Recipe of the Week: Spanish Chicken and Chorizo

For you avid Food Networkers out there, you might have seen the new show that features Nigella Lawson. I have seen her on Top Chef many times as a guest judge. I haven't been able to figure out if her British accent and very sensual way of talking about food inspires me or creeps me out.

But I figured I would let her recipes and cooking speak for itself and found out that she is legitimate. Along with this recipe, I am currently catching up on blogging while waiting for my "Beer Braised Beef" to cook up in the oven--another Nigella recipe I saw on the TODAY show. Maybe it will be next week's recipe....

I should warn you all that if you watch her show she is obviously filming in Europe and uses grams, liters and other strange European measurement terms (I know, I am such an arrogant/ignorant American). Well, this smarty pants watched the show and thought this recipe looked good and was so simple, I could do it without referring to the online recipe. She said to put the chicken in the oven for an hour at 200 degrees. I thought, "hmm...that sounds awfully low, but I trust her." Oops. She meant 200 degrees CELSIUS! Moral of the story, trust your gut, not British TV cooks...haha, just kidding.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons regular olive oil
12 chicken thighs (bone in, with skin)
1 3/4 pounds chorizo sausages, whole if baby ones, or cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks if regular-sized
1 1/4 pounds baby white-skinned potatoes, halved
2 red onions, peeled and roughly chopped
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 orange

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Put the oil in the bottom of 2 shallow roasting pans or quarter sheet pans, 1 tablespoon in each. Rub the skin of the chicken in the oil, then turn skin side up and put 6 pieces in each pan.

Divide the chorizo sausages and the baby potatoes between the 2 pans. Sprinkle with the onion and the oregano, then grate the orange zest over the contents of the 2 pans.
Bake for 1 hour, but after 30 minutes, swap the top pan with the bottom pan in the oven and baste the contents with the orange-colored juices. Transfer the chicken mixture to a large serving platter and serve.

I used cumin instead of oregano (another slip up as a result of my overconfidence with the recipe) and it was really good and went well with the chorizo.

Other than the minor hiccup of the oven temperature, this was a very simple and delicious recipe that I would recommend for a weeknight hearty Fall meal.

Happy Eating,

Emi