Chicken and Seafood Paella

Marrying someone out of your own race means you have to learn to cook some of his food. Two of the dish I learned to cook for Carlos is Paella and Empanadas. For me both dishes are very similar to our Clay pot rice and our Curry puffs.

Paella is usually cooked in a Paella pan which is large, shallow, flat pan. An important part of the flavor comes from saffron and sofrito (combination of tomatoes, peppers, onions and garlic) as for meat you can use chicken, rabbit or seafood like fish, clams, shrimps and crabs.

There are so many paella recipes out there and every cook will have their own version of it. Paella is very flexible so if you don’t have the exact ingredients or if you find some of them hard to get hold of, substitute them for something similar.



Ingredients :

2 chicken breast - cut to bite size pieces
1 pound of shrimp - shelled and deveined
1 pound clams - wash and soak in cold water
1 red pepper - cut half in long strip and half in cubes
1 yellow pepper - cut half in long strip and half in cubes
3 tomatoes - cut into small cubes
1 onions - chopped
4 cloves of garlic - chopped
1 cup of green peas
2 cups of long or short grain rice
3 3/4 cups of chicken broth
1/2 tsp of saffron
2 tsp of paprika
salt and pepper to taste

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degree F. Marinate the chicken meat with paprika, salt and pepper and set aside. Heat up a bit of oil in the pan or paella pan and lightly brown the peppers that were cut in strips. Dish out and set aside.
2. With the same pan light brown the chicken on both side and once its brown take it out and set aside.
3. With the same pan put a bit more oil and add the chopped onion and garlic. Cook until fragrant and lightly brown. Add in diced tomatoes and the cubes peppers. Let continue to cook until some of the tomatoes juice evaporated.
4. Then add in the rice. Lightly toss the rice in the pan until all the rice are well coated with the rest of the ingredients. Add in chicken broth, saffron, chicken, salt and pepper to taste. Once the broth boil and the liquid started to reduce put the pan into a 350 degree F oven and let it continue to cook.
5. When the rice almost absorb most of the liquid take it out of the oven and put in the shrimps, clams, green peas and the red and yellow peppers strip. Put it back to the oven until the clams open and the rice is cook. This will take another 15 - 20 minutes.
Note : I put this dish into the oven because my paella pan don't have a cover. This will ensure the rice cook properly. If you cook in a pan with cover then you can cook this dish right on top of the stove. Just reduce the heat once the the liquid boil and continue to cook until the rice is done.

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