Smoky Paprika Chicken with Piquillo Peppers
Chicken thighs rubbed with two kinds of pimentón, browned hard, then loosened with sherry vinegar and torn piquillo peppers.
Why it works
Thigh meat browns without drying out, so you can leave it alone on high heat for four minutes and build real colour on the pan base. Sherry vinegar then lifts all of that into the sauce in seconds, doing the work a long braise would otherwise be needed for. The rice wants ten of those minutes and no attention at all, so it goes on before the chicken and sits covered while the pan sauce comes together.
Method
- Boil the kettle. Put the rice, salt and boiling water in a small pan, bring back to the boil, then clamp on a lid and cook on the lowest heat for 10 minutes. Leave it covered off the heat until you serve.
- Toss the chicken on the board with both paprikas, a good pinch of salt and plenty of pepper until every piece is coated rust red.
- Heat the oil in a large frying pan over high. Add the chicken in one layer and leave it alone for 4 minutes — moving it early costs you the crust. Turn and cook 2 minutes more.
- Drop the heat to medium and add the onion, garlic and bay. Cook 3 minutes, until the onion softens at the edges but keeps some bite.
- Add the peppers, beans and vinegar, scraping the base clean as it bubbles. Pour in the stock and simmer 3 minutes, until it reduces to a glossy coating and the thickest piece of chicken shows no pink at the centre. Fold the spinach through in handfuls until it collapses.
- Off the heat, scatter with almonds and parsley. Taste, and add another splash of vinegar if it needs sharpening. Fork the rice loose, spread it over four warm plates and spoon the chicken and all the pan juices over it.
For the toddler
Set a few pieces of chicken aside at step 2, before they meet the two paprikas and the salt, and fry them in plain oil in a small pan with a strip of pepper and a spoon of beans. Hot pimentón cannot be taken back out once it is on. Chop the chicken finely, crush the beans, and grind the almonds fine or leave them off, since chopped nuts are a choking risk under five.
How the toddler notes workChef’s notes
Roasted red peppers from a jar if you cannot find piquillos. Three tins of drained chickpeas in place of the chicken make it meat-free.
Ask the butcher to dice the thighs, or buy them ready-cut. Two 250 g pouches of microwave rice instead of the pan.
Oranges and olives dressed with oil and cumin, or bitter leaves in sherry vinegar to cut the paprika.
Keeps 3 days chilled and reheats well. The paprika deepens overnight.