Chicken and chorizo paella recipe | Jamie Oliver recipes (2024)

FAQs

Should you put chorizo in paella? ›

The Spanish dish paella originated in Albufeira, a rural lagoon located next to Valencia. There are many types of paella, with the meat/seafood being interchangeable. Chicken and chorizo is a less traditional combination, but it's definitely my favourite.

Bomba is the best rice for paella. It's not only authentic to the dish, but the results are almost always perfect. Calasparra rice is an excellent substitute if you can't get your hands on bomba rice. Arborio Rice can work if you can't get bomba or Calasparra.

Water is actually the most-often-used liquid in “authentic” paella, but stock is in many cases better. Chicken stock is all-purpose, and a not-too-strong meat stock will work nicely, too. Fish stock is fine as long as you're including fish, and a quickly made shrimp-shell stock might be your best alternative.

Perfect Paella Proportions

The average proportion of rice to broth for paella is approximately 1 part rice to 3.5 parts liquid and we would suggest that you use 80-100 grams of rice per person (that's about ½ cup uncooked rice).

Truly great paella also relies on a flavoursome stock, which you can make yourself using prawn heads, parsley, wine, saffron and cooking juices from the mussels. Traditionally, paella is cooked over an open fire which infuses the paella with an aromatic smoke.

While some paella recipes include onions, many chefs choose to leave them out. That's because onions contain a lot of moisture, which can make your paella rice soft.

Salmorreta is the secret behind the magic of Alicante-style seafood rices. It is essentially a sofrito (a sauce used as a base in Spanish cooking) that you turn into a paste. So that when you make a paella, the sofrito is already done, and you simply add it by the spoonful.

Best substitute for paella rice is risotto rice (arborio rice) which has similar characteristics ie. ability to absorb lots of liquid, except risotto goes creamy if you stir it. The next best is medium grain rice – the same rice I use for rice pudding.

Saffron is the main spice to use, when making Paella. Saffron is the most expensive spice on Earth and is the red-yellow stigma of the crocus flower and must be hand-picked during short annual flowering seasons.

What Can You Not Put in Paella? Real paella does not include many ingredients that go into other rice dishes. Some of these include onions, peas, mushrooms, carrots, and chorizo. While all good combinations with rice, these aren't part of the traditional paella recipes.

Do you cook paella with the lid on or off? ›

Do not cover the pan while the rice is cooking. If you see that the surface of the rice is still harder than it should be, and most of the liquid has evaporated, keep adding liquid by the spoonful, and resist the temptation to cover the pan.

Don't wash the rice before cooking because we want to keep the outer layer of starch. Don't stir the rice while cooking! Traditional paella cooks a crusty, flavorful rice layer at the bottom of the pan called the socarrat. The socarrat is a key component of authentic paella.

6) Mind Your Heat Source

Missing the mark can lead to undercooked grains or a mushy paella. Finding a wide, stable, and powerful source of heat that will evenly reach the entire pan is key to success. Outside, that means cooking in a fire pit over open flames or, less traditionally but no less effectively, on a grill.

We'll be the first to tell you that not everyone can whip up a perfect paella. The liquid to rice ratio is one of the trickiest parts of creating the socarrat. Too much liquid can overcook the rice into mush; not enough liquid will leave the rice undercooked on the inside and burnt on the outside.

Another good dishes to serve with paella are tomato bread, Spanish green salad, patatas bravas, green beans, fried rice, gazpacho, roasted red peppers, garlic shrimp, Spanish omelette, marinated olives, grilled artichokes, and sautéed spinach with garlic.

Spanish Chorizo is a tasty and versatile product that you can eat raw or cooked in several ways: As an appetizer with bread, cheese, and wine, on its own or as part of tapas. As part of pasta dishes. As a topping on pizza.

Chorizo can be bought as a whole sausage of either soft cooking chorizo – which must be cooked before eating – or a firmer, drier cured sausage that can be sliced and eaten without cooking. It is also sold thinly sliced, like salami, to be enjoyed raw as tapas.

paella, in Spanish cuisine, a dish of saffron-flavoured rice cooked with meats, seafood, and vegetables. Originating in the rice-growing areas on Spain's Mediterranean coast, the dish is especially associated with the region of Valencia.