Recipe 26: Paella

 When I went to Spain a few years ago one of the most interesting dishes was Paella, which is sort of a giant skillet of rice and meat.  I have always pondered what it would like to cook and if it would be hard or easy.  A lot of the recipes are pretty time consuming, so I decided to try one of the easier variants.  In fact, it was directly called Easy Paella.  So that was a good sign for ease of cooking, perhaps not for taste.

Here is an image of the final result:

And here is the recipe that I used: (Link)

Ingredients

•  2 tablespoons olive oil
•  1 tablespoon paprika
•  2 teaspoons dried oregano
•  salt and black pepper to taste
•  2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 2 inch pieces
•  2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
•  3 cloves garlic, crushed
•  1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
•  2 cups uncooked short-grain white rice
•  1 pinch saffron threads
•  1 bay leaf
•  1/2 bunch Italian flat leaf parsley, chopped
•  1 quart chicken stock
•  2 lemons, zested
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 Spanish onion, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, coarsely chopped
• 1 pound chorizo sausage, casings removed and crumbled
• 1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons olive oil, paprika, oregano, and salt and pepper. Stir in chicken pieces to coat. Cover, and refrigerate.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet or paella pan over medium heat. Stir in garlic, red pepper flakes, and rice. Cook, stirring, to coat rice with oil, about 3 minutes. Stir in saffron threads, bay leaf, parsley, chicken stock, and lemon zest. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to medium low. Simmer 20 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a separate skillet over medium heat. Stir in marinated chicken and onion; cook 5 minutes. Stir in bell pepper and sausage; cook 5 minutes. Stir in shrimp; cook, turning the shrimp, until both sides are pink.
4. Spread rice mixture onto a serving tray. Top with meat and seafood mixture.

 

Changes

Saffron is super expensive, so I did not buy it.  I am not sure if that makes this dish super different, but I didn't feel like spending $20 for a few threads of saffron.

I also used hot Italian sausage instead of chorizo.

The Process

 For most of this recipe Sprinkles sat on top of the cabinets and stared at me while I cooked.

 I started by preparing and marinating the chicken.

 Then I prepared the chicken stock and herbs and started to cook that.

 After a little bit I started the chicken and onions in a second skillet.

 Once the chicken was ready I added the bell pepper and sausage to the mix.

 By this time the rice was just about done, and it was looking at least a little bit like Spanish rice, so that was a good sign.

 Finally I added the shrimp to the meat mixture... now it was just a huge pile of meat in the skillet.

Once all the meat was cooked up I mixed the rice and meat mixture together in a 9x13 dish.

Then I served it up.

 

I thought that this was a good dish, it was a lot like the spanish rice and sausage dish that I made previous, and there was a lot of meat in this.  But I liked it.  Some people suggested adding another bell pepper and other veggies like peas and that might be a good addition, but this was still a pretty good dish, and I think that being able to use two skillets was good, since otherwise I would certainly have run out of room.