I am embarrassed to admit that it took me two solid days to learn how to say “chorizo.”  I know what you’re thinking: “Hilary is so stupid, it’s pronounced exactly how it sounds!”  This is a valid point.  I compare my difficulties with chorizo to the full week it took me to pronounce and spell Milla Jovovich’s name.  She is the actress who plays Alice in Resident Evil, and also the female I have the biggest girl crush on.  Regardless of my zombie-killing admiration towards her, I insisted on spelling and saying her name like this: Jokovich.  This error caused my roommate Brittany, another huge Milla fan, to sigh in irritation.  However, just as in chorizo, I finally learned.  This is why radio scripts have pronunciations, my friends.

Alright, so that was a little off topic…

This Chicken Chorizo Paella recipe was from the November issue of Canadian Living.  To be honest, I was actually a little disappointed in this one.  The flavours were very similar to that of the squash risotto I made a few weeks ago (to be fair both recipes did use white wine, arborio rice and chicken broth).  Also, I’m not 100 per cent sure I like chorizo.  After all the trouble I spent learning how to pronounce the damn thing, you think it would be super tasty, right?  Unfortunately it left some sort of cross between pepperoni and kielbasa taste in my mouth, a flavour to which I would rather have been unexposed.  The consistency of the rice was good, and I controlled my irrational desire to add more than the required cup, a restraint which I wish I had when I made my soup a few weeks ago.  I am confident in saying that this dish would have been way better with just the chicken, but that’s just me.

Also, this recipe represents the first time I’ve actually bought wine to add in to a dish.  I stole some of my roommate’s before (sorry Alex if you’re reading this, it was only 1/4 cup I swear!) and decided it was finally time to invest in my own bottle.  The bottle is now sitting staring at me from atop my dresser, begging me to use it again.  We’ll see.

Hmmm, now what do I do with the other half of my chorizo…