Meat mains
Chicken and chorizo pasta with spinach
This is such a simple dish to cook and full of flavour from the paprika in the chorizo.
Cook's notes
Cook your pasta in plenty of well-salted water in a large pan. This stops the pasta from becoming claggy as the starch is released.
Ingredients
- 250g cherry tomatoes
- 200g baby spinach
- 1 cooking chorizo
- oil for frying, e.g. sunflower or light olive
- 200g fusilli pasta
- 300g diced chicken breast
- splash chicken stock
- salt and pepper
Method
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Step 1
Put 2 large pans of water on to boil, one well-salted for the pasta. While the water heats up, wash the tomatoes and spinach. Cut the tomatoes in half.
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Step 2
Peel one of the chorizo sausages and roughly crumble it up. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Get a large bowl of cold water ready. Once the pans of water come to the boil, add the spinach to the unsalted pan.
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Step 3
Cook for 1 minute, until wilted. Drain and refresh in the bowl of cold water. Drain again, squeeze out excess liquid and roughly chop. Add the pasta to the other pan. Cook for 10-11 minutes, until just tender (al dente), while you make the rest of the dish.
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Step 4
As soon as the pasta goes in, heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan. Add the chicken and fry on a medium-high heat to brown it (about 3-4 minutes), turning now and then. Make sure there's space between each piece so they fry and brown, rather than just sweating.
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Step 5
Once the chicken is golden brown, add the chorizo. Fry on a medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring now and then, until it lightly crisps up and releases its paprika juices. Add the tomatoes and a good splash of chicken stock to the chicken and chorizo. Cook for a further 3 minutes. Drain the pasta once cooked, reserving a little of the cooking water.
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Step 6
Check the chicken is cooked through (cut into one to check no pink juices remain; cook for a little longer if needed). Add the pasta and spinach to the chicken pan with a little of the reserved pasta water to make more of a sauce. Season with salt and pepper, gently toss everything together and serve.