I’ve never cooked with chorizo before, but when I saw some on sale I thought “what the heck?” Precisely because I’ve never cooked with it before I didn’t want to make a dish solely with the spicy meat. Who knew how hot it would be? I decided to throw in some boneless, skinless chicken thighs. I didn’t have any tortillas or salsa so I figured rice and fresh tomatoes and jalapenos would work.

Basically this was one of those raid the fridge kind of meals.

I also didn’t want to dirty a bunch of dishes. One was about as far as I was willing to go, so I pulled out that most glorious of cooking receptacles, the iron skillet.

Fortunately this one pot chorizo and chicken bake experiment was delicious. It’s also super easy. While it’s not healthy, per se, there’s also no added oil and very little salt.

Iron Skillet Chorizo & Chicken

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb ground chorizo
• 1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 1/2 jalapeno pepper, diced
• 2 to 3 cloves garlic, diced
• 1 cup rice, uncooked
• 2 to 3 cups vegetable or chicken broth
• 5 or 6 roma tomatoes sliced ~1/4″ thick
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• sliced avocado, sour cream, and cilantro to garnish

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375
2. Sprinkle the chicken thighs with coarse salt and pepper.
3. Brown the chorizo in the skillet at medium-high heat. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. If there’s grease in the pan remove it, leaving just enough to coat the skillet with a sheen to prevent the chicken from sticking.
4. Brown the chicken. It doesn’t have to be cooked all the way through because it will cook with the rice.
5. Remove the chicken to the plate with the chorizo.
6. Turn the heat down to medium-low. Saute the onion, red pepper, and jalapeno in the skillet until the onion is nearly translucent. Then turn the heat lower and add the garlic. You’ll want to stir often so the garlic doesn’t brown.
7. As the garlic becomes fragrant add the uncooked rice to the skillet. Stir and cook for about a minute.
8. Add the chorizo and chicken back to the skillet. Add the broth. Make sure you’ve got enough to just about cover everything.
9. Top with sliced tomatoes, and then sprinkle the cheese over the top.
10. Place in the oven and cook for about 30 minutes. Check to see if the rice is done. If not, continue cooking until it’s at your desired texture.
11. Serve with sliced avocado and top with sour cream and cilantro.
12. Wipe your iron skillet clean and put away for its next glorious use.