Slow Sundays are for herbed roast chicken and silky smooth panna cotta. Eating outside means cheddar scones and fresh, spring salads. Friends coming by for afternoon coffee calls for a simple blackberry yoghurt loaf or comforting ginger cake with cream cheese frosting.
Beloved home cook Julia Busuttil Nishimura always knows the right dish for the occasion, weather or time of day. She also understands the power food has to bring people together, whether that’s to prepare a meal or enjoy the delicious results.
With recipes ranging from quick, flavourful meals for busy weeknights to simple indulgences for summer feasts, Around the Table perfectly matches dishes to time and place. It includes recipes laden with personal meaning – Mediterranean classics from Italy and Malta, and Japanese dishes Julia has learned from her husband, Nori – that will soon become favourites around your table, too.
This one-pan meal is super comforting and an impressive dish to serve up at the table. The chorizo adds a lot of flavour to the rice, so buy the best-quality one you can find. I love meals that come together in one pan like this – it saves on time, washing up and really brings the flavour.
One-pan spiced chicken with green olives, chorizo & peppers
Serves: 4-6
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
Ingredients
- 850 g bone-in chicken thighs (about 6), skin on
- sea salt and black pepper
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 onion, diced
- 4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
- 1 red capsicum, finely sliced
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika
- 1 cured chorizo, casing removed
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 250 g calasparra rice
- 125 ml (½ cup) dry white wine
- 500 ml (2 cups) chicken or vegetable stock
- 3 fresh bay leaves
- 3 oregano sprigs
- 100 g pitted green olives chopped parsley leaves to serve
- lemon wedges, to serve
Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Season the chicken generously with salt. Warm the olive oil in a large ovenproof frying pan over medium–high heat. Add the chicken, skin-side down, and cook for 2–3 minutes, until the skin is golden. Turn the chicken over and cook for another 1–2 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside, skin-side up.
Reduce the heat to medium–low and add the onion, garlic and capsicum with a pinch of salt. Gently cook for 7–8 minutes, until softened and beginning to colour. Add the spices and crumble in the chorizo. Cook for a further 3–4 minutes, until the chorizo is beginning to colour, then add the tomato paste and rice and stir to coat, allowing the rice to toast for a minute or two. Increase the heat to medium and pour in the wine, scraping the base of the pan to release any caramelised bits. Pour in the chicken or vegetable stock and add the bay leaves and oregano. Stir so that everything is evenly distributed throughout the stock. Season with a little more salt and some pepper.
Nestle the chicken thighs back into the pan, skin-side up, then transfer to the oven and cook for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and scatter in the olives, then return the pan to the oven and cook for a further 10 minutes or until the rice is tender and the chicken is golden and cooked through. Serve with plenty of chopped parsley scattered over the top and lemon wedges on the side.
— Around The Table by Julia Busuttil Nishimura (Pan Macmillan) is out now.
Around the Table
With recipes ranging from quick, flavourful meals for busy weeknights to simple indulgences for summer feasts, Around the Table perfectly matches dishes to time and place. It includes recipes laden with personal meaning - Mediterranean classics from Italy and Malta, and Japanese dishes Julia has learned from her husband, Nori - that will soon become favourites around your table, too.
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