RECIPE: Chicken Jambalaya

Now that I'm on holiday I really wanted to start cooking again, long days at work just mean it's impossible to cook complicated dishes. We have freshly cooked meals most evenings but nothing too complicated, so I was looking forward to cooking more. Having said this, Chicken Jambalaya isn't actually all that complicated and it was a 'oh we have chicken that needs using up' meal. As a vegetarian, I clearly didn't eat this meal but I don't mind (too much) cooking the meat for Tom. I just try not to touch it! Tom has assured me that this was really tasty (and a nice change from pasta!)

Most chicken jambalaya recipes have chorizo in too but as I didn't think (I say think because I searched the fridge, couldn't find any, then Tom came home and found some - doh!) we had any chorizo I increased the amount of paprika to get that flavour. You could of course add 70g chorizo to this recipe and reduce the paprika to 1 tsp.

 

What you'll need:

1x Can of Chopped Tomatoes

2 Garlic Gloves, crushed (I used Very Lazy Crushed Garlic)

2 Chicken Breasts, cut into chunks (I use scissors to do this)

1 Red Onion, sliced

1 Red Pepper, sliced

1tbsp Olive Oil

250g Long Grain Rice

350ml Chicken Stock

2-3 heaped teaspoons of Smoked Paprika

Black Pepper

Pinch of Dried Chilli Flakes

What to do:

1) Heat the oil in a frying pan (with a lid) and brown the chicken breast pieces for around 8 minutes. Remove from the saucepan and set aside.

2) Add the onion to the already hot frying pan and cook until partially softened. Add the red pepper, paprika, black pepper, chilli flakes and cook for a further 8 minutes or until the peppers are mostly cooked.

3) Add the chicken back into the onion/pepper mix, stir in the rice, chopped tomatoes and chicken stock. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, or when the rice is cooked.

5) Serve with crusty bread or just by itself.

Feel free to leave me a comment :)

Helen x