Chicken Paella

The hubs and I were watching the Rachael Ray show a while back and she was making a quick and easy version of paella. I love paella but since the hubs hates seafood and is usually adverse to trying anything new, I just always assumed he would hate it. So to my surprise he said, "That looks good, we should try and make it...minus the mussels and stuff of course." So, we fashioned our own version of the recipe and it was a huge hit. You can easily add seafood during the last 5-10 minutes of cooking, or stir in some cooked shrimp, but I am content wit this just he way it is.

Normally I would add a pinch of saffron to the chicken stock, but since we are participating in the pantry challenge and we don't have any, we went without. (I decided a $20 spice purchase would totally blow our budget). Paella connoisseurs say you must have saffron, but honestly, I didn't miss it.

3 c. chicken stock
1 T Olive Oil
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Salt and pepper
1 T butter
1/2 cup broken, thin spaghetti pieces
1 medium onion, finely chopped(or I grate it in since hubs hates biting into onion pieces)
2 cloves garlic, grated
1/3 pound Spanish chorizo, casing removed and cut into small dice
1 cup white rice
1 1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp sweet paprika (all we had was smoked and it worked good)
1 pinch ground cinnamon
1 cup frozen peas