Spanish Chicken, Chorizo and Rice Soup
It contains our favourite Spanish flavours and is really warming and hearty.
Ingredients
- 30g butter
- 1 small onion (80g) finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 1 medium red pepper (200g) finely chopped
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp plain flour
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 litre chicken stock (made using 2 chicken stock cubes or pots)
- 500ml water
- 400g tin chopped tomatoes
- 100g white medium-grain rice I use basmati rice (see Notes)
- 170g cooking chorizo sausage thinly sliced (see Notes)
- 320g shredded skinless cooked chicken (see Notes)
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 large avocado (320g) coarsely chopped, to serve (optional – see Notes)
- 15g fresh coriander leaves to serve (optional – see Notes)
- 2 limes halved, to serve (optional – see Notes)
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a large soup or casserole pot (I use our 24 cm casserole) over a medium heat; cook the onion and garlic, stirring, for 5 minutes or until the onion softens. Add the pepper, oregano and spices; cook, stirring, for 30 seconds or until fragrant. Add the flour and tomato paste; cook, stirring, for 1 minute or until combined. Gradually stir in the stock, the water and tomatoes; bring to the boil, stirring. Stir in the rice; simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes (see Tips) or until rice is tender.
- Meanwhile, heat a large oiled frying pan over a medium to high heat; cook the chorizo slices for 3 minutes or until browned. Drain on paper towel.
- Add the chorizo and chicken to the soup; stir over a medium heat for 5 minutes or until hot. Season to taste.
- Serve bowls of soup topped with avocado and coriander and accompany with lime halves (if using). We enjoy ours with crusty bread.
Notes
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- I use basmati rice and cook it for 10 minutes at the end of step 1.
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- If you can't get cooking chorizo from your supermarket, a cooked chorizo ring will work well too.
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- If you’ve got leftover chicken from a roast, that will work well, however poached skinless boneless breast or thighs are good too. I use skinless boneless chicken thighs and before starting to make the soup I poach them in 500ml of chicken stock. Season the chicken with salt and pepper then add to a saucepan on a high heat along with one chicken stock pot or cube and 500ml cold water. When the water begins to boil, lower the heat to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes (turning once, halfway through cooking). Remove the chicken and set aside to cool on a plate before shredding to add at step 3 of the recipe. Add the stock that the chicken was poached into the other 500ml of stock, as 1 litre of stock is required for the soup.
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- The original recipe says to serve the soup with chopped avocado, fresh coriander leaves and fresh lime halves – I didn’t have any of these ingredients when making the soup for the first time but decided to make it anyway…to be honest, we didn’t miss them – the soup was delicious.