Authentic Slow Cooker Chilindrón: Spanish Lamb, Chicken, and Chorizo Stew Recipe

A Mallorcan Memory I Can’t Forget

Chilindrón is a stew from Aragón, in the north of Spain, and I met it a long way from there. On holiday in Mallorca I ended up in a small family-run place in a village, the sort locals eat in rather than visitors, and this is what arrived: chicken and lamb gone soft in a deep red sauce of peppers and tomato, with saffron rice alongside. I came home and worked out how to make it, and this slow cooker version is where that landed.

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A Dish from Aragón

Chilindrón comes from Aragón in northern Spain, a hearty stew of meat cooked down with peppers, tomato and plenty of paprika. I first had it on holiday in Spain and it stayed with me, so good and quite unlike anything I had cooked at home. This recipe is my way of holding on to that memory.

A Closer Look at the Ingredients

Six peppers, a kilo of meat between two animals and a length of chorizo. Here is what each one is doing, and what to reach for if you cannot get it.

• Chicken 500 g of it, bone-in and skin on, thighs or drumsticks. Bone-in is the point rather than a preference: the bones give the sauce body over a long cook, and the meat on them survives six hours where a breast would have gone dry and stringy by hour two. Instead: boneless thighs are fine and want an hour or two less, but do not use breast in a slow cooker.
• Lamb 500 g, diced, from the shoulder. It is a hard-working cut full of connective tissue, which is exactly what you want here, because hours of low wet heat turn that into gelatin and gelatin is what makes the sauce feel rich rather than watery. Instead: diced beef shin or chuck does the same job. Leg of lamb is leaner and comes out drier for the same money.
• Chorizo 200 g in rounds, and the cooking sort rather than the sliced kind for a sandwich. It is here for its fat as much as its meat: the red oil it gives up in the pan carries the paprika through the whole pot. Instead: a classic chilindron uses a little jamon serrano instead, chopped small, which seasons the sauce far more quietly. Swap in 50 g of it if you want the traditional version.
• Peppers Four red and two green, deseeded and sliced. The red ones are the sweetness and most of the colour, the green ones keep it from turning into jam, and six peppers to a kilo of meat is not a mistake, because this is a pepper stew that happens to have meat in it. Instead: all red if you like it sweeter. Jarred piquillo peppers in place of two of the reds are excellent and take no work.
• Tomatoes 800 g of ripe ones, about eight, chopped. They break down completely and become the body of the sauce, so ripeness matters more than looks. Instead: two 400 g tins of chopped tomatoes are honestly better than pale winter ones, and drain a little of the juice off if you use them, since a slow cooker will not boil it away for you.
• Paprika Four teaspoons, and this is the one ingredient worth being fussy about. A Spanish pimenton, ideally the bittersweet agridulce sort, is what makes it taste Spanish rather than generically red. Stir it in off the direct heat, because it catches easily. Instead: the traditional Aragonese route is choricero pepper pulp rather than paprika, and a heaped spoonful of choricero paste alongside gets you most of the way there.
• White wine 240 ml of something dry you would drink. It goes into the hot pan after the meat to lift everything stuck to the base, so it is doing a job rather than adding alcohol. Instead: a dry fino sherry is very good here. Stock plus a tablespoon of white wine vinegar will deglaze the pan if you would rather not use wine at all.

Variations: A Dish that Transcends Borders

• One meat, not three. The traditional versions pick a side: pollo al chilindrón with chicken, or cordero al chilindrón with lamb. Mine has both, which is a bigger pot than any of them and is a choice rather than a tradition.
• Jamón rather than chorizo. The cured pork in a classic chilindrón is usually a little jamón serrano, chopped small and cooked into the base, where it seasons the sauce without taking it over. Chorizo is the louder answer, and it is the one I use, so this tastes smokier and more paprika-forward than the version you would be given in Aragón. If you want the quieter one, swap the chorizo for 50 g of jamón.
• Beyond Aragón. The same treatment turns up across Navarre and La Rioja, and the word chilindrón describes the sauce rather than any one meat, which is why you will find it done with rabbit as readily as with chicken.

Pairings: Enhancing the Chilindrón Experience

While Chilindrón is a star on its own, it’s often paired with sides that complement its rich flavours. Saffron rice, which is how I was given it, but it’s also commonly served with crusty bread or even potatoes.

How an Aragonese Stew Ends Up on a Menu in Mallorca

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Chilindrón belongs to Aragón and I ate it a long way from there, which is not the contradiction it sounds like. It travelled the way most Spanish home cooking has: it is cheap, it feeds a table, and it is forgiving enough that a kitchen anywhere can cook it without fuss. So you will find it on menus well outside the north, usually written as pollo al chilindrón, and usually made by somebody whose family has always made it. For another taste of Spain, try my paella with prawns and chorizo.

How to Make Chilindrón, Step by Step

The slow cooker does the long part on its own, but the twenty minutes at the hob before it are where the flavour is made. Here is the whole thing, with the reasoning that will not fit on the card.

1. Brown the meat in batches. Get 2 tablespoons of the olive oil hot in a large frying pan, then brown the chicken, the lamb and the chorizo rounds on every side. Do it in two or three loads rather than one. A crowded pan steams the meat instead of colouring it, and colour is the one thing a slow cooker cannot put back later. Let the chorizo go in early enough to give up its red oil, and tip every bit of that oil into the slow cooker with the meat, because it is carrying most of the paprika flavour in the dish.
2. Soften the onions and garlic. Add the rest of the oil to the same pan, still with all the browned bits in it, and cook the four sliced onions gently until they have gone soft and translucent. That is eight to ten minutes, not two. Four onions is a great deal of onion and it is deliberate: they collapse into the sauce over the long cook and are a good part of what makes it sweet. Add the garlic for the last minute only, then move the lot into the slow cooker.
3. Layer in the peppers, tomatoes and paprika. On top of the meat and onions go the sliced red and green peppers, the chopped tomatoes and the bay leaves, then the salt, pepper and paprika. Use a Spanish pimenton if you can, ideally the bittersweet agridulce sort, and stir it in off the direct heat so it never catches. The traditional Aragonese sauce is built on choricero pepper pulp rather than paprika, soaked and scraped out of the dried pods, and mine is not, so if you want to head that way add a heaped spoonful of choricero paste here alongside the paprika.
4. Deglaze the pan with the wine. Pour the wine into the empty frying pan and bring it up to a simmer, scraping the base as it bubbles until everything stuck to it has lifted. That is the point of the step, so do not skip it to save washing up: the fond is concentrated browned meat, and it is going into the pot rather than down the sink. Give it a minute of proper bubbling to cook the raw edge off the alcohol, then pour the whole lot over the slow cooker.
5. Cook it long and low. Add the stock, put the lid on and leave it for six to eight hours on LOW, or three to four on HIGH. Go easy with that stock. A slow cooker loses almost nothing to steam, and four onions, six peppers and 800 g of tomatoes will give up a lot of liquid of their own once they warm through, so the 200 ml is a starting point rather than a target. Bone-in chicken is at the far end of eight hours, so if yours is falling off the bone sooner than you want, lift it out and let the lamb carry on without it.
6. Taste it, and thicken it if it needs it. Fish out the bay leaves and taste it before you do anything else, because the seasoning will have concentrated as it cooked and it may want nothing at all. If the sauce is looser than you want, either take the lid off and give it half an hour on HIGH, which is the better answer because it concentrates the flavour as it goes, or stir in a teaspoon of cornflour slaked in cold water and let it come back up to a simmer.
7. Serve it with something to catch the sauce. This is a sauce dish more than a meat dish, so put out something to mop with. Crusty bread, plain or saffron rice, or soft potatoes all work. Scatter the pickled guindillas over at the table rather than cooking them in, since their sharpness is there to cut the richness and it goes flat if it sits in the heat. It is better still on the second day.

Recipe Card for Slow Cooker Chilindrón

Recipe Card

Authentic Slow Cooker Chilindrón: Spanish Lamb, Chicken, and Chorizo Stew Recipe

Chilindron, the stew of Aragon in northern Spain: chicken, lamb and chorizo cooked slowly with peppers, tomatoes and white wine until the meat falls apart.

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Prep

30 min

Cook

4 hrs

Total

4 hrs 30 min

Serves

6

Per serving

750 kcal

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6 servings

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Equipment I Use

Slow CookerHybrid Non Stick Frying PanTongs

Ingredients

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500 g Chicken pieces, bone-in and skin on, thighs or drumsticks 500 g Lamb or Beef pieces, diced, shoulder chunks 200 g Chorizo sausage, sliced into rounds, iberico is the best 4 Red Bell Peppers, deseeded and sliced 2 Green Bell Peppers, deseeded and sliced 4 Onions, medium, thinly sliced 800 g Ripe Tomatoes, about 8 medium, chopped 8 Garlic cloves, minced 240 ml White wine 4 Bay leaves 4 tbsp Olive oil 3 tsp Salt Black pepper, to your taste 4 tsp Paprika, sweet Spanish pimenton, bittersweet agridulce if you can get it 200 ml Stock, meat or vegetable 1 jar Guindillas, Pickled chilli for garnish 1 tsp Cornflour, optional, only if the sauce needs thickening

Instructions

Tap a step to tick it off as you cook.

1

Browning the Meat

In a large frying pan over high heat, add 2 tbsp of the olive oil. Once hot, add the chicken, lamb pieces, and chorizo slices. Brown them on all sides (you might need to do this in few batches). Transfer the browned meat to the slow cooker.

2

Sautéing the Vegetables

In the same pan, add the remaining olive oil. Sauté the onions until translucent. Add the garlic and sauté for another minute. Transfer the onion and garlic mixture to the slow cooker.

3

Slow Cooker Layering

On top of the meat and onions in the slow cooker, add the sliced red and green bell peppers, chopped tomatoes, and bay leaves. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and paprika.

4

Deglazing the Pan

Pour the white wine into the pan and bring to a simmer, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Pour this mixture into the slow cooker.

5

Cooking

Add stock, the vegetables will release moisture as they cook. Cover and cook on the low setting for 6-8 hours or high setting for 3-4 hours (or until the meats are tender and flavours melded).

6

Final Adjustments

Once done, taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. If you desire a thicker sauce, you can thicken it with cornflour mixed with water.

7

Serving

Serve the Chilindrón with rice, potatoes, or crusty bread to soak up the sauce, and garnish with pickled guindilla chillies.

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Chef’s notes＋

Brown properly, in batches. Crowd the pan and the meat steams instead of colouring, and there is nothing later in a slow cooker that will put that back. Let the chorizo give up its red oil first and tip every bit of it into the pot.

Go easy on the stock. A slow cooker loses almost nothing to steam, and four onions and 800 g of tomatoes will give up a great deal of liquid on their own. The 200 ml is a starting point, not a target.

Watch the chicken at the long end. Six to eight hours on LOW is right for the lamb, and bone-in chicken is at the far edge of it. If yours is falling off the bone into the sauce sooner than you want, take the chicken out and let the lamb carry on.

The paprika goes in off the direct heat. It catches easily and burnt paprika turns the whole pot bitter with no way back.

Nutrition per serving＋

750 kcalProtein 50 gCarbs 14.3 gFat 48 gSat fat 15 gFibre 3.3 gSodium 1446 mgServing 660 g

Authentic Slow Cooker Chilindrón: Spanish Lamb, Chicken, and Chorizo Stew Recipe · https://chefsbinge.com/authentic-slow-cooker-chilindron-spanish-lamb-chicken-chorizo-stew/

What to Serve With Chilindrón

🍽 For me, chilindrón is all about the sauce, so the first thing on the table is always a big basket of crusty bread for mopping every last bit from the bowl. It is lovely spooned over plain white or saffron rice, or alongside soft roasted or lightly fried potatoes to soak up all that smoky, peppery juice. A simple green salad on the side is all you need to round it off.

FAQ for Slow Cooker Chilindrón

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A Few Words from the Chef

I first had chilindrón on holiday in Spain, and it really stayed with me, so good and quite unlike anything I had cooked at home. This recipe is my way of holding on to that memory. If you make it, I would love to hear what you think.