Sunday Supper: Paella

Background

Paella is a traditional Spanish rice-based dish that can accommodate chicken, seafood, sausage, and more. We’ve never made paella before and thought it would be fun to make a seafood and chicken version on our ceramic cooker. We checked out a number of different recipes and guides for making paella on a ceramic cooker. Here are two that most influenced what we ended up making:

• This was the base recipe that we used, customizing it using other information
• Amazing primer for cooking paella on a ceramic grill

Equipment and Materials

• Paella pan – Ours is 13.5″ in diameter at the top rim, 11.5″ on the bottom cooking surface. With 2″ of handles on either side, the total 17.5″ diameter fit nicely in our Large Big Green Egg, which has an 18.25″ cooking diameter.
• 2 links (about 1/2 pound) of Spanish chorizo
• 1 pound of large shrimp
• 1/2 pound of mussels
• 1/2 pound of clams
• 3 chicken thighs (with skin and bone, about 1 1/4 pounds)
• 1 tbsp of paprika
• Black pepper
• Kosher salt
• Extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large pinch saffron threads
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 ripe tomatoes, diced
• 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 2 cups of rice (ideally Bomba, but we could only find Arborio as a substitute)
• 32 oz of chicken broth (our pan was full after ~24oz; we didn’t use the other 8 oz)
• 2 lemons, cut into wedges
• 2 tbsp coarsely chopped parsley leaves
• 1 small bag of frozen peas (we used probably a cup of peas)
• 1 bottle of red Spanish wine (for drinking)

Most of these ingredients are very inexpensive; however, the shrimp was pricey. I think we would make this in the future on a far cheaper budget — in the $25 range for the whole meal (without the wine) — by either cutting the shrimp out entirely or reducing the amount of shrimp.

Procedure

This is a fun dish to make that doesn’t take too much time. The total prep time for us was a leisurely 60 minutes, including peeling and deveining our shrimp. The total cook time was approximately 30 (intense) minutes.

Preparation of Materials

1. Peel and devein shrimp, then season with salt, pepper, and paprika.
2. Season chicken with salt, pepper, and paprika
3. Clean and debeard mussels
4. Clean clams
5. Cut chorizo into 1/4 inch rounds
6. Dice tomatoes
7. Dice onion
8. Chop garlic
9. Chop parsley leaves
10. Add frozen peas to cup of warm water
11. Add saffron to 2-3 tbsp of hot water and stir thoroughly. This releases the flavor and color of the saffron into the liquid.
12. Light charcoal and bring temperature up to roughly 450 degrees. I had a full load of lump charcoal and used three firestarters to light the entire top surface so that the paella would cook evenly. The grill was setup for direct cooking, with the paella pan on top of the grill grate directly over the fire. Given my results, I will probably make the raised rack described here.

Cooking

1. Warm chicken broth on low heat on the stove inside
2. Put the empty paella pan on the hot grill so that it comes up to temperature.
3. Saute the chorizo until it is brown on all sides, then remove it to a bowl. There is no need to actually cook the chorizo thoroughly–it will cook in the rice.
4. Saute the chicken until it is brown on all sides, then remove to a bowl. Again, no need to completely cook the chicken. We had thick full thighs, with bones, so I seared it on all sides and let it sit a bit in the hot pan.
5. Saute onions and garlic until translucent. There should be a good amount of juice in the pan after the chorizo and chicken. But, you can also add a little olive oil here if necessary.
6. Add tomatoes, saffron/water mixture, and rice to the pan. Use a wooden spoon to mix everything together thoroughly.
7. Mix in the sausage and chicken. Spread the entire mixture across the entire pan evenly. Where you set things up now will affect the look of the dish at the end.
8. Once everything is situated where you want it to be at the end, add the warm chicken broth to the pan, close the lid, and let it simmer for 15-20 minutes.
9. At approximately 7 minutes left to cook the rice, add the seafood to the pan. If you have both mussels and clams, add the clams a few minutes after the mussels since the clams will cook faster. I also added the peas at this point so that they would only be lightly cooked and added the parsley to the top.
10. NOTE: As the rice begins to finish cooking, you will hear a crackling sound, like a bowl of Rice Krispies. As this begins, open the bottom vent and increase the temperature to create a nice crust of rice on the bottom (the soccarat). Be careful here–there is a fine line between a nice crust and a burned crust.
11. When the rice is al dente, you have a crust, and any shellfish are open, remove the pan from the heat and take it to the table along with the lemon wedges.

Results

We invited our neighbors over to share the paella with us and, overall, it was a successful dish. Paella is served family-style, with the pan in the middle of the table. Because there are many different elements in the dish (e.g., chicken, chorizo, mussels, clams), people can choose those components that they like the most. Our neighbors brought a fresh salad, which complemented the richness of the paella. The red wine was also very good with the rice, chicken, and seafood.

The flavor of the paella was terrific. The chicken, chorizo, and mussels were cooked well, but the clams were overcooked and rubbery. The clams should have been added several minutes after the mussels (rather than just 2 or 3 minutes). The biggest issue with the dish was that I burned the rice crust at the bottom. So, while the rice throughout was very tasty and cooked well, the bottom crust was burned and bitter. Fortunately, we could scoop out of the pan without pulling the crust off; so, we could avoid the burned crust.

This size paella would easily feed four adults plus any small children, leaving some leftovers. With three adults eating it, we had a half of a chicken thigh and some rice leftover, which made a delicious lunch the next day warmed up in the microwave.

One delightful surprise was that the paella pan — even with the burned rice crust on the bottom — cleaned pretty easily. The crust came off easily because of the oil on the pan from sauteing the veggies. After cleaning the pan, I again wiped a little olive oil around the pan.

Thoughts for the future

I am certain that we will make this dish again. It is not too expensive, flavorful, and fairly cheap on time. It is the perfect size for having another family over for dinner and the family style serving makes dinner feel relaxed and comfortable. Here are some things to do differently next time to make this better:

• Use the Bomba rice, rather than the Arborio rice. The Arborio was fine, but Bomba should be less creamy.
• Use a rabbit instead of chicken.
• Use a little less shrimp and fewer mussels.
• Make sure to ask in advance if anyone joining us has food allergies and adjust accordingly (e.g., no shellfish). We screwed this one up (sorry Eric!).
• Build a fire that is not so hot at the start; the chorizo was seared too much and the fire was really hot towards the end of the cook, which contributed to the crust problem.
• Add the clams several minutes after the mussels and shrimp.
• Avoid burning the crust of the rice. Listen carefully to the sound of the crackling as the cook on the rice comes to an end. As soon as it starts crackling, increase the temperature, but only for a minute or two.