Paella (My Way)

My version of this classic Spanish spicy rice and chicken and seafood dish.  Serve in big shallow pasta bowls or plates with a green salad and lots of red wine.

Serves 4.

 

Ingredients:

2 chicken breast or 4 thigh fillets, cubed

2–3 rashers bacon, roughly chopped

1 red capsicum, halved then finely sliced

4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely minced

2 red chillies, finely chopped

8 handfuls medium grain rice

saffron strands infused in hot water

approx 600 ml chicken stock

1 tbspn tomato paste

pepper, salt

200 g king prawns, peeled and deveined

200 g baby squid (squidlets) or calamari rings 

handful frozen green peas

extra virgin olive oil

 

 

Note:  you don’t have to use real saffron strands, as I know it’s a pretty expensive item to buy, but it DOES make a difference to the flavour… and you only use about 1/3 to ¼ of the little box at a time, so it does last.

 

Method:

Heat olive oil in pan, saute diced chicken until nicely browned but not over-cooked. Remove to a side plate.

Add bacon to pan, fry until fat is running and bacon is nicely coloured. Remove, add to the plate with the chicken.

Add a little extra olive oil, add the garlic, chillies, capsicum and tomato paste; cook until soft but don’t brown the garlic, as burnt garlic tastes bitter.

Add the rice and fry for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly until well combined with the garlic, chillies, capsicum and tomato paste mixture. Add chicken stock (hard to say how much, I’d put in a wineglass or teacup at a time) and the saffron and hot water.

Cover and allow to simmer. Check and add more stock until rice is cooked but not falling apart – it should stick together but each grain keeping its shape.

Add chicken, bacon and seafood and stir through so its all covered. Cook another 5 minutes before adding the green peas and stirring through. Cook another 5 minutes until peas are cooked and all the seafood is lightly cooked through (prawns and squidlets get tough with over-cooking so watch then).