Ah, paella! A dish typically server on a Sunday that originates from Spain, paella has taken the world by storm with its delightful blend of rice, meat, and spices, all cooked in a wide, shallow pan. While seafood paella might be the more renowned variant internationally, meat paella, particularly is the original Valencian dish. So, if you’re a fan of authentic flavours and hearty meat dishes, here’s a recipe for a traditional meat paella that you’ll absolutely love.
Cook Time:
This amazingly fresh paella dish requires us to make a fresh chicken/vegetables stock / broth, this stock / broth is the heart of the dish, we shall also make a tomate frito, the total amount of cook time for this dish is about 4 hours.
When measuring the amount of rice and stock to use we found best to use ratios, we use 1 part rice to 3 parts stock. You shall need a large boiling pot which can hold 5 litres of water.
Ingredients:
- 200g of paella rice, preferably Bomba or Calasparra (serves 2)
- 1 small whole chicken
- 1 large green bell pepper, diced
- 6 large Tomatoes
- 1 handful of green beans, cut into pieces
- 2 white onion, diced
- 5 shallots
- 1 carrot
- 1 celery
- 10 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 -1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
- A pinch of saffron threads
- 3 litres of room temperature drinking water
- 100ml extra virgin olive oil
- Sea Salt Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 lemon
- 1 Vegetable stock Cube (for extra punch)
Making Our Stock
Start by cutting a whole chick into: legs, wings & breast, so that we are left with a bare chicken. We shall be using the wings, breasts and chicken carcass, the legs may be saved for another evening dinner, must be used within 1 day depending on correct storage conditions.
From here cut your wing into 2 pieces, (discard the wing tips) cut your breasts into 2cm by 2cm cubes, wrap and store correctly in refrigerator.
Place your chicken carcass in an oven proof dish in the oven for 20 minutes and 180 C
Prepare a large pot for boiling that can hold 5 litres of water
Cut 5 shallots into quarters, cut 5 cloves of peeled garlic in half, slice 1 carrot into 1 cm slices , slice 1 celery into 1 cm slices and cut 1 tomatoes into quarters.
In our large boiling pot, set heat to medium – low, and 1 tablespoon of olive oil, place our sliced tomato wedges skin down in the pan (be careful the oil has a tendency to spit) and a pinch of fresh sea salt on top of each one.
Check Chicken if it has been 20 minutes remove chicken from oven and set aside. (caution hot)
Once the Tomato has begun to soften, start stirring, the skins of the tomato should be easily removed, carefully remove and discard of them, our aim is to get a runny paste consistency.
Once our tomato has the desired consistency add the chicken carcass of the stir gently, now lets add a pinch of saffron threads and stir for 10 seconds, Our next step is add 3 litres of room temperature water, along with our prepared vegetables, (shallots, garlic, carrot, celery,) and 1 vegetable stock cube. Bring the water to boil and then allow it to gently simmer for 2 hours (yes 2 hours minimum). During its time cooking use a spoon to remove any oil that appears on the surface, set oil aside place in container and dispose of correctly. Once 2 hours has passed allow to cool and strain.
Making Our Tomate Frito
In a large pot add 1 & 1/2 tables spoons (30ml) of olive oil, keep temperatures medium-low add 1 diced onion and softened until translucent, avoid burning the onion, once we have soften our onion add a pinch of fresh cracked black pepper and stir for 10 seconds, now lets add 5 diced tomatoes, 4 halved garlic gloves and a pinch of sea salt, set temperature to low and stir occasionally for the next 45 minutes to 1 hour, we are aiming for a thick chunky tomato sauce, to avoid burning, towards the 45 minute mark it shall require stirring regularly to avoid burning, When we start to see the oil re-appear our tomate frito is done, allow to cool and blend ( if you do not have a blender it is possible to use a potato mashes).
Making Our Paella
Allow your chicken to reach room temperature prior to cooking, this will ensure it is cooked evenly, we found 20 minutes prior to cooking should do it, of course this depending on the room temperature (ensure the chicken remains covered )
Top a large pan, add 1 & 1/2 table spoons ( 30 ml) of olive oil, set temperature to medium, to the pan add our chicken wings and diced breast , season with sea salt prior to place in pan. allow chicken to cook.
Once our chicken is cooked place place around the edge of the pan and add 1 peeled garlic glove cut in half to the oil and allow 10 second, once passed add half a green pepper diced and half and onion diced, to the middle of of the pan and stir gently until soften, once softened lets add 1 tea spoon of smoked paprika, and stir all the ingredients togethers, once stirred add half a cup of of our tomate frito, and our green beans cut into pieces stir for 2 more minutes allow bean to slightly soften.
Adding our rice & stock
We are using a small size t-cup that holds approximately 200 grams of rice, we shall be using 1 cup of rice to 3 cups of stock.
To our pan we add our stock and a good pinch of salt, stir and taste to ensure you are able to taste the salt, once season bring to a boil and add our rices. We shall now need to cook rice as followed.
Medium High Heat – Gentle Boil – 6 minutes 45 second, stirring constantly gently, after this time gently distribute the rice across the pan
Lowest Heat – allow 12 minutes to pass, avoid stirring the rice.
High Heat (Optional) Turn to High Heat and allow 1 minute 30 seconds, this will produce the “socarrao” a slightly burnt crispiness at the bottom of the pan
Heat Off – Turn heat off and cover your paella to allow it to steam for 4 minutes.
Slice your lemon and enjoy
