Spanish-style chicken in a pressure cooker
I can officially confirm that it is no longer summer. Not that it has been for quite a while. There were a couple of weeks in June when things looked promising but it has been nothing but a letdown ever since. At least I can now feel fully justified in cooking some heartier meals so there is that little bit of consolation. And we can always hope things will turn out better next summer.
This Spanish-style dish is probably not particularly authentic but it tastes great and can be cooked fairly quickly and with minimal effort so that ticks a lot of boxes straight off. Chicken on the bone is also a fantastic thing to cook in a pressure cooker. It cooks really quicklyand comes out, amazingly tender and infused with the flavour of whatever you add to it. As a result, I have a range of chicken dishes I can make with a virtual guarantee of success. This is one of them.
Chorizo add san intense flavour while the chickpeas add body. Realistically, you can easily cook this without a pressure cooker, you will just need to simmer the chicken in the sauce for about 45 minutes.
This recipe uses chicken legs and thighs as they are practically impossible to overcook. You can also improvise on the ingredients. If you don’t have or like chickpeas, use butter beans. Use sherry or wine, depending on what you’ve got to hand – all you need is some alcohol to pump up the flavour. This is a really simple dish as once you get everything in the saucepan you can leave it to simmer away on its own.
Let’s be clear – this is perhaps not the most authentic recipe but its full of flavour and is almost a meal in itself. I would server this with some boiled new potatoes, mash or even couscous (if not concerned with being gluten-free) and some sort of green vegetable to balance out the red colour. And it’s even better as leftovers as it gives the flavour a chance to develop even further.
- 1 kg chicken thighs and/or drumsticks skin removed
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large onion roughly chopped
- 100 g chorizo sausage roughly chopped
- 2 cloves garlic roughly chopped
- 4 tbsp fino sherry or red or white wine (whatever is handy, works equally well)
- 200 ml tomato passata
- 300 ml chicken stock
- 1 tin chickpeas (roughly, exact quantity not important)
- 1 handful fresh parsley chopped (optional)
- Heat the olive oil in your pressure cooker (or saucepan) and fry the chicken first to get some colour. Set aside.
- Add the onion to the hot pan and saute about 5 minutes until it just starts to soften.
- Add the chorizo and fry until it releases its red oil.
- Add garlic, fry for about a minute, then add chickpeas and saute everything together for another minute or two and medium/low heat.
- Add the sherry orwine and bring to the boil to cook off the alcohol. This has happened once the really alcoholic smell disappears.
- Add passata and chicken stock and bring to the boil. Return the chicken into saucepan, add some salt (not all of it as more will be added at the end) and lock the lid on the pressure cooker. If you've cooked everything in a separate pan, transfer everything to pressure cooker and lock.
- Bring to high pressure then lower the heat to maintain pressure without overheating and set a timer for 7 minutes. (If using an electric pressure cooker you should add a few extra minutes to the cooking time.)
- When time is up, turn off heat and allow the pressure to drop naturally (resist the urge to intervene - just go away and come back in about 15 minutes)
- Once pressure has dropped, release the lid - you will have lots of liquid which now needs to be reduced to create a glossy sauce with intense flavour.
- Continue to cook on a medium heat until the liquid reduces and thickens - this will take about 10 minutes but cook longer if necessary until it looks thicker and coats the meat.
- Taste the sauce, adjust salt if necessary, add parseley if using and serve.
