Chicken, chorizo and bean stew

Chicken, chorizo and bean stew recipe

This chicken, chorizo and bean stew is one of my go-to easy, family-friendly dinner choices. It’s a very simple stew which can easily be souped up with additional ingredients.

Just the simple ingredients of chorizo, smoked paprika and garlic give it lovely, smoky flavour, which is subtle enough that it can please both kids and adults alike. This recipe is very similar to the classic chicken and chorizo ragu.

About chorizo

Chorizo is one of my favourite ingredients to have on hand. It lasts for a long time in the fridge, and it has such a lot of flavour that it can jazz-up many dishes in an instant. 

I only use a small amount of chorizo in this- for me it works as I don’t want the chorizo to be a completely overpowering flavour, and as it is generally quite fatty it can quickly add extra calories.

If you are following Slimming World or are calorie counting, limiting the amount of chorizo keeps it low-syn and low calorie compared to similar dishes. That said, different brands of chorizo vary greatly in fat content. One that I found in Asda was 4.5 syns for 35g. On average 25g chorizo is 3.5 syns.

Can I use different beans?

Use whichever beans you prefer! I like to mix up butterbeans and haricot beans in this version because I like the way the haricot beans bulk up the sauce inbetween the butterbeans. But you could use just butterbeans, or other white beans such as cannellini. Also borlotti beans, kidney beans, black beans and chickpeas all work well!

More chicken?

I only use 4 chicken thigh fillets in this to feed 4, as I break it up at the end to disperse throughout the sauce, and I think this is enough because you also have the filling power of the beans, and the extra chorizo. Everyone has different preferences and you may wish to add more chicken, or swap the chicken thigh fillets for breast chunks. You could also swap out the chicken for pork (I have used thinly sliced pork tenderloin instead), or use sliced up sausages. Prawns also work well in this, but if you are using prawns then just add them in for the final 10 minutes of the cooking time.

What else can I add to this dish?

This meal is a real vehicle for adding lots of tasty extras! Vegetables, beans, spices… here are a few ideas:

• Fry in extra onion, shallots, fresh chilli (red, green, scotch bonnet, birdseye…) diced bacon any extra meat or sausage at the same time as the chicken and chorizo
• Add at the beginning, with the passata and stock: chopped tomatoes, halved baby tomatoes, diced peppers, diced sweet potato, diced butternut squash, mushrooms, sliced leeks.
• Add 10 minutes before the end of the cooking time: spinach, kale, spring greens, frozen peas, fine green beans, broccoli, cauliflower…
• Extra herbs and spices for flavour: chilli powder, chipotle chilli flakes/paste, harissa paste, dried mixed herbs, fresh herbs such as oregano, rosemary, basil, parsley, thyme…

What can I serve this with?

Here are some serving suggestions:

• Brown or white rice
• cauliflower rice
• cous cous
• bulgar wheat
•  toasted wholemeal pitta breads
• extra green vegetables
• mashed potatoes
• over a jacket potato