CHICKEN AND SAFFRON RICE

This Chicken and Saffron Rice is my version of Arroz con Pollo, the traditional Spanish dish of chicken and rice that is seasoned with saffron. The ingredients are simmered and baked together to enhance the flavors, creating the perfect one-pot meal. I love this recipe and for good reason. First off, it’s aromatic and makes the entire house smell great. Moreover, it’s a pretty simple dish to prep and cook that’s fancy enough for company but easy enough to whip up on a weeknight. The chicken comes out fall-of-the-bone tender, full of flavor and so delicious.

I’m obsessed with the new Le Creuset Braiser pan that we just got. I feel like I just got a new pretty dress and can’t wait to wear it. If you don’t have it, you can use a deep oven-safe saute pan.

I also have some canned tomatoes that my friend, Kevin, gave to me. Kevin grows the best tomatoes so I trusted that his canned tomatoes was gonna be awesome. Who wouldn’t want to cook with this stuff?

This recipe also calls for saffron and surprisingly I have it in my pantry. To me, saffron is the queen of all spices. Fun facts about saffron: saffron is the dried yellow stigmas from a small purple crocus flower. Each flower provides only three stigmas, which must be carefully hand-picked and then dried, an extremely labor-intensive process. It takes 225,000 stigmas to make one pound of saffron, making saffron the most expensive spice in the world.

Let’s cook some food!

Preheat oven to 400 ºF.

In a small bowl, combine white wine and saffron. Let rest at least 10 minutes. The white wine will turn into gorgeous golden color. I call it liquid gold. 🙂

Combine salt, paprika and pepper.

Season the chicken with the spice mixture.

In the pan, set over medium heat, cook sliced chorizo until caramelized and the fat has rendered.

Notice that mine is really thin. I couldn’t find the whole sausage so I used the thin slices that are usually used for charcuterie. I cut them in half first. Transfer to a plate, leaving the fat in the pan.

Add olive oil. Place the chicken, skin side down, into the pan and sear both sides until the skin is browned.

I sear 3 pieces at a time so they don’t crowd the pan. Otherwise, they won’t brown and you’ll get steamed chicken instead. Remove to a plate.

Lower the heat to medium-low and add the onions to the pan. Cook until translucent.

Add the garlic and cook until aromatic, about 30 seconds.

Add the rice to the pan with the onions and garlic. I’m using Jasmin rice. Stir until all the rice is coated in oil and the onion mixture is incorporated.

Add the wine-saffron mix.

Deglaze the pan, using a wooden spoon to scrape up any browned bits. Allow the rice to absorb nearly all of the wine.

Pour in the chicken broth.

Add tomatoes with juice.

Return the chorizo to the pan.

Add the roasted peppers. Some of my peppers are yellow and it doesn’t matter using red or yellow. The yellow will just add more color to the dish. Bring to a simmer.

Return the chicken thighs to the pan, placing them skin side-up on top of the rice.

Cover with the lid and bake 25 minutes.

Remove from the oven. Remove the chicken to a plate and stir the peas and olives into the rice. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Can you smell the saffron? Mmmmmmm. 🙂

Place the chicken on top of the rice mixture, then bake another 10 minutes. Garnish with some parsley (optional). Serve directly from the pan.

Hope you give this Chicken and Saffron Rice a try, the recipe card is below.