Chicken with Chorizo Ragout

This is what happens when I’m feeling uninspired looking at the Cooking Light Diet results for my search on dinner recipes utilizing chorizo. I decide to just jump in and go crazy and throw a bunch of things together. Let’s marry Latin ingredients with Italian ingredients and create a weird, hybrid dish. I was originally thinking of adding a fried egg per serving (no idea why really), but nixed that idea as there is really more than enough protein with this dish since I am using both spicy ground chorizo and chicken breasts.

I have hypertension and am a bit overweight, so the idea was to make a healthy dish that wasn’t loaded on sodium. I don’t think I really ended up doing that, but it’s not wholly unhealthy, either. I will say that I did not realize how bad chorizo can be and why most recipes tell you only to use anywhere from an ounce to four ounces and mix in other meats.

As I could only find the hot chorizo (don’t know if this is Mexican or Spanish, sorry), this ends up having a nice kick to it, but it is not overwhelming at all. My grandfather first complained it was spicy, but by the end of the meal, he kept spooning up the sauce. I call that a success if I do say so myself. It is a better response than his reply to “it’s edible” when I ask him about food. Of course, he is pretty solid in what he eats. I grew up on a steady diet of meat, potatoes, and vegetables. He doesn’t like this “flandangled” stuff.

You could serve the ragout over noodles, but, again, I am trying to lose some weight so I did not add on more carbs. Instead, to balance of the spicy sauce, I served this dish up with lightly seasoned steamed broccoli. I highly recommend it. And, because I wanted to add more color, I used a cup of multi-colored bell peppers. I had orange, yellow, green, and red. This way the ragout didn’t look too monotone…not that it should really matter, right?

I started on the sauce first because I wanted to have it simmer while I prepared my broccoli and steamed it. The chicken was cooked last. I put down half a cup of sauce, added the chicken breast (which I had sliced after letting it rest a minute), added the additional half cup sauce, and topped with fresh Parmesan cheese.

Chicken with Spicy Chorizo Ragout

• Servings: 4-6
• Time: 1hr
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

A spicy fusion dish of Latin and Italian flavors that can go great with pasta, rice, and more.

A mix of green, red, orange, and yellow bell peppers was used when making the ragout, but you can use whatever you would like.

Spicy Chorizo Ragout

• 3.2 ounces matchstick radishes
• 3.2 ounces matchstick carrots
• 1 cup chopped sweet onion
• 1 cup chopped bell pepper
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 3 cloves garlic
• 6 ounces ground, hot chorizo
• 1/4 cup Swanson unsalted chicken stock
• 1/4 cup red cooking wine
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 8oz can of natural, no salt added tomato sauce
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil

To make the ragout

1. In a large frying pan, heat the oil over medium high heat, swirling to coat pan.
2. Add carrots, radishes, and celery. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Add onion and green pepper to pan. Cook for five minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Add garlic to pan. Cook for 1 minute, stirring occasionally.
5. Transfer vegetables to plate. Add chorizo and use spatula to break apart while cooking. Cook for five minutes.
6. Add tomato paste and cook for an additional minute, stirring constantly.
7. Add red wine to help deglaze pan. Cook for five minutes, stirring constantly.
8. Add the stock and tomato sauce. Bring to boil then reduce heat to low and let the sauce simmer while you prepare your chicken breasts.

Pan-fried Chicken

• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut in half
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning

Chicken breasts are cut in half by slicing through them horizontally, not vertically. Do be careful not to cut yourself. You can also buy chicken breasts that are already sliced thin. If you do this, then use 6.

For the chicken

1. Sprinkle your chicken breasts on both sides with seasoning.
2. In a large frying pan, heat oil over medium heat, swirling to coat pan.
3. Add chicken. Cook until golden brown on the outside and cooked thoroughly.
4. Let stand five minutes, and then slice.
5. Turn off heat on ragout and spoon 1/2 cup onto plate. Top with 1 sliced chicken breast. Spoon an additional 1/2 cup of sauce over chicken. Top with a tablespoon of shredded Parmesan.
6. Serve with a side of steamed broccoli.

Nutritional information might not be 100% accurate, but should be in the ballpark per serving.

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