Pollo al Chilindron

This is a really popular Spanish dish. You can play around with the ingredients and make it your own, there are so many variations. I like it because of the richness of flavor and the rustic style of one-pot cooking. 

This is one of those dishes  you can tell by looking at the ingredients, it's gotta be good!

You will need:

• A heavy cast iron pot or any heavy large pot that you can transfer from stove top to oven. And a cover or tin foil.
• 4 chicken legs separated from the bone. You can use other varieties of chicken like breasts, but it won't have the same "falling off the bone" goodness. plus the dark meat is great in this recipe.
• Most Chilindron recipes call for Jamon Serrano, which is an Italian thinly sliced cured ham similar to prosciutto. But you can exchange it for chorizo sausage. About 2 cups (or 2 sausages) cut lengthwise then in quarters then diced.
• a few glugs of olive oil
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 large onion, diced
• 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 heaping spoon-fulls of sweet-smoked Spanish Paprika. Note: if you find your paprika doesn't have any smell or taste, it's not a great paprika, it should really have a smokiness to it.
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 lemon (juice and zest)
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• a splash of dry white wine (or I would use whatever white I have)
• 2 tbsp of fresh parsley
• salt & pepper, to taste

Fist you're going to start off by making the sauce. It's easy if you start off by prepping all the ingredients before hand. 
Heat the pot to medium, add some olive oil, put in the onion and bell peppers. stir occasionally and let that sit for about ten minutes. Then add the garlic, stir and wait a couple minutes. Then throw in the rest of the ingredients except for the chicken and the tomatoes and the wine...and save 1/2 of the parsley. Stir this mixture and wait a few more minutes. Then when all the flavors combined deglaze the pot with the white wine and then add the diced tomatoes. Simmer a few minutes, then carefully remove the sauce from the pot and put aside. 
Now keeping the temperature at medium, put the chicken into the pot skinside down until browned then flip them over to seal the meat. Remove the chicken from the pot and put the sauce back in then place the chicken on top of the sauce skin side up. With a lid or tin foil over the pot, place in the pre-heated 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. Then remove the cover and continue cooking for another 15 minutes. Let cool a bit.  Garnish with the remaining parsley.

Serve with rice, salad, baguette, white wine.