While paella started as a farm worker's lunch, this version is far from everyday. We've combined all of our favorites into one ultimate paella that is visually show stopping and decadently delicious. Combining chicken, sausage, Serrano ham, shrimp, crab and lobster, this paella will have your guests talking about what you served well after the event is over!
Heat the broth with the saffron, pimentón and the whole onion. Cover and simmer 15 minutes. Remove the onion and measure exactly 5-1/2 cups of broth. Cut the chickens into small serving pieces -- the whole breast in 4 parts, each thigh into 2 parts, the bony tip of the leg chopped off, the wing tip discarded, and the rest of the wing separated into 2 parts. Dry the pieces well and sprinkle with salt.
STEP 2
In a metal paella pan, with about a 15 inch base, heat the oil. Add the chicken pieces and fry over high heat until golden. Remove to a warm platter. Add the chorizo, and jamón to the pan and stir fry about 10 minutes. Add the chopped onion, scallions, garlic, and pimentos and saute until the onion is wilted. Add the shrimp and lobster and saute about 3 minutes more, or until the shrimp and lobster barely turn pink (the lobster will cook more in the oven.) Remove the shrimp and lobster to the platter with the chicken. Add the rice to the pan and stir to coat it well with the oil. Sprinkle in the 5 tablespoons of chopped parsley and the crumbled bay leaves. (You can make in advance up to this point.) Stir in the boiling hot chicken broth, rice, and peas. Salt to taste. Bring to a boil and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, over medium high heat about 10 minutes. Bury the shrimp and the chicken in the rice. Add the clams and/ or mussels, pushing them into the rice, with the edge that will open facing up. Decorate the paella with the lobster pieces.
STEP 3
Bake at 325 F, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit on top of the stove, lightly covered with foil, for about 10 minutes. To serve, decorate with lemon wedges and chopped parsley.
COOK'S NOTE
Customize this recipe by replacing any of the proteins with an equal amount of the protein of your choice.
The best recipie of paella I have ever tried !!!!!!
Highly reccomended
maldaly
This is, by far, the best paella recipe around. It's rich, savory, complex and spectacular. Be sure to use all Spanish ingredients including olive oil, paprika and, especially, the choriso. Mexican choriso will ruin it. I have used American Speck instead of Jamon Serrano without harm though. Be sure that there is a good piece of fat on the Speck; it's where the flavor comes from. A simple riff on this recipe tones it down and makes it acceptable for people who don't/can't eat shellfish: Use chicken stock instead of seafood/fish stock. Chicken thighs for the meat and FRESH peas. Mmmmmm.
Luis
You can't go wrong. Perfect!
Anne
Fantastic recipe! It's the same one my grand-mother used to make when I was a kid. I grew up with it, but she passed away without sharing the recipe. It brings back so many good memories. Gracias La Tienda!
Joan
Made this last night for the first time for a dinner party of 12 and it was FABULOUS! 2 of my guests had paella in Spain not long ago and said mine was as good or better! I made a couple changes: used basmati rice; 1 tsp saffron; extra cup of broth; added in scallops b/c didn't have crab/lobster. Cooked it all the way through on the stove instead of using oven. Don't leave out the Spanish chorizo, it's a key ingredient! All the flavors together were delicious! Thank you La Tienda for making us feel like we were in Spain :) Your recipe made the party one to remember!
Jamie
This was delicious (and enough to feed an army!). I used 1/2 seafood stock, 1/4 clam juice, and 1/4 chicken stock because they use seafood stock in Sevilla. Other than that, followed the recipe exactly as written and the paella came out perfectly! Definitely an authentic version of paella and well liked by all my guests.
Stephen
The recipe was okay. Good ingredients. However, you are not going to form the crust on the bottom of the rice if you keep stirring. And when the author says "lobster can be expensive" I shook my head. It's like saying "Diamonds and platinum can be expensive." They are always expensive. As is lobster. Unless you go get it yourself. Just don't stir the paella.
Veronique
I used this recipe as a base but didn't put in the crab or clams. It's the most delicious recipe ever and my paella was a great success!
Christian
This is not paella. Maybe "rice with stuff".
EdS
I grew up eating Spanish paella in Latin America. This is by far the best recipe I have ever tried! It was the right amount for the 14" paella pan we have. We did modify it a bit in terms of the seafood mix and amount of chicken and chorizo, but we followed the rest to the letter. We liked the sequence of the recipe which provides an optional stopping point midway. This allows you to do all the hard cooking ahead of time and then do the final easy part of the cooking when you are close to eating time. This worked very well for a dinner party we had.
Angie Gomez Halcomb
This is very close to my Mom's recipe that was the best I ever had. One secret she always did was to take the shells of the shimp and boil them to make broth. She would use shrimp broth along with chicken broth.
Bob Harrison
My Valencian friends tell me that they would never, never, never put chorizo in a paella.
HarbourDog
Regarding the reviewer who wrote "And when the author says "lobster can be expensive" I shook my head. It's like saying "Diamonds and platinum can be expensive." I can't help but smile....so cheap where I live (Newfoundland) most of the fisherman don't like fishing them because there's not much of a market. $4.50 a pound last season. The upside (for me) is that I hop in my neighbour's boat (he's a fisherman), we take a quick run out and 10 minutes later they're boiling in seawater on my stove. You can taste the difference. Anyhow, I'll be making this recipe this weekend, with some fresh lobster and cod. It sounds great.
AM
My go to recipe. My husband and I love it. The dish is time intensive, but definitely worth the effort.
Edie
One word: disappointed. I've make paella on a regular basis, this was claimed to be all that so like an idiot I tried it. I "knew" it was missing a lot of flavor, yet I went with it anyway. The timing of rice and low temp does not work out. I have nothing but regret trying this recipe. We tried an epic recipe that I lost and ever since then if I don't make what I "know" I should, fails in comparison.
