Sunshine Paella

I decided to make this chicken, chorizo and prawn paella to bring some sunshine back into our lives during these cold winter nights. Full disclaimer - I know that chorizo is not in traditional Spanish paella recipes and is a very sensitive and contentious issue… However, I LOVE the flavour of chorizo in my paellas so couldn’t resist including it in my recipe! It gives such a nice smoky heat to the sauce which is just too yummy. Sometimes I find paellas too dry so my recipe is saucier than it should be traditionally but this is just how I prefer it.

Serves 4-6
1. Fry 200g chorizo cubes until the oil has run out and it’s nice and crispy. Leave to drain on kitchen paper, keeping the lovely oil in the pan.
2. Fry six chopped chicken thighs in the chorizo oil until caramelised and golden. Season, then remove with a slotted spoon onto kitchen paper.
3. Next fry a roughly chopped onion with a red and yellow pepper until soft. Add a finely chopped red chilli and three finely chopped cloves of garlic. Next add 1/2 tbsp smoked paprika and a large pinch of saffron. Add 300g paella rice, 1.3 litres of chicken stock and 3 large deseeded tomatoes roughly chopped. Stir and then leave to simmer for 15 minutes. Do not be tempted to stir.
4. Add the chorizo, chicken and 150g frozen peas before simmering again for 10-15 mins or until the rice is cooked and has absorbed a lot of the liquid.
5. Fry the prawns separately in a hot pan with a little oil and some seasoning, then add to the paella. Stir well, add the zest and juice of a lemon, a bunch of roughly chopped parsley and some seasoning. Squeeze over a scorched lemon and enjoy.