Spanish Chicken With Chorizo

Asked by Abdy. Answered on 2nd February 2013

Full question

I used cured chorizo in the Spanish Chicken With Chorizo recipe and it became very hard, almost inedible and my adult children said it almost needed a gravy. In Australia We also have sausages which are chorizo flavoured, should I have used these instead?

Our answer

There are two types of chorizo. One is similar to a salami and is fermented, cured and smoked before it is sold. It is most likely to be sold already sliced and tends to be on the larger side, a similar size to salamis. It will also usually last for a few weeks in the fridge.

Fresh chorizo sausage is made with fresh meat and spices and must be cooked before it is eaten. In the UK it is sometimes sold as small, fat sausages but the size and shape will vary.

You need to use the fresh type of chorizo in Nigella's Spanish Chicken recipe. The sausage will ooze out spiced oil as it cooks and this oil is used to baste and flavour the chicken and potatoes and keep the dish moist. If you can't get the fresh type then you could use the cured type of sausage but you will need to drizzle extra olive oil over the chicken and potatoes. Ypou could also sprinkle on some smoked pimenton (the main flavouring in chorizo) and just add the cured chorizo for the last 5 minutes, to warm through, rather than cooking it for an hour.