I made this dish a few month ago for my dear friend Diana and her Fiancée Phil. They drove all the way up from Long Beach for a visit, so I wanted to offer them something really special. What I love about this dish is that it is simple and it feeds a lot of people! It's essentially a "one pot" dish. Everything goes into one large pan but the real work is in the shopping and the prep... so be prepared!
For this recipe I basically scoured the internet for all different types of Paella recipes. They come in so many variation that it's hard to pick just one. I basically combined the ingredients I liked most and came up with my own special recipe. This is the second time that I have made this dish, so I was able to modify and perfect it the second time around.
Ingredients:
3 tablespoon olive oil
4 large chicken thigh
1/2 lbs Chorizo (usually found in markets like Whole Foods. Can be substituted w/ another spicy sausage)
1/4 lbs shrimp
1/4 lbs squid
1/4 lbs clams (manilla clams are good)
1/2 lbs mussels
1 head of garlic (separated, peeled and chopped)
1 tomato finely chopped
1 red bell pepper chopped
1/2 cup frozen peas
3 tablespoon flat leaf parsley (garnish)
1 teaspoon paprika
1 pinch saffron threads
2 cups paella rice
1 quart chicken broth
Directions:
1. Heat a large pan over medium-heat and coat with olive oil. Add 1 tbs of garlic and the chicken thigh. Cook the chicken thigh for 4-5 minutes on one side and turn-over and do the same to the other side. When cooked, remove from pan and set aside.
2. Re-heat the pan again on medium-heat and add another tablespoon of olive oil. Add another half table spoon of garlic, mussel, squid, shrimp and clams. Cover for about 3 minutes. Remove and set aside.
3. Re-heat pan once again and add another tablespoon of olive oil. Add the rest of the garlic and chorizo. Cook for about 3 minutes. Add the tomato, red bell pepper and paprika. Stir for a bit and then add the 2 cups of paella rice. Stir the rice so it is nicely coated with oil and vegetables.
4. In a separate small pot, heat the chicken stock to a simmer and add the safron. When safron is dissolved, ladle stock to cover the entire paella rice. Let it simmer down and ladle in more stock to cover the rice again. Do this over and over until rice is cooked. This should take about 35-45 minutes.
5. When rice is cooked, give it a little stir. Lay the chicken on thighs on top of the rice and then lay the seafood all around the chicken thigh.
6. Cover at low-heat for another 10 minutes. Remove cover, sprinkle with parsley and serve!
