In truth, for the past two months I have been busy persuing my new career as a professional bridesmaid. With two weddings only 29 days apart, I have been a busy bee. During the past two months in between showers, bachelorette parties, and wedding weekends I have been doing a lot of cooking. I have mastered Lady JayPee's amazing Braised BBQ chicken , I have treated my boyfriend and roomies to homemade sausage and onion ravoli, and a bevy of delicious risottos. However nothing struck me as post worthy, that is until one special day...
April 26th was my boyfriend's 24th birthday and this year I promised to make him his favorite dish ever, paella.
Paella
Serves 6-8
4 bone-in chicken thighs, or 1 large chicken cut into 10 pieces (cut the breast in half, so everything cooks evenly)
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
10 large shrimp, peeled and deveined (I used 1/5 lb.)
1 lb of mussels, cleaned and de-bearded
1 lb. calamari - cut into 1/2 inch rings
6 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed, plus 2 tsp. minced
5-6 cups low-sodium chicken broth (I use Swanson’s Organic)
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 small bay leaves
1 tsp. saffron threads
1 chopped red bell pepper
1 chopped yellow onion
2 (3-oz.) chorizos, cut into slices
1 tsp. sweet paprika
1 (14 1/2 oz.) can diced tomatoes with the juices
1 1/2 cups Aborio rice
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
1. Generously sprinkle the chicken and shrimp with salt and pepper and place in a large bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and some crushed garlic. Cover the bowl, or seal the bag, and refrigerate an hour or up to overnight.
2. In a large saucepan, bring the chicken broth to a boil. Decrease the heat to low and add the wine and bay leaves then cover to keep hot.
3. Crush the saffron with your fingers and transfer to a small bowl and add a ladle of the simmering broth. Cover and let stand until ready to use.
4. When ready to cook the paella, remove the chicken pieces from the marinade and place them on a plate. Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a 12-14 inch paella pan or an extra-large skillet over medium heat until hot enough to sizzle the chicken. Add the chicken, skin side down, and cook the other side for 5 to 8 minutes, or until browned. Return the chicken to a clean plate.
5. Add the bell pepper, onion, chorizos, calamari and the remaining 1 teaspoon of garlic to the pan and cook over medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula, for 5 minutes, or until the vegetables are browned. Add the paprika and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes, or until the juices boil off and the tomato is dry. Add the rice and cook, stirring for 2 minutes. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of salt. and 4 cups of broth and wine mixture over the rice. Add the reserved broth (with saffron) and stir into the other ingredients. Arrange the chicken pieces around the outer edges of the pan.
6. Cook uncovered over medium heat, without stirring, for 15 minutes, or until most of the broth has been absorbed by the rice. Taste the rice and add more spice (salt or paprika) if needed.
7. Tuck the shrimp down into the partially cooked rice, concentrating them in the center area of the pan. Ladle 1 cup of the simmering broth over the rice and cook 5 minutes more. As the rice cooks, it will continue to absorb the broth. Add more broth as needed, tasting the rice each time. It should be tender, but firm.
8. Sprinkle the peas on top. Tuck the cleaned and debearded mussels into the rice and the broth. Lay a piece of extra-wide aluminum foil over the paella for the last 5 minutes of cooking, or until the mussels have opened. Remove from the heat and let the paella stand covered for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
When you serve your paella, you should have a browned bottom. Unfortunately when I made mine I actually burned the bottom, as I was a little over zealous with the chicken broth. But it still looked and tasted great! And the boy was pretty impressed with all my amazing skill.
Although this recipe looks a bit intimidating, it was really fun and easy cook. So flippers up, and get to cooking!
Even though my lackluster feeling about seafood prevented me from tasting this dish, that picture looks like its from a gourmet cookbook!
ReplyDelete