Home › Recipes › Main Course

Chorizo Chickpea Skillet

By Brandy

Jan 05, 2015, Updated Jun 17, 2024

This chorizo chickpea skillet is packed full of spicy chorizo sausage, chickpeas, kale, sweet bell peppers and cotija cheese. Full of flavor, nutritious vegetables and perfect for cold winter days.

Today I spent the whole day at the spa. Seriously people, it’s the way to live life. I started off my morning with a lovely facial, followed by a 60 minutes Swedish massage and finally a manicure and pedicure. If I won the lottery tomorrow I would do this every single Sunday.

Seriously, is there anything better than being pampered?

After I got home from my spa day I sat down on my couch and wanted to curl up into a ball and just go to sleep. However, today is Monday and Monday is a posting day. Plus it’s truly the first full week of 2015 and I plan on starting this year by kicking ass.

I have a binder full of goals for 2015 but my biggest goal is get my social media numbers up. I have been blogging for over 5 years and my numbers are still somewhat underwhelming. I mostly blame this on the fact that for first 3 years of blogging it was just a hobby. I blogged when I wanted to and spent little time attempting to turn it into a business.

{Follow me on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter}

Well, now it’s time to kick my butt into gear and get this blogging thing into high gear. To kick off the new year I’m throwing a chorizo chickpea skillet into your face.

I ate this skillet as a warm comforting lunch but I think it would be delicious as a light dinner or a side dish served with a grilled piece of chicken. Either way, anyway you eat this dish you will be sure to love it!

{Looking for more delicious chorizo recipes? Try my chorizo beef burger with crispy onion straws, chorizo roasted red pepper spinach gnocchi or my slow cooker beef chorizo taco chili.}

Chorizo Chickpea Skillet

This chorizo chickpea skillet is packed full of spicy chorizo sausage, chickpeas, kale, sweet bell peppers and cotija cheese. Full of flavor, nutritious vegetables and perfect for cold winter days.

Yield: 2-4 servings

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cups diced bell pepper (I used red, green and yellow)
• 1 medium sweet onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 8 ounces cured chorizo sausage, casing removed and diced
• 1 (14 ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 2 cups diced kale
• Kosher salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/3 cup cotija cheese, crumbled

Inspired by Food52

Directions:

In a large skillet set over medium high heat add olive oil. Once the oil is hot add in the bell pepper and sweet onion.

Sauté just until they start to soften. Add garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Stir in smoked paprika and chorizo. Cook until all the vegetables are soft and the chorizo is warmed through.

Stir in chickpeas and kale. Cook until the kale is wilted and soft.

Taste, season with kosher salt and pepper if needed.

Top with crumbled cotija cheese.

Note: If the mixture dried out while sautéing add in a few more drizzles of olive oil. If you're not sure what "cured chorizo" looks like here are a few helpful tips - cured chorizo is hard (similar to a pepperoni stick) and is fully cooked. If you cannot find cured chorizo you can use raw chorizo in this recipe. Just cook it fully in the pan with the vegetables. It will increase the total cook time of the dish.

Disclosure: I was provided free Imperial Chorizo to try out. I was not compensated to use their product and all opinions are 100% my own. There are also affiliated links in this post.