Hi guys I'm Laura Vitale and on this episode of Laura in the Kitchen I want to share with
you sort of my version of a Spanish influenced chicken and rice. This is one of our favorite
meals and it's a one pot wonder, we absolutely love it for get togethers because it's so
easy to make and everyone loves it. You'll need some just very basic ingredients starting
with some boneless skinless chicken thighs that I have chopped into about bite-sized
pieces, and I'll talk about this in a minute. I've got some chopped up bell peppers, onions and garlic, some long grain rice, some
chopped tomatoes, this is just a can of tomatoes, some chicken stock, you'll need some paprika,
granulated garlic and onion, pinch of saffron, vegetable oil, salt and pepper. You will need
a few additional ingredients as the time comes, but for now this is all you need. Now, originally,
sort of a Spanish style chicken and rice has bone-in, skin-on chicken portions like chicken
thighs or you could take a whole big fryer, a three pound chicken and cut that into portions.
I think it's easier to eat with the rice if it's already cut into bite size pieces, sort
of one big pan and it's good to go nobody has to get their hands dirty or anything like
that, that's why I used boneless skinless chicken thighs. I wouldn't use breast for
this because it gets too dry and I have left some of the fat on my chicken, not a lot but
I have left some of it only because so much of the flavor does come from the fat and the
skin and the bones when you do have chicken with bone in and skin on that I wanted to
keep a lot of the flavor in here as well, just keep it boneless skinless, it's easier
when you eat it. Now I've got a big pan here with high sides and I've got some vegetable
oil heating up here. To my vegetable oil, I'm going to add in my chicken and I'm going
to cook my chicken until it starts developing some color and then I'll show you the next
step. Going to add my veggies to my chicken, you can see that my chicken has developed
some good color which is exactly what I want. I'm going to season this a bit with some salt
and pepper just because I want to season every layer of the dish and I did skip seasoning
my chicken when I first put it in the pan so this will do the trick just fine. I'm going
to cook this just until the vegetables cook down a bit and develop some color as well
which will take a few minutes. And then we'll move onto the next step. These look good.
If you could just smell this by the way, you would want to take a bath in it once it cools
because it smells incredible. I'm going to add in my rice, that is just long grain white
rice. I'm going to give this a stir because I really want the rice to cook up with those
fabulous juices for a second, maybe like a minute to really absorb all those wonderful
flavors. This is going to be speckled with chicken and peppers and onions and then we're
going to add in some briny olives and some sweet peas and it's just fabulous, fabulous
fabulous. So I hope that you give this recipe a try and if you have sort of, your way of
making chicken and rice, then by all means, please share it with us down in the comment
section below because I'd love to hear how you all make it from different parts of the
world or different households because that's always fun. Now that's good enough, it's been
cooking for about a minute. I'm going to add my paprika, granulated garlic and onion, I'm
adding them right in there and just stir them in and what happens when you add dry spices
to something hot, it wakes them up and you can immediately smell them which is why I
like to add them at this stage rather than add them when Iadd my liquid because you absolutely
can, but giving them a chance to wake up a bit just like I do with my chili, Ithink kind
of releases the flavor a bit better. Give them a really good stir, that is looking so
yummy! I'm going to add in the tomatoes, our chicken stock which is water and chicken concentrate
for me just to make things easier. Then I'm going to add just a very small pinch of saffron.
Get that all stirred in, put this over about medium low heat, let it come to a full rolling
boil, when it gets there, turn the heat down to about low, cover it and let it cook for
about twenty five minutes or until the rice is fully cooked, and I will show you what
it looks like when it is there! That looks amazing, now you can see it's absorbed all
the liquid and what I will recommend that you do, and this is any time that you cook
rice is to never stir with a spoon, always with a fork because you want to fluff it up,
you don't want to get it all claggy and mushy, look at that it is so gorgeous, I am going
to add in some baby green olives that have been stuffed with pomentos, I've got some
frozen peas here that are slightly defrosted but they will continue to defrost as I stir
this all in and then I'm going to add in some (my mouth is salivating) I'm going to add
in some fresh chopped parsley and by the way, look at how much this makes, this feeds an
army! Look how beautiful it is the grain has separated, the bottom gets all crispy, it's
just fabulous, it's a really easy easy wonderful dish, that again, feeds so many people perfect
for a crowd, do a little tapas, you know maybe a little grilled chorizo, things like that
and people will be very very happy campers I promise. I'm going to let this cook for
about a minute and then it'll be time to serve and eat! Just going to serve myself a little
bit, now you also want to make sure you taste this for seasoning, I've already tasted it
and for me it tasted perfect, also because you - I didn't season the broth because the
chicken stock is a little salty and I don't want everything to be too salty, so the chicken
stock being salty enough to infuse everything else plus we did season the vegetables and
the chicken so it kind of gets a really well balanced seasoning that way in my opinion.
I'm going to give this a try because I really love the rice, I'm going to go back in in
a minute for the chicken but get an olive in there, you can of course chop the olive,
but they're tiny olives and i didn't feel the need to chop them so I'm not going to.
Part lazy, part they're cute. It is what it is. That is so delicious, I'm going in for
chicken. The chicken is so tender, totally melts in your mouth, the rice is perfectly
cooked, stays separate so it's not all sticky and claggy, which is totally good if it gets
nice and sticky but it doesn't really matter. By the way, that's a word I made up. It is
what it is, hah! I hope you've enjoyed spending time with me guys, go to Laurainthekitchen.com
to get this written recipe, I'm going to go eat some dinner, hope you've enjoyed spending
time with me and I'll see you next time. Bye bye!