Dinner tonight was something that I had been meaning to make for a while now,
cazuela de pollo con fideos. I've gotten off the track of cooking Spanish, as in Spain, dishes lately, and I wanted some comfort food.
The dish is a
cazuela, which technically means casserole, but not in the sense that you shove a bunch of layered shit in an ovenproof dish and bake at 350º until done.
The original
cazuelas were terra-cotta pots, shallow and wide, with the low point at the center, to encourage liquids to pool there and do their part in cooking. Spanish cuisine doesn't generally use much water. Taking care of
cazuelas is fussy. You have to cure them by presoaking overnight, immersed in water, rubbing them all around with garlic cloves, and then slowly boiling water from them on the stovetop. And you really need to use a diffuser to spread the heat around, lest you crack it, and don't heat it up without something in it. And God forbid you use anything but wooden spoons, and don't pull it hot off the stove and put it down on a cool surface. Despite the fussiness, they're great and can actually last a good long while if cared for. Historically, they were within the price range of the poorest of Spaniards, much cheaper than metallic implements.
Here's mine. It's still got garlic bits from being cured, and you can see a ding in it from years ago at 2 o'clock. It's close to 15" across and about 4.5" deep. The yellow is the sun streaming through the window.
An outfit called La Tienda ("The Store," how catchy) imports and retails them:
https://www.tienda.com/products/terra-cotta-cazuela-15-inch-ca-10.html
Here's the ingredient list, followed by steps and photos.
32 oz. chicken stock
1 5 lb. chicken, cut down, or same approximate weight in halved chicken thighs
1 Italian green pepper, seeded, sliced in rounds and halved
2-3 large carrots, sliced in rounds
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
3-5 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 large, or 5 medium tomatoes, grated
100 grams peas (200 if not using beans)
100 grams
Roma beans, trimmed, de-filamented, and rough-chopped
1 heaping tbsp. paprika
200 grams fideos (about 2/3 of a 12 0z. Goya bag)
2-3 bay leaves
EVOO
1 tbsp. salt (preferably kosher or sea)
1 tbsp. freshly ground black pepper
fresh parsley fine-chopped (garnish)
Vegetables/etc., pre-flight. I use frozen Romas and/or peas. The Romas do double duty in paellas.
EVOO in your
cazuela. If you're without the
cazuela, you can try this in a big-ass cast iron skillet of proper dimensions.
Set the
cazuela on a burner with a good range, preferably on top of a heat diffusing plate. Think a skinnier, cheaper 12" AR500 gong.
Prep the chicken. Salt and pepper it well on all sides. I trim off excess skin and fat and reserve in the freezer.
If you feel confident, start your heat on the cazuela medium-high, and chop up your onion, garlic, pepper, and carrots. If your kitchen skills are less than fully developed, do up the vegetables and then start heating the oil.
With the oil good and hot, start the chicken skin-down. Keep the heat up on the chicken for as long as possible.
Garlic and onion go in first, then green pepper, then carrots. You should be at about 10 minutes in to the cooking process when the carrots go in.
Start to give everything a good mix, and keep it from sticking by stirring, or grabbing the
cazuela and giving it a good shake.
Let it continue to cook for about another 10 minutes at a good clip, taking care to not let it stick.
In between stirs, grate the tomatoes into a bowl, holding them stem-side up. Pitch the skins, and if you're squeamish, run the tomato glop through a sieve to catch the seeds.
Get ready, and pitch the paprika into the center of the bubbling mass, taking care to dig it a hole first, and then follow immediately with the tomato, stirring everything in well.
Pre-tomato, you should look like this:
Lower your heat to below medium when the tomatoes go in. Continue stirring or shaking from time to time.
After another ten minutes, add peas/beans and bay leaf.
Add broth, raise temperature to about halfway between medium and high.
Look for the beginnings of a boil at the edges. Add in the
fideos, taking care to submerge them. From the pack, they come out in little lariats of pasta. Break them up and disperse them as they soften in the
cazuela.
Once the
fideos are submerged, you're about ten minutes out. Get the crumb snatchers to set the table and don't forget good, crusty bread.
Plated:
The broth is mind-blowing, but the
fideos in the leftovers will soon soak it up. Enjoy!
I should have know once I mentioned I was ready to pull the trigger on some Philly Sammies that the "Cunning Linguist" would pull another of his shenanigans. 
