Spanish orange-paprika chicken

Daily Maverick

02-06-2025

The colours are lively, the flavours are lively — here's a weeknight supper recipe that will have you toasting life itself.
Our chicken recipes always fly, if you'll pardon the expression. It's clear that you love them, and thank you for that. Here's a chicken dish with a strong Spanish touch, inspired by the oranges in my garden, now bursting with colour and juice.
There's a good hit of paprika in this dish too, lending a spicy breadth to the strength of the tomato component, and something sweet to leaven it. If you are able to find some pale dry sherry (good luck with that), use that instead, but I used some lekker Old Brown Sherry, which is still very much on the market despite Monis' once beloved sherries having been culled. Such a pity.
Anyway, there's nothing wrong with Obies, and it works really well in this recipe. Let's see it, then, as a South African adaptation of a Spanish tradition.
(Serves 4)
Ingredients
8 chicken portions
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 celery stalks, diced
3 carrots, peeled and cut into slices diagonally
3 Thyme sprigs, picked
Juice of 2 oranges
3 long strips of orange peel
250 ml chicken stock
50 ml old brown Sherry
1 heaped tsp paprika
Salt and black pepper
2 bay leaves
2 heaped tsp cornflour dissolved in water
Method
I used chicken thighs and breasts in this recipe, but any portions will do. If using breasts, cut them in half right through the middle. I removed the bones from the breasts, but not the thighs.
Brown the chicken portions in olive oil. Remove.
Braise the chopped red onion in olive oil with the celery and garlic, until softened.
Pour the chicken stock into a jug with the orange juice and sherry.
Add this to the pot and deglaze, scraping the bottom with a flat-edged wooden spoon or silicone spatula to get all the bits of flavour from the bottom into the stock.
Add the browned chicken back to the pot. Add the carrots, orange peel, thyme and bay leaves.
Season to taste with salt and black pepper.
Bring to a simmer and cook till the chicken is tender, about half an hour.
Thicken with dissolved cornflour and cook gently for a few minutes more.
Serve with steamed rice. DM