Martha Stewart Living Chicken and Chorizo Paella

When my second son began eating table foods, I started trying to introduce both of my sons to a large variety of foods. They have had just about every type of meat, vegetable, fruit and cheese that can be found in my area, in addition to foods that friends and family have shipped from other areas. Some they have fallen in love with and some they have not been thrilled with, but they have been pretty good with at least trying all of them. I have attempted making paella recipes  a number of times and the results have been okay, not great. The June issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine had a recipe for Chicken and Chorizo Paella, which looked simple and I hoped would be a great paella recipe to share with my family.

There are 13 ingredients in this recipe (including salt and pepper). I made a couple of substitutions, the first being with the type of rice. I already had jasmine rice in my pantry, so I used what was available. Second, I had bought a number of packages of linguica when I found in on clearance and froze it, so I substituted the linguica for the chorizo called for in the recipe. The linguica is milder sausage, which is more child friendly for my household. Finally, I used regular paprika, not smoked Spanish. I keep a pretty strict budget and paying to special order one spice for a recipe, isn't something I can justify. However, I did buy new saffron. Saffron is expensive, but lasts a significant amount of time and adds a necessary flavor to a number of dishes. The total time including prep, took approximately an hour and 20 minutes. I did not use a paella pan, but rather my favorite oven-proof skillet.

This dish turned out better than any of the previous paella recipes I have tried. My two sons loved this recipe so much that they ate 5 of the 8 pieces of chicken over the course of the two days following the meal. Additionally, everyone in my family agreed that the best part of the dish was the rice. The chicken cooks on top, leaving the rice with a delicious flavor, that even my two boys went back time and time again to the fridge for leftovers. This is definitely a family friendly recipe, which I will be making again in the future.

For the recipe go to Martha Stewart Living Chicken and Chorizo Paella .