Easy Paella

I can’t quite believe I’ve never made paella before now that I know how easy it is to make!

And with only one pot required, it’s truly a dish that keeps on giving.

The trick in achieving the signature crispy golden crust on the bottom, is in using a wide, flat surface to create maximum surface area, allowing liquid to evaporate and to form the crust. So I recommend cooking this dish in a large skillet or even a wide pot or of course, a paella pan if you’re lucky enough to have one.

Your house is going to smell amazing while you cook this dish and everyone’s tummies will be rumbling!

You can also add all sorts of seafood like squid, mussels, clams and white fish, which I think would be make for quite a special meal if you were entertaining guests.

If you don’t have paella rice, don’t panic, you can use arborio rice instead!

Excuse the average photo taken at night just before I served it. This is real time bab

Easy Paella

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Prep Time 15 mins

Cook Time 25 mins

Total Time 40 mins

Servings 6

Ingredients

  

• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 brown onion, chopped
• 1 carrot, diced
• 150 grams cured chorizo, sliced into discs
• 4 chicken thighs, chopped
• 1 small red capsicum, deseeded and diced
• 2 tbsps tomato paste
• 300 grams paella rice
• 2 tspns smoked paprika
• 500 grams chicken stock
• 225 grams filtered water
• 1 tsp saffron threads
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 12 whole green prawns
• 1 handful flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges for serving

Instructions

 

• Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add garlic, onion, carrot, chorizo and chicken and saute for 5 mins.

  While this is cooking add chicken stock and water into a separate saucepan and bring to the boil.
• Into the large skillet, add capsicum and smoked paprika and saute for 1 minute. Add tomato paste and saute for a couple more minutes.
• Add the paella rice and stir for a few minutes. Then add the boiling stock/water mix. Add saffron and stir well.
• Bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer. Cook for 10-15 minutes until rice is almost tender but not totally cooked through.
• Add peas and prawns (press prawns down into the rice, and cook for a further 5 minutes or until prawns are cooked. Turn heat up to high and cook for 2 minutes with the aim of creating the signature crust of rice on the bottom of the pan.
• Season with salt and pepper to taste.
• Serve on plates with a generous sprinkle of parsley and wedge of lemon.

Notes

If rice looks like it's drying out too much towards end of cooking, just add in a splash or two of water as needed. 

Enjoy!

Other rice based dinner recipes you might like are Middle Eastern Lentils and Rice (Mjaddra) and Garlic Prawns and Coconut Rice and Spicy Pork and Vegetable Nasi Goreng. 

If you make this recipe and share on instagram, remember to tag me @brendajanschek.

Otherwise feel free to pm me your photos via Facebook.