Recipe of the week: Rukmini Iyer's all-in-one paella

Preparation: 10 minutes

Cooking: 1 hour 25 minutes

• 1 red onion, roughly chopped
• 2 red peppers, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic, grated
• 6 free-range skinless, boneless chicken thighs
• 150g firm chorizo, thickly sliced into 1cm coins
• 2tbs olive oil
• 4 generous pinches of good saffron (I like Belazu)
• 250g paella rice
• 600ml hot chicken stock
• 1 lemon, juice only
• Sea salt flakes, to taste

To serve

• Flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges

Preheat the oven to 180°C fan.

Tip the onion, peppers, garlic, chicken thighs, chorizo and olive oil into a roasting tin or a flat lidded casserole dish large enough to hold everything in roughly one layer (it's OK if there's a bit of overlap). Transfer to the oven and roast for 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, pop the saffron strands into a mug with a couple of tablespoons of boiling water, and set aside.

Once the chicken and peppers have had 25 minutes, remove the tin from the oven and stir through the paella rice, hot chicken stock, and steeped saffron along with the saffron water.

Cover tightly with foil or the lid (this is important so the rice cooks), then return the dish to the oven at 160°C for a further hour, until the rice is cooked through.

Once the paella is cooked, add a dash more hot chicken stock or boiling water to adjust the texture as you wish, squeeze over the lemon juice, taste and adjust the salt as needed, then serve hot, scattered with parsley and with lemon wedges alongside.

Photography by David Loftus