Chicken and Chorizo Bake

This colourful dish may look effortless, and although it’s a ‘one-pot’, it requires cooking in stages for optimum results. The smokiness of smoked paprika adds a huge amount of flavour overall and while Chorizo is no one’s first choice when it comes to lean meat, we believe everything in moderation, so we added a very small amount and cut it into smaller pieces to go further – a nifty way to get some of that smoky deliciousness in every bite. Included are cannellini beans and crispy kale, making the dish a substantial winter dinner, and the peas are a lovely sweet addition to an otherwise perfect meal. Serve the dish to the table as is, and tuck in!

Ingredients

• 2 x ATHLEAT skinless, deboned chicken breasts
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• ½ tsp smoked paprika
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 170g cannellini beans, drained (1 cup)
• 40g Chorizo, sliced
• 50g kale, leaves only (stalks discarded)
• 40g frozen peas
• zest of 1 lemon
• several lemon wedges, to serve

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Season the chicken breasts on both sides with salt, freshly ground black pepper and smoked paprika, rubbing the spice in well.
3. In a pan over moderate-high heat, heat one teaspoon olive oil and brown the chicken breasts on both sides until golden and caramelised. Remove and place on a chopping board and cut each one in half diagonally. Please be mindful that the chicken would not have cooked through at this stage and that you are still working with raw chicken.
4. Place the chicken pieces into a greased oven-proof dish and place into the oven for 10 minutes.
5. In the meantime, place the cannellini beans, Chorizo pieces and kale into a large bowl and drizzle over the remaining teaspoon olive oil. Use your hands to toss the mixture ensuring all the elements, particularly the kale is well-coated in the olive oil.
6. After 15 minutes, remove the chicken from the oven and add the beans, Chorizo pieces and kale to the roasting dish. Place back into the oven for 5 minutes to warm the beans through and crisp up the kale.
7. While the dish in cooking in the final 5 minutes, add boiling water to the frozen peas and allow to stand for a few minutes. This should cook them through sufficiently and hold their colour and sweet flavour.
8. To serve, drain and add the peas to the dish, then use a microplane to finely grate the lemon zest over. Serve with additional wedges of lemon.