Chicken and Smoked Sausage Paella

This one pan meal is ridiculously easy and super customize-able. It makes it's own side dishes too!
Paella is basically a chicken-and-rice dish you make all in one pan.  If you want to get fancy, you can use a Paella pan. Some day, Ill have to get one (add to mental check list of neato kitchen things I want someday). Today I used my giant (12") nonstick skillet and it turned out beautifully.
My measurements, as usual, are kind of approximate, I typically just eyeball this stuff, but here is a good representation.

Feeds 4-6

4 chicken thighs (bone in, skin on)
1.5 cups smoked sausage, cut on bias
1/2 onion, chopped
4-5 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 cup kalamata olives (or other black olives)
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered (or 1 tomato, diced)
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 cup rice
Salt, pepper, Goya all purpose seasoning to taste

Trim chicken of any fat globs, especially on the underside. Salt and pepper skin side.
In a hot pan, place chicken skin side down. Top with something heavy - I used a pot filled with water. The weight helps cook the chicken and, most importantly, gives the skin a wonderful crisp. Cook for 10 minutes or so, till golden brown and crispy on the skin side. The underside will still be undercooked but dont worry about that. Remove chicken to a plate.
In the skillet, add in sausage, onion and garlic. Saute in pan until browned, about 5 minutes. Add chicken back into pan. Add rice, tomatoes, olives, tomato paste and spices. Cover with water. I didnt measure the water here, just pour enough water in that it covers everything.
Place a lid on it and DONT TOUCH IT for 20 minutes. Don't lift the lid. Don't stir it. Nada.
Cook it till all the liquid is absorbed by the rice. Poke the rice and make sure its soft, but it should be done when all the liquid is absorbed.
Cut the heat off and let it sit for another 5-10 minutes to cool and absorb any remaining liquid.
Serve.

Paella is excellent with pretty much anything, so feel free to use different ingredients. Seafood paella, with shrimp, scallops and fish is really common too. You could easily do this vegetarian too, say tofu instead of chicken, some sweet potato, squash, carrots, etc. Imagination is the limit.