During the cleaning out of my friend's pantry, I gained 14 packet meals that she was going to toss because they were passed their best before date. There is nothing wrong with these packets, so I'm going to get some meals out of them, and hopefully find some decent short cuts for people that actually need them.
First up I'm going to use the 2 box packets, as they take up the most space, and I've still got fairly limited space for storage of things.
Continental One Pan Meals - Spanish Chicken & Chorizo Paella
Contents of the box:
1 packet of rice
1 packet of herb and spice mix
Additional Ingredients Needed:
400 grams Chicken Breast, Chopped into bite sized pieces
1 Chorizo Sausage, sliced
2 Tomatoes, diced
1 cup Frozen Peas
1 tablespoon Oil
2 1/2 cups Water
Optional Extras I used:
1/2 Onion, finely sliced and chopped
1 teaspoon Minced Garlic
1/2 teaspoon Paprika
The packet makes it easier to fit everything in one photo
Method
Heat the oil in a pan over medium-low heat.
Add the Onion and Garlic and cook slowly for 5 minutes.
Increase the heat to Medium-high and add the Chicken and Chorizo. Sprinkle with paprika.
Stir and cook until the chicken is browned on all sides.
Add the Tomatoes, the contents of both packets from the box, and the water. Stir well and make sure the spice mix isn't clumpy.
Bring the pan to a boil before reducing the heat to low, covering and simmering for 15 to 20 minutes, at which point most of the water should have been absorbed.
Doesn't really look that appetising yet, but in about 20 minutes time it will look so much better
Remove the lid and scatter the peas over the top before replacing the lid and cooking for 5 more minutes.
Stir well before serving!
oops, forgot to take a photo of the serving. Imagine a quarter of this in a bowl
Final Thoughts
I was going to add prawns to this, but my local supermarket didn't have any while their freezer was being cleaned out. They would have made it better, but as it was it was quite tasty. It also did exactly what is says on the box in that it only took 1 pan to make the meal. Total dishes were 1 pan, 1 chopping board, 1 knife, 1 teaspoon, 1 wooden stirrer, and 1 serving spoon. Pretty simple clean up for making 4 serves.
Took me about 40 minutes total from starting to prepare the ingredients, to serving up the cooked food, which is pretty handy for those that are pressed for time when it comes to making meals.
I hope you enjoyed this. If you have any suggestions to improve it, I'd love to hear them. While I have a few packets already, if you have any suggestion of packets you'd like me to try, I'm sure they can be added to the queue. It might take me a while though, as I'll also be getting back to making recipes from my cookbooks too.
