Chicken with Saffron Rice

First off, Thank you Teresa for following my blog!

Happy New Year to everyone...I hope your celebrations were fun and you have some great new goals and recipes to share for 2010. I am looking forward to catching up with everyone after being away from the online world this past week.

To start the year off with a healthy recipe Doug and I made chicken with saffron rice.



You'll need the following ingredients........

3 ½ lbs. chicken thighs and drumsticks

Salt and pepper

2 Tbs. olive oil

1 yellow onion, finely diced

1 red bell pepper

¼ tsp. crumbled saffron

¼ tsp. red pepper flakes

5 garlic cloves, minced

½ cup cooking sherry

2 ¼ cups chicken broth

1 can (14 oz. size) diced tomatoes with juices

3 cups medium grain rice

½ cup green olives, pitted and halved



Season chicken with salt and pepper. In my Le Creuset I heated 2 Tbs. olive oil and browned chicken in batches (about 7 minutes to batch). Transfer to a plate when all the chicken is browned.



In the same pot you will tip in onions, bell pepper, saffron and red pepper flakes. Cook 10 minutes or until the veggies are soft.



Add garlic and cook a minute more. Now add sherry, stir.

Add chicken pieces, broth tomato and juices. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook 15 minutes.






Add rice, olives, 1 ¼ teaspoons salt and pepper.



Cover, bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, stirring halfway through cooking time.


Note: I took it out of the oven 15 minutes through cooking and it was just about done. I don’t think I added enough chicken broth…or maybe added too much rice – either way, I put the lid back on, placed it back in the oven and turned off the heat.




Let stand 10 minutes before serving.






I'm sending this to Cream puffs in Venice for her Magazine Monday series.