Paella - Chicken and Chorizo
This is my version of the famous Spanish dish. I vary amounts of meat and vegetables, depending upon what I have in my cupboard, just make sure it all balances well together.
Enough for 6-8 people
Olive oil
6oz chorizo, cut into small pieces
2 chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
3-4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 large spanish onion, finely chopped
1 red pepper, diced
1/2 green/orange pepper
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1/2 tsp dried red chilli flakes
1 - 2 tsps smoked paprika/pimenton
1 pint/20 fl. ozs of Bomba or Calasparra rice (Spanish) (This is a dry measure)
Pinch of saffron strands, soaked in v small amount of hot water
125ml dry white wine
2 pints/40 fl. ozs chicken stock, hot - (you will probably need more stock)
1 can tomatoes
1 bowl of frozen peas, at room temperature
Handful of defrosted king prawns
Flatleaf parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper
1 lemon
I use a huge pan for this called a paellera. It lies across 2 gas rings on my cooker and has quite a heavy base with dimples, to help prevent the rice from sticking. It is very wide in diameter and quite shallow. Charlie bought me the pan on an occasion when we rode our bikes to Borough Market, near London Bridge, a few years ago.
Fry the chorizo first in the pan - there is no need to add oil, it will provide its own. Remove the sausage pieces when they are browned on each side and then add the chicken pieces, to brown in the dark chorizo oil. Remove the chicken and set aside.
Add some more olive oil to the pan and fry the onion, garlic and peppers lightly. Add the tomatoes from the can and stir in, mixing to a dark paste. Turn down the heat to low. Next, sprinkle the rice evenly into the pan and add the thyme leaves, chilli flakes and pimentón. Keep stirring the rice, covering each granule with oil but not allowing it to burn. This will take maybe 2 minutes or so.
Meanwhile, heat up the chicken stock in a saucepan and prepare the saffron strands. Pour the wine into the hot stock and then add to the rice in the paellera. Mix in the saffron strands and liquid. Shake the pan a little so that the liquid is dispersed evenly over the surface. Turn the heat down to a very low simmer and cook for approximately 15 minutes. Keep a check that the rice is not burning at all. If needed, add a little hot water or stock, but DO NOT stir at all.
Now, it is a matter of checking the rice granules and adding more liquid as necessary. To test - the rice is cooked when a grain is semi transparent and just slightly chewy in texture. Nearly all the stock should have been absorbed.
To finish off, turn up the heat and cook for only a minute or so, listening as you hear the rice crackling. Be careful that you do not overdo it or you will burn the rice. This makes a wonderful, crunchy crust underneath which the Spanish call the ‘Socorat’.
Immediately turn off the heat, add the peas and defrosted prawns, salt and pepper and then cover with foil and leave to rest for 10 minutes.
Remove the foil, add some chopped parsley if you like and serve with wedges of lemon. Do not forget the socorat at the bottom of the pan.