A while ago, I was trying to make a dish with chorizo, but accidentally grabbed Mexican chorizo instead of Spanish chorizo. To confirm the differences here, Mexican chorizo is more like a mince or sausage meat, meant to be cooked to be crumbly. Spanish chorizo is dried and is more like a cured meat product akin to salami. In the case of this recipe, I used Spanish chorizo, not Mexican. I found that the Spanish version, being cured and whatnot, acted more like bacon as opposed to ground pork, and that was perfect for what I was trying to use it for in this case. I rendered out the fat from the chorizo, which took on a gorgeous orange color from all of the paprika packed in there, and used that to make a sauce and brown some chicken thighs in, and to give the dish a more complete feel, I made some cavatelli, so that this dish was like a play on chicken and dumplings, but with mild Spanish and Italian influences! I would say that this dish, from start to finish, takes about 45 minutes to an hour to make, making this a perfect midweek dinner dish to cook!

For this recipe, the sauce is really everything. I made it with rendered chorizo fat, a ton of onions for sweetness and body, garlic, some spices, and chicken stock. It is spicy, creamy, and smoky, and really glazes the pasta and kale nicely. The thighs themselves were cooked low and slow using the rendered chorizo fat, which imparts a smoky, slightly spicy flavor, and helps the thighs get this golden brown color and a super crispy skin. Since I used bone-in, skin-on thighs, they do take quite a bit of time to make, about 30 minutes in total. I actually made the pasta for the cavatelli while the thighs were cooking. The pasta dough is a super simple one, and I used a fork to shape them into these little rectangles with grooves to catch the sauce itself. With the thighs, they do release a decent amount of chicken fat. I actually cooked my kale into the fat, just to really get that nice, rich, chicken fat flavor into the greens, before adding those into the sauce to impart more flavor. And with the rendered chorizo, I tossed that back through the sauce, acting like bacon or a lardon, just meaty bits to play with the pasta, greens, and chicken!

Makes 4 servings:
For the chorizo-onion sauce:
2oz Spanish chorizo, diced
1 bay leaf
1oz olive oil
2 onions, peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and diced
a pinch of salt
a pinch of thyme
a pinch of cumin
a pinch of oregano
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 tsp chili flakes

In a large pot, start by rendering out the chorizo and bay leaf with olive oil until the chorizo gets crispy and the oil takes on a red tint. At that point, take out the chorizo and reserve half of the oil. In the remaining oil, sweat out the onions until they are translucent, then add in the garlic, salt, thyme, cumin, and oregano and stir until the garlic is fragrant and nutty. Deglaze the pan with chicken stock and chili flakes, and bring to a simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, reduce the liquid by half, and then fish out the bay leaf. Puree the onions, garlic, and stock until a creamy sauce is formed.

For the chicken thighs:
4 chicken thighs, bone-in, skin-on
salt
smoked paprika
black pepper
reserved chorizo oil

Pat the chicken thighs dry with paper towels then sprinkle on salt, paprika, and pepper. Line a large nonstick or cast iron pan with the reserved chorizo oil, then cook the chicken thighs, skin side down, in the pan on medium-low heat for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, pour out and reserve any rendered chicken fat, and continue to cook skin side down for another 5 minutes. Then flip the thighs onto the flesh side, finishing them on the flesh side for another 5 minutes.

For the cavatelli:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg
a pinch of salt

Mix ingredients together until a dough is formed. Divide the dough into 24 pieces and press each piece against either the curved side of a fork or a gnocchi board to form grooved edges on the dough. Boil the cavatelli pieces in heavily salted water until they begin to float. Then finish in the chorizo-onion sauce.

For garnish:
2 leaves of kale, stems removed

Saute the kale in the pan that the chicken thighs were cooked in, then transfer the kale into the chorizo sauce. Add to the sauce the crispy rendered chorizo as well. To plate, start with the cavatelli and sauce, then top with the crispy skinned chicken thighs.