My whole life I always wanted to be able to really nail paellas. For me it was one of my key culinary goals. Partly to impress my friends and be the best cook at my family events and, and partly cos I thought you had to be really skilled so I knew it would be a challenge – and it also never fails to go down well on date night!
But on my journey to master this dish I felt despondent at times, as it didn’t seem an easy task to the untrained eye. Even at the cookery school none of the chefs could seem to agree as to which steps to follow and what were the correct techniques. Some would state it’s best to fry all the ingredients together and add the rice and then the water, some would say it should be the other way round.
I was obsessed with finding the best technique to make paella in order to really have a simple, step-by-step method that would work every time and then just forget about it. So I read many books and took the best of each version of the recipes. And then… Boom, I was offered a position to work abroad in a Spanish restaurant, where the chef was simply the ultimate paella king. My prayers had been answered!
This particular chef had been working at one of the best paella restaurants in the South of Spain and had learnt from a proper old school chef the simple tricks to success.
So at the end of my journey I achieved the two things I had longed for. To finally master paellas, and to get myself a simple, useless-cook-proof, step-by-step method that always works.
At a personal level, in order to be able to learn something I have always needed a clear step-by-step guide. Vague and boring lectures wouldn’t work for me. So this is it. A clear, to-the-point, concise paella guide for you to take.
Here is the recipe exactly as we would make it at the Spanish restaurant.
Ready in: 1 hour 45 min
Serves: 4
Level: Expert
Ingredients:
- 1 poussin or small chicken
- half a chorizo sausage (you can find it here)
- 5 garlic cloves
- 1 red pepper
- 3 small tomatoes
- 1 cup of Bomba Paella rice
- half a litre of chicken stock
- 1 tsp of ground sweet paprika (or make it fresh yourself)
- a pinch of saffron
- 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
- 4 sprigs of fresh thyme
- 2 tbsp of olive oil
- a pinch of salt
- a pinch of black pepper
Method:
- Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Add one tbsp of olive oil to a large frying pan or paella pan and fry on a high heat for 15 minutes until browned.
- Take the chicken out of the pan and set aside for later.
- Chop the chorizo and fry in the same pan for two minutes on a high heat until it releases its oil. Then set aside with the chicken.
- Thinly slice the red pepper and fry in the same pan in a tbsp of olive oil on a medium heat for 10 minutes, until brown. Set aside in a separate plate from the chicken and chorizo.
- Thinly chop the garlic and fry in the same pan on a low heat for two minutes, until golden (careful, garlic burns very quickly!). Take it out and set aside with the peppers.
- Grate the tomatoes down to the skin and fry the remaining flesh and juice in the pan in 1 tsp of olive oil on a high heat for 10 minutes, until all the water is evaporated and you are left with a dry paste. Keep stirring to stop it from sticking and burning.
- With the tomato paste still in the pan, add the peppers, the garlic, and the tsp of paprika. Mix together and fry for two minutes so all the flavours combine.
- Add the rice and stir all together for 2 minutes.
- Now add 2.5 cups of the stock to the rice and stir (to cook paella we always add 2.5 times the cups of rice). Add 1 tsp of salt and a large pinch of saffron (you can also add some food colouring, this is optional). Stir for two minutes.
- Add the chicken and chorizo and leave to simmer for 20 minutes.
- 5 minutes before the end, add the rosemary and thyme sprigs whole. They are strongly aromatic so add them at the end so they don’t overpower the subtle flavours.
- Check the rice is cooked and leave to stand for 10 minutes before serving.
The key secret of paella is simple: TO FRY THE INGREDIENTS WELL.
They have to be well fried. The more fried they are, the more taste will transfer to the rice when it’s boiling.
But then, each ingredient has its own cooking time. If you fry them all together from the beginning, some of them could burn whilst others could still be raw. So you must cook them separately and in the correct order, as explained in the method above.
Enjoy with a good Spanish red wine, my favourite to pair with this dish is Carchelo from D.O. Jumilla, for around 8 pounds (buy it here).
Buen provecho amigos!