13 Jan
2012

Posted in: Food & Cooking, Greatest Hits     Tags: Paella
By Drew Podwal     1 Comment       

Drew’s Famous Paella Recipe

It’s best to have a paella pan, or a deep pan that you can sauté and bake with, but if you don’t have one you can do the first part in a pot, and then transfer to a glass baking dish for the second part. Make sure to remember to serve with lemon wedges. It really brings out the flavors.

I’ve been cooking this for about 2 years now. Paella is a multi stepped process and may seem complex, but it’s really a very forgiving dish. The most difficult part is making sure the rice is fully cooked and the seafood isn’t overly dried out. I based this recipe off of a paella that a dear family friend once cooked for me in Spain. Her’s of course was mejor.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 Foot chorizo, diced

4-6 Chicken Thighs (bone in preferred for flavor)

2 cups chopped onions (about 2 medium)
8 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups aborio rice
1 red pepper sliced into rings
1 green pepper sliced into rings
1 package cherry tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon crushed saffron threads
1 cup of large green olives stuffed with pimentos
1 1/2 cups chicken stock or canned low-salt chicken broth

1 pound large uncooked shrimp, peeled, deveined
1 dozen clams, scrubbed
1 dozen mussels, scrubbed, debearded
1 cup frozen green peas, thawed

Preparation

Preheat oven to 450°F. Dust chicken pieces with salt, pepper and paprika and set aside. Heat olive oil in heavy large pan over medium-high heat. Add half of the garlic and onions and cook until onions are almost translucent. Add half of the chorizo and cook until fat is rendered, about 6 minutes. Add chicken to pan and cook over medium heat until brown, about 7 minutes per side. Using tongs, remove chicken, garlic and onions from pan.

Add chopped onions and garlic to pan and saut
 until beginning to brown, scraping up any browned bits, about 10 minutes. Stir in rice, and saffron toast for 5 mins stirring occasionally. Add chicken stock to pot and bring mixture to simmer. Arrange tomatoes, pepper rings, olives chicken, shrimp, clams and mussels in rice mixture. Sprinkle with peas. Cover with foil.

Bake paella until chicken is cooked through, clams and mussels open and rice is tender, about 45 minutes (discard any clams and mussels that do not open). Remove foil from pan. Let paella stand 10 minutes. Serve with lemon wedges.

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