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Tonight's dinner was Chicken and Chorizo Romesco with Spanish Potatoes and Kale because I just needed a little something different. I have a huge stockpile of chicken in the freezer that I got for dirt cheap (1.89/lb) so chicken and I are quickly getting tired of eachother. This one, however, knocked me right out of that rut. My husband came home and thought it looked like an "exciting" dinner, which it certainly was.
My only complaint with this meal is that it used two skillets and two pans, plus the food processor, a strainer, two cutting boards, and two knifes. I have to say the flavor was worth it.
By the way, I've started using Plan to Eat to plan my meals and shopping list each week and I cannot say enough good things about it. I has literally solved all my meal planning issues! I can upload a recipe and it automatically creates a shopping list for me, which is very customizable, too. Then I drag and drop recipes onto a calendar. I absolutely love it.
Here's the recipe with my comments in brackets:
PREP20 Min
COOK30 Min
TOTAL50 Min [this is allegedly a 30 minute meal, but there is just no way']
Ingredients
1⁄2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 pounds baby Yukon gold potatoes, halved [I used Russets because it's what I had on hand and I think they were just fine.]
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 bunch kale, stemmed and coarsely chopped [Lacinato Kale came in my fancy Farm Fresh to You basket and it was sooooo good in here.]
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup shredded manchego [No Manchego in my store, so I used cheddar.]
1 to 3 slices stale bread, toasted, cut 1/2-inch dice
1 cup pequillo peppers or roasted red peppers
1 (15-ounce) can fire roasted tomatoes, drained, about 1 1/3 cups
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar [I also could not find sherry vinegar, so I used white wine vinegar.]
1⁄2 cup marcona almonds (Spanish toasted almonds), substitute toasted sliced or peeled almonds if unavailable [Yeah, if there's no sherry vinegar, I am sure you can tell there were no marcona almonds. I toasted some sliced almonds.]
4 pieces boneless skinless chicken breast or thigh meat
2 teaspoons orange zest or lemon zest
1 teaspoon smoked or sweet paprika
A handful flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
3⁄4 pound Spanish chorizo, casings removed, cut into 8 pieces on the bias [The chorizo in my store isn't fully cooked, so I used lingiuca. I also think 1/2 pound would be fine, since there was lots left over.]
Heat about 1/4 to 1/3 cup olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and slowly cook until crisp and golden brown. [For some reason, this took forever, but I was so scared I was going to burn it.]
Place potatoes in a pot and cover with water, bring to a boil, season with salt and cook 15 minutes or until tender, drain and return to hot pot. While the potatoes cook, simmer kale in salted water 10 minutes then drain. When you are ready to serve, mash potatoes with stock and cheese, fold in kale, adjust salt and pepper.
While potatoes come to a boil, move forward with the meal. Add to a food processor: toasted garlic (reserve the oil), some of the toasted bread in pieces, the peppers, tomatoes, sherry vinegar, almonds, and salt and pepper. Turn processor on and stream in reserved "garlic-oil" and add the rest of the toasted bread in pieces until you get a pesto-like consistency. Transfer sauce back to the skillet and keep warm over low heat.
Cut each piece of chicken into 3 chunks and season with citrus zest, smoked sweet paprika, salt, pepper and parsley. Set aside.
Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chorizo and render it 1 minute. Remove the chorizo to a plate and then add chicken and cook 10 to 12 minutes, turning occasionally.
Pour a pool of sauce onto each dinner plate and top with a mound of potatoes and kale and chunks of chicken and chorizo.
