Pollo a la Riojana

Pollo a la Riojana is a Spanish chicken stew with peppers, tomato, pimiento choricero and pimentón. In this version, the peppers are roasted first and only stirred into the concentrated tomato sauce at the end.

Number of servings: 4
Preparation: approximately 30 minutes
Cooking: approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes
Total time: approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 kg chicken legs and/or bone-in chicken thighs
• 2 red peppers
• 1 green pepper
• 1 large onion
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 pimiento choricero
• 500 g ripe fresh tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon pimentón dulce
• 2 bay leaves
• extra virgin olive oil
• fresh parsley
• salt
• freshly ground black pepper

Preparation

1. Prepare the peppers
   Wash the red and green peppers and pat them dry.
2. Soak the pimiento choricero
   Place the pimiento choricero in a small bowl and pour over just enough hot water to cover it. Leave to soak for approximately 15 minutes.
3. Prepare the vegetables
   Peel the onion and cut it into thin half-rings. Peel and finely chop the garlic.
4. Prepare the pimiento choricero
   Remove the softened pimiento choricero from the water. Cut it open, remove the stalk and seeds, and use a spoon to scrape the soft flesh from the skin. Reserve no more than 50 ml of the soaking liquid.
5. Prepare the tomatoes
   Lightly score a cross in the base of the tomatoes and briefly immerse them in boiling water. Cool them immediately in cold water and remove the skins. Halve the tomatoes and remove the seeds and watery seed gel. Finely chop or purée the flesh.
6. Prepare the parsley
   Wash the parsley, pat it dry and finely chop the leaves.
7. Season the chicken
   Pat the chicken dry and season the pieces with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Method

1. Roast the peppers
   Preheat the oven to 175 °C conventional. Lightly brush the peppers with olive oil and place them in an ovenproof dish. Roast the green pepper for approximately 30 minutes and the red peppers for approximately 40 minutes. Turn them halfway through.
2. Steam the peppers
   Place the roasted peppers in a bowl and cover it. Leave for approximately 10 minutes. Then peel off the skins, remove the stalks and seeds, and cut the flesh into strips.
3. Brown the chicken
   Heat a splash of olive oil in a large casserole over medium-high to high heat. Brown the chicken pieces in batches on all sides. Remove them from the pan and set aside.
4. Cook the onion
   Reduce the heat to medium-low. Add a little extra olive oil if necessary and cook the onion for approximately 7–8 minutes until soft and lightly coloured.
5. Add the garlic
   Add the garlic and cook for approximately 1 minute without allowing it to colour.
6. Add the pimiento choricero
   Stir the flesh of the pimiento choricero into the onion and garlic.
7. Add the pimentón
   Take the pan briefly off the heat. Add the pimentón dulce and stir immediately so that the paprika does not burn.
8. Reduce the tomato sauce
   Return the pan to medium-low heat and immediately add the tomatoes and bay leaves. Simmer the sauce uncovered for 10–15 minutes, stirring regularly, until most of the free liquid has evaporated and a noticeably thicker tomato sauce has formed.
9. Add the chicken
   Return the chicken pieces to the sauce. Only if the sauce is too thick to simmer gently, add some of the reserved pimiento choricero soaking liquid, up to approximately 50 ml.
10. Simmer the chicken covered
    Bring gently to the boil, reduce the heat to low and cover the pan. Simmer the chicken gently for approximately 15 minutes.
11. Reduce the sauce
    Remove the lid and simmer the chicken gently for another 15–20 minutes, until it is fully cooked and tender and the sauce has visibly thickened. Stir the sauce gently from time to time.
12. Add the roasted peppers
    Add the roasted pepper strips approximately 5 minutes before the end and gently fold them into the sauce.
13. Season to taste
    Remove the bay leaves. Taste the sauce and season with additional salt and freshly ground black pepper if necessary.
14. Serve the pollo a la Riojana
    Sprinkle with the finely chopped parsley and serve the chicken hot with the thick pepper and tomato sauce.

Tips

For a more Spanish version, if you can find one, you can use a long green pepper of the pimiento verde italiano type. It has thinner flesh and is slightly more aromatic than a regular green bell pepper.