopped parsley

  Note: Bomba is a short-grain rice from the Calasparra region of Spain. It's available from select delicatessens; if it's unavailable, substitute for another short-grain rice.

Method

1. Cut through leg joints to separate the thighs from legs. Cut each drumstick in half through the bone and set aside. Cut thighs through the bone into thirds and set aside. You can ask your butcher to perform this for you or pick up some boneless thighs will also work. 

2. Blanch tomatoes until skins split (30 seconds to 1 minute), refresh and set aside to cool. When cool enough to handle, peel, remove seeds (discard), finely chop and set aside. Alternatively, you can use good quality passata. 

3. A Paella pan is best but any good quality heavy based pan will do. Add EVOO and garlic heads to a hot pan. Cook garlic until golden, remove from the pan and set aside. Add the bunch of thyme, but be careful as it will spit. Remove once the ‘spitting’ stops. The idea here is you are layering the flavours, seasoning the oil as you go.

4. Add chicken and season heavily with salt ‘n’ pepper. Cook until brown, remove and set aside, then add chorizo and cook to release flavours. Remove and set aside.

5. Next is to make the sofrito. Add your onions, zucchini, capsicums, heads of garlic and sauté, then add the good stuff (pimenton).

6. Drain all liquid from the tomatoes and add to the pan with the sherry. Season to taste and cook, stirring occasionally and scraping base of pan, until any liquid is reduced and mixture looks like a thick and chunky jam. Return chorizo and chicken to the pan, sprinkle in rice and stir through evenly. Add the warm Bone Juice and saffron water. Bring to a simmer and continue cooking until rice starts to show then add the peas for 15-20 minutes; do not stir again. To level this up even further you can add mussels or pipis after 12 minutes). 

7. Remove from heat, cover with two tea towels and set aside to steam for 15 minutes. 

8. Serve hot with lemon wedges and coarsely chopped parsley.