This Hairy Bikers chicken and chorizo paella bakes chicken on the bone and cured chorizo with red peppers, paprika, and rice in one pan. It comes from the Mums Still Know Best cookbook, serving 6, and it finishes in the oven so you are not stuck stirring.
This recipe comes from a home cook called Karen Mulholland, who fell for Spanish food on holiday and perfected it over 20 years. The chorizo gets fried first until crisp, so it releases a paprika-red oil that flavours everything else in the pan.
Fry the chicken until properly browned before anything else goes in. Those browned bits stick to the pan and carry deep flavour, so the stock lifts them off later and the whole dish tastes richer.
Hairy Bikers Chicken and Chorizo Paella Recipe
Description
Chicken pieces on the bone browned in a paella pan, then cured chorizo fried until crisp with onion, garlic, red peppers, chillies, and smoked paprika. Stock and paella rice go in, then the whole pan bakes until the rice drinks up every drop.
Ingredients
For the paella
Instructions
- Brown the chicken: Heat the oil in a large ovenproof pan or paella pan over a medium-high heat. Fry the chicken pieces until nicely browned all over. Remove them from the pan and set aside.
- Crisp the chorizo: Slice the chorizo into pieces about the size of a pound coin. Fry them in the same pan until crisp, so the paprika-red juice runs out into the oil.
- Build the base: Add the onion and cook until soft, then stir in the garlic and fry for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the red peppers, chillies, and smoked paprika, then cook for another 2 to 3 minutes.
- Simmer the chicken: Return the chicken to the pan and pour in the stock. Simmer for 20 to 25 minutes until the chicken is tender.
- Add the rice and bake: Stir in the rice, cover with a lid, and put the pan in the oven at 180°C, Gas 4, for 30 minutes until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is cooked. If your paella pan is too big for the oven, cover it with foil and keep it on a low hob.
- Finish and serve: For a more authentic dish, tuck in a dozen cleaned mussels or clams for the last 20 minutes and discard any that stay shut. Scatter with parsley, then bring the pan to the table and let everyone dig in.
FAQs
How is this different from the Hairy Bikers Comfort Food paella?
They are two takes on the same dish. This cookbook version keeps things simple with chicken on the bone, cured chorizo, and an oven bake, and it uses no saffron at all.
The Comfort Food TV version that Si and Dave cook themselves is richer and more of a project. They use chicken thighs and raw cooking chorizo, then build the flavour with saffron, grated fresh tomato, lemon zest, thyme, bay, and green beans. It cooks on the hob and gets finished with prawns and mussels on top.
Why do Si and Dave say to stir paella only once?
In that Comfort Food video, Si stirs the rice just once, right after the saffron goes in. After that he leaves it completely alone for the whole cook.
The reason is the crust. Leaving the rice undisturbed lets the bottom layer catch and turn golden and slightly crisp, which the Spanish call the socarrat. Stir it again and you break up that crust, so the rice cooks evenly but loses the best bit of a proper paella.
What is the best rice for paella and can I swap it?
Proper Spanish paella rice is best, because it drinks up a lot of stock while keeping a slight bite. The grains stay separate rather than turning to mush, and Bomba or Calasparra are the classic names to look for.
Risotto rice like arborio works at a push, but it is starchier and goes creamier, which is not the texture you want. Long-grain and basmati will not work, since they do not absorb stock the same way. Stick with paella rice and the dish behaves as it should.
Why is the chorizo fried first and on its own?
Because cured chorizo is packed with paprika and fat, and frying it first renders that fat into a deep red, smoky oil. Everything after it, the onion, garlic, peppers, and rice, soaks up that oil, so the whole pan tastes of chorizo.
Skip this step and you lose the backbone of the dish. The same trick of rendering chorizo oil first turns up in the Spanish meatballs on this site, where paprika and lemon build a Spanish base before anything else joins the pan.
Can I add prawns or turn it into a seafood paella?
Yes. Lay raw prawns on top for the last 8 to 10 minutes so they steam through and turn pink without going rubbery. Mussels and clams go in for the last 20 minutes, pushed into the rice, and you throw away any that stay shut.
The Hairy Bikers also have a full Seafood Paella in their Everyday Winners cookbook that drops the chicken and uses supermarket shellfish. For a lighter seafood supper midweek, the chilli prawn pasta uses the same raw prawns with garlic, lemon, and parsley in 25 minutes.
What should I serve with chicken and chorizo paella?
Not much, because the pan already holds meat, rice, and vegetables together. A sharp salad and some bread to mop the pan are all it needs, so nothing heavy is required.
A panzanella salad suits it well, since the roasted peppers and sherry vinegar echo the Spanish flavours without repeating them. The Mums Still Know Best cookbook itself pairs the paella with Catalan tomato bread, which is toast rubbed with garlic and fresh tomato, then drizzled with oil and salt.
