The recipe I'm posting today, Spanish Chicken & Chorizo is one of our favourites and is on regular rotation no matter the season...not only has it got great flavours of spices with chorizo and capsicum and a surprise texture twist, but it's also a versatile dish that can be made to serve 6 on the night, or serve 4 with leftovers for lunch the next day/s, just ask my husband!
Or if you want some moist-tender-lemon-scented roast chicken for another purpose you can make less serves on the night by scaling back everything except the chicken - the cooking time won't vary much.
Giant couscous is also known as Israeli or pearl couscous, you can buy it at most major supermarkets here in Australia where you find the dry pasta. In this recipe there is no need to pre-cook the couscous, it cooks in the oven with everything else - LOVE that!
I roast the chicken in the oven on a wire rack - this means the chicken cooks separately (good if you are using some of the roast meat alone for leftovers).
Also when I add the giant couscous to the pan I can sit the chicken over the top without the base of the chicken getting couscous stuck to it - this just makes the whole process a lot let messy AND gives you a bit more crispy chicken skin to make the crunchy sprinkle to go on top - my secret weapon!!!
Let me know what you think...
Lee-Ann ♥
Spanish Chicken with Chorizo & Giant Couscous
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken about 2.2 - 2.3 kg or 5 pounds
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1 ½ cups or 250g pearl/Israeli/giant couscous
- 3 cups chicken stock
- 1 tsp ground coriander seeds
- ½ tsp ground allspice
- ¼ tsp ground turmeric
- 2 chorizo dry, diced
- 2 large red capsicums/red peppers roughly chopped
- ½ cup stale breadcrumbs
- 2 lemons - 1 halved & 1 juiced
- salt & pepper
Instructions
- Pre heat oven to 180c.
- Tip out any excess moisture from the cavity of the chicken, remove any excess fat deposits and insert the 2 lemon halves into the cavity.
- Pat the skin of the chicken dry with paper/kitchen towel and rub with olive oil, sprinkle with salt & pepper to taste and place on a roasting rack over a baking dish.
- Cook for 1 ½ hours.
- Meanwhile heat a non-stick frying pan over high heat and fry capsicum for 4-5 minutes or until it becomes slightly blackened and starts to soften, and remove to a plate.
- Add chorizo to same pan and fry for 3-4 minutes, or until it starts to brown and the fat begins to render out. Drain excess fat and remove chorizo to a plate.
- Place stock in a microwave safe jug and microwave on high for 3 mins to heat.
- Remove chicken from oven.
- Tip the liquid from the cavity of the chicken into the baking dish and move chicken (still on the rack) to a plate.
- If you like, carefully skim off any excess fat from the baking dish (I leave it in for extra flavour!).
- Add capsicum, chorizo, spices, couscous and hot stock to baking dish stirring well to combine, scraping up any bits from the base of the dish.
- Place chicken (still on rack) back on top of baking dish and return to the oven and bake for a further 30 minutes or until couscous is cooked.
- Remove baking dish from the oven, and strip the skin from the chicken and reserve. Strip the flesh from the chicken and roughly shred.
- Add lemon juice and chicken to couscous mixture, mix to combine.
- To make the chicken sprinkle, combine the chicken skin and breadcrumbs in a food processor, process until finely chopped.
- Heat a small non-stick frypan and fry chicken skin mixture until crisp.
- To serve, top chicken and couscous with crunchy sprinkle.
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