Yield – 10 to 12 people
Ingredients:
One cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Two pounds Rice (short grain, same as Risotto rice)
One Diced Onion
One Diced Red Bell Pepper
One Diced Green Bell Pepper
One Diced tomato 4x5
Four Diced garlic
2.5 pounds Chicken thighs (2 oz pieces)
2 pounds 21x25 Prawns, peeled and deveined (raw)
2 pounds Fresh muscles
2 pounds Manila clams
2 pounds white fish filets cut up (do not use salmon, ever)
1 pound Calamari steak cut into strips
One cup Tomato sauce
One packet Paellero (azafran)
Two cups White wine
One 12 oz can Roasted Red Bell Pepper
One cup Chopped parsley
1.5 gallon Chicken fume (hot chicken stock with fish stock)
Salt and pepper to taste
You’ll also want a paella pan, this shallow pan allows for an even cooking on stovetop and in oven without steaming as would happen in a rondo.
Instructions:
Start heating your stock. Preheat oven to 400F.
Put paella pan on the stove until it is a little warm.
Put the olive oil in the pan. Turn the heat up. Add the onion, bell peppers, tomato, and garlic right away.
Stir it for a few seconds then add the chicken. Let it cook for about one minute.
Add the calamari and fish and let it cook another minute.
Add the rice to the center in a small mountain.
Pour the tomato sauce and paellero (sazafran on rice).
Put the white wine on rice and then stir it in to mix everything together for about a minute. Add salt and pepper to taste (the mixture should be salty at this point, the salt profile washes out once the rice cooks up).
Add the chicken fume to the top of the paellera and stir (enough liquid to more or less cover mixture/rice).
Never stir again or the rice will get pasty. Let it cook for about 10 minutes.
Add the muscles and clams. Open the oven to prevent a crust from forming on top (if not desired).
Put pan in oven for 10 minutes.
Pull it out and add the shrimp throughout the mixture and roasted bell peppers, return pan to oven and let it cook until shrimp is done (about 5 minutes).
Once shrimp is done this is ready to serve.
Note the red bell peppers/roasted bell peppers and yellow rice make the colors match the Spanish flag. This is the national dish of Spain. Traditionally this is done outside without an oven and a rice crust forms on top and on bottom (burnt). American tastes (read college students) don’t tend to crave this and so we finish in the oven for a more even cooking and little to no crust.
