Chicken Chorizo and Rice started out as a simple chicken and rice recipe I made shortly after moving to Texas and after I started eating meat again. Lisa and I had chorizo in a breakfast taco one morning and it was so delicious she suggested I add chorizo to the chicken and rice dish. I have changed the recipe and this time I measured out everything. I normally just make chicken stock and then change the recipe to match the amount of stock I ended up with.
Ingredients:
1 whole chicken
2 cloves garlic
1 whole onion
6 medium carrots
6 small zuchinni
3 cups rice
To make the stock, I cut the chicken into pieces and then brown the skin in a dutch oven on medium heat. This will need to be done in several batches. Once the chicken skin is browned, take them out and put in the next batch until all chicken with skin are browned. Place all of the chicken in the pot, cover with water by an inch and then bring to a boil. Once the pot boils, reduce to a simmer and place a lid on the pot. Once the chicken is cooked ~ 30 minutes, take the chicken out and remove the meat. Place the chicken in the refridgerator and add the skin, bones, and any other parts back to the pot and simmer for another 3 hours. Strain the pot into another large bowl and place in the fridge. I usually finish this dish the next day but if you want to cook it all in the same day, clean the pot.
Cook the chorizo until the fat is rendered and then sautee the onions and garlic until the onions are translucent.
Chop the carrots into bite size pieces and add to the pot along with 2 cups of broth and boil for 10 minutes.
Chop the zuchinni into bite size pieces and add to the pot after the carrots have been cookeed for 10 minutes.
Add 3 cups of broth , 2 cups of rice and 1/2 of the chicken chopped into small pieces.
Bring to a boil and then simmer on low for 20 minutes with the lid on.
Stir the pot after 20 minutes and test the rice to ensure it is thouroughly cooked.
While I was writing this recipe I made a pot and here are some notes if this is the first time you are making this or if you aren't familiar with the different types of chorizo. The chorizo I used this time was Cacique's Pork Chorizo, this style is heavily seasoned and has a fair amount of fat. I also like that it has a little bit of heat, I think they use guajillo chilis. There are other types of Mexican chorizo that use ground pork When picking a chorizo it is easy to tell which type you have by just looking at it. I prefer the original style because it has more flavor and uses different parts of the pig. If you use that type I would add about 1 tablespoon of chicken fat to cook the chorizo and then sautee the onions and garlic. You can look at the ingredients and check how much fat is in the chorizo.
I also occasionally use chicken thighs instead of a whole chicken, it just depends what I have. I do the same thing, brown the chicken skin and then once the meat is cooked, separate and simmer the skin, bones, etc. for a few hours to get a really flavorful broth. I also usually make the broth one day and then the rest of the dish the next day so I simmer for longer than 3 hours.
One reason I like to make this dish the day after making the broth is that the chicken fat solidifies. I like to use it to make crispy potatoes for breakfast on Saturday or Sunday.
The pot I am using right now is quite well loved and food sometimes sticks to the bottom so I often put the pot into an oven at 300 degrees F once everything is together instead of simmering for 20 minutes after the rice has been added. This prevents heat from going directly through the bottom of the pot.
I also used to make this on the weekends so we would have a big pot of food for the week while we worked.