Chicken Basque

Adapted from a recipe by Delia Smith or Saint Delia as we used to know her because of her omnipresence at UK dinner parties at one time! A fantastic recipe - I've made it again and again.

You will need:

• chicken pieces - if you only use breast meat it's dry and tasteless. I use thighs. It cooks so thoroughly the meat just falls off the bone.
• a red pepper (or some from a jar)
• 2 onions
• 2 cloves of garlic
• a 6cm piece of chorizo (check it's gluten-free!) sliced thinly
• brown basmati rice (you can't use white - it cooks too quickly)
• a handful of black olives
• a few sun-dried tomatoes
• chicken or vegetable stock
• oil for frying
• optional: paprika, tomato puree, white wine (instead of some of the stock), wedges of orange (all these feature in the original recipe but I find them unnecessary as the dish has so much flavour already)

1. Heat the oven to 175C/350F.
2. Brown the chicken pieces a few at a time in a frying pan with a little oil. Put them in a large casserole dish (with a lid) when browned.
3. Fry the slices of chorizo until browned (careful - it can burn very quickly!). Add them to the casserole dish. Don't change the oil here - the flavour of the chorizo is important to the dish.
4. Next, fry the sliced onions and pepper (if using fresh) until a bit soft. Add the chopped garlic - don't brown it though (it tastes horrible!).
5. Stir in the rice (I use a large cup for two people) until it's coated in the juices.
6. Add double the rice quantity of stock. Add the olives, sundried tomatoes and optional ingredients.
7. Pour the pan contents over the chicken and chorizo pieces. Put on the lid and bake. Mine takes an hour or more. It's done when the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender. You may need to add more stock during cooking - it depends on the rice and your oven.