A great crowd pleaser.
SOME SUGGESTIONS: For a more authentic paella, used smoked paprika (sweet, not hot) and cut amt in half. Also, use chicken with the skin on. The flavor is wonderful in this dish. You can always put the skins off when you combine the rice/meats. Add a shake of turmeric (or colorante) to give the rice an even more brilliant color and don't be shy with the saffron. As much as you probably spent on the spice, put enough in to taste it. I put in a giant pinch and grind the threads with a few grains of salt or sugar before adding in.
Decent. My main complaints are (i) because of cooking in separate dishes,
the rice and protein flavors don't blend, (ii) the dish is a bit drier
than paella should be, and (iii) there isn't enough vegetables (needs more
red bell pepper and peas and the like). I much prefer the Paella I recipe
on this site. Not only does it taste better, but it's actually easier to
cook (requiring no marinating time and only one pan on which to focus).
It's also easier to drop ingredients from a good recipe than figure out what to add to a okay recipe like this.
I loved this Paella. Added 16 oz can diced tomatoes and left out the lemon zest. Removed the casing and cut sausage into 2" pieces,cooking sausage ahead, drained the fat. Added some back in the skillet for sauteing the chicken. Added the shrinp to the rice mix just before the finish. I will do this again soon.
I've now made this recipe several times and each time I've done something different but its always tasted fantastic. My changes: instead of using shellfish (due to allergy) I fried fish separately then cut it into strips and added it to the meat. Also I didn't use red pepper flakes and I'm glad I didn't because either the smoked paprika or the chorizo gave the meat mix lots of spice. I also cheated with the lemon zest. Since its not my favorite thing to do I used McCormick's "California Lemon Peel". Also a lot of reviewers have complained about the cost of saffron (which is 10-13/gram) but I've found that Mexican Saffron-- aka "safflower" is a highly acceptable substitute. It makes a VERY good saffron rice it's only 1 for a quarter ounce and you don't have to feel guilty about adding lots. I've made it with both the Spanish/Moroccan saffron as well as Mexican saffron and prefer the Mexican because it is quite good easy to find and doesn't break the bank.-- Basically the difference in taste doesn't justify the money and time spent to acquire Spanish saffron. Those were my main changes everything else has always been little; the recipe is forgiving enough to come out great almost no matter what.
I made this even easier by using prepackaged saffron rice instead of making my own. I recommend cooking the chorizo separately and draining it before adding it to the mix. I also cooked the shrimp separately and added it at the end, since I think some of the shrimp tends to get overcooked if you have it in a large pot with many other items. I made this for my husband's birthday dinner, with a few tapas as appetizers, and it was wonderful!!!
Great Paella "Corrorian"! Paella, no matter how you make it, is always a bit time consuming but in the end, it's certainly worth it. After marinating my chicken, I cut the chorizo into bite size pieces and browned. I removed the sausage, then browned the chicken and then the peppers and onions. Everything was put back into my dutch oven along with a large can of crushed tomatoes. I simmered the meat and vegetables for a good forty minutes. From there I added chicken stock and the rice. The dish was fabulous!
I used chicken thighs, one per person, instead of pieces. I doubled the saffron and also cooked the sausage first and drained the fat. Keep extra chicken stock handy to moisten the rice if needed. THEN (a personal touch)I cooked about 3 dozen mussels and 3 dozen clams and put on top of the dish. My guests raved and I'll do it again and again....I don't care if it's not authentic paella, it's a great entertaining dish and delicious...
To get very moist rice, saute the finely diced onions until very translucent, approximately 15-20 mins., then proceed with Step 2. Approximately 13 minutes into rice cooking time, nestle shrimp and any shellfish desired in the rice; cover, and let steam until shrimp are opaque and shellfish open. Rice will come out perfectly moist with a bit of liquid remaining on bottom. Chorizo is available fresh (in meat case of most supermarkets) and dried (like pepperoni) and is blister packaged and found hanging where dried jerky is found. Use the latter as it's fully cured and requires only a couple of minutes to heat.
Excellent with a few tweaks:
Marinate chicken and cook rice as called for however add a can of diced tomatoes with chilis to the cooking rice
Sauté onion with olive oil for approx 1 minute, add chorizo until it starts to give off oil and then add chicken and sauté all together until chicken cooks and chorizo beings to caramelize. Add this to cooked rice and deglaze pan with red wine to get the flavorful bits and juices into the rice
Add ½ pound shrimp, ½ pound squid, and ½ pound mussels to the finished rice mixture at the end, cover until seafood is cooked, then serve
