Favourite Recipe: Homemade Chicken and Chorizo Paella

I know that officially paella is meant to be a seafood dish, but (ashamedly) I'm not the greatest fan of the fruits of the sea. I am however, a massive fan of both chicken and chorizo. The latter isn't a strictly clean meat, but is not used in great quantities in this dish. I really believe that the way forward in adopting a clean eating lifestyle is to obey the 8020 rule - 80% clean and 20% not so clean. It really means you don't go completely off the rails and splurge on a week of KFCs and pizzas. I tend to make a fairly big batch and freeze portions - great way to have a whole week's worth of dinners in one hit!

Ingredients (makes 6 servings):

1 chicken breast

80g chorizo

1 onion

1 red pepper

3 cloves garlic

300g paella rice 

2 chicken stock cubes

100g frozen peas

1 teaspoon turmeric

2 tablespoons paprika

a dash of cider vinegar

Parsley

Ground black pepper

Sea salt

Lemon juice

Coconut/extra virgin olive oil 

1.) Chop the chicken breast up into chunks. Slice the chorizo. Finely chop the onion and garlic. Deseed the pepper and cut into long thing strips - if you cut them too thick they will take longer to cook and may end up being hard at the end!

2.) Place the onion, garlic, chicken and chorizo in a large frying pan or wok along with a generous amount of coconut oil. Add the paprika and cook for five minutes, stirring regularly. 

3.) Add the red pepper. Cook for another five minutes, again stirring regularly.

4.) Whilst this is cooking, boil the kettle to make two pints of water - one for each stock cube. 

5.) Add the rice into the pan (don't put any water in first!). This allows it to soak up the flavours already in the dish. Stir for a minute or so.

6.) In one jug, place one stock cube, a pint of boiling water, some ground black pepper, salt and parsley. Stir and pour into the pan. Add the turmeric (this is what will give the rice its yellow hue)

7.) Leave to simmer, stirring occasionally, until almost all of the water has been absorbed/boiled away. Then add the second jug of water with the second stock cube. Repeat the first part of this step.

8.) Boil the peas for five minutes and add.

Enjoy!

Love and Light

Steph 

**All photos are property of Sophie Hartley**

Any comments/questions are very welcome