Paella

Chicken and Prawn Paella

Platted

This morning before leaving for work, I gave some thought to what we would have for dinner. I still had some spotted prawns in the freezer that I could do something with. I just wasn't sure what. Then I got the brilliant idea of making a Paella. I had almost everything I needed except a red pepper,chicken legs and chorizo. But I could pick up everything I needed on the way home from work. I am lucky to have a grocery store between work and home. I walked in the door shortly before 6:00 and we were eating about 7:15.

Here are the steps to making a Paella:

• Brown the chicken legs in a little olive oil. Continue to cook until the chicken is almost but not quite cooked. It will finish in the oven.
  
• While the chicken is browning, heat up 4 cups of chicken broth and add a big pinch of saffron ( about 1/4 teaspoon).
  
• Prepare the prawns. (removed the heads and clean)
  
• Remove the chicken from the pan. Cut up the chorizo into bite size pieces and brown in the same pan.
• Add chopped onion, saute until it softens, add minced garlic, green pepper cut into strips, and chopped green onion.
• Add two cups of short grain rice. I used Arborio because that is what I had. It was either that or Basmati or long grain rice, and neither of those would have been a good choice.
• Cook the rice stirring for about 3 or 4 minutes.
• Add chopped tomato. I used canned Roma tomatoes, about 5 of them and I just broke them up with my fingers.
• Add enough chicken broth to cover the rice mixture. The broth should be about 1/2 inch above the rice. Add the chicken to the pan and cover and bake in a 350 oven for about 20 minutes. I checked after 15 minutes to make sure that the rice wasn't drying out. It still had enough liquid to finish cooking. If it didn't I would have added a little more broth.
• Next I heated a cast iron pan added a small amount of olive oil and quickly sauted the prawns. Just enough to brown the shells without over cooking them. Placed the prawns on top of the rice, added some cooked peas and roasted red pepper strips. (I roasted a red pepper on the grill, but you could use bottled pimento if you don't want to do that).
• Covered and put the pan back in the oven for 5 minutes. Cut up a lemon and the paella was ready to be served.