Paella Mix

You can make a delicious, authentic Paella–the most popular dish of Spain–in your own kitchen with simple ingredients like rice, saffron, vegetables, chicken, and seafood. If you love cooking International food, you will fall in love with this comforting dish! 

My goal with this paella recipe was to use the tutelage I received while living in Madrid to create a traditional Spanish paella that anyone can make (and without special equipment, like a paella pan). After lots of trial and error, I am so excited to share everything I know and have learned about making Paella, as authentically and practically for the home cook, as possible.

Paella (pai · ei · uh) is a classic Spanish rice dish made with rice, saffron, vegetables, chicken, and seafood cooked and served in one pan. Although paella originates from Valencia, it’s recognized as the national food of Spain and there are several different varieties. The most common types of paella are chicken paella, seafood paella, or mixed paella (a combination of seafood, meats, and vegetables).

Mixed Seafood Paella Recipe

The main ingredients in every paella dish are rice, saffron, chicken, and vegetables.  From there, ingredients vary depending on the type of paella or region where it’s made.  The ingredients in this easy paella recipe include:

1. Sauté:  Add olive oil to a skillet over medium heat. Add onion, bell peppers and garlic and sauté until onion is translucent. Add chopped tomato, bay leaf, paprika, saffron, salt and pepper. Stir and cook for 5 minutes.

4. Add broth.  Pour the broth slowly all around the pan and jiggle the pan to get the rice into an even layer. (Do not stir the mixture going forward!). Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low. Give the pan a gentle shake back and forth once or twice during cooking.

Recipe: Our Favourite Paella

5. Cook uncovered: Cook paella uncovered for 15-18 minutes, then nestle the shrimp, mussels and calamari into the mixture, sprinkle peas on top and continue to cook (without stirring) for about 5 more minutes. Watch for most of the liquid to be absorbed and the rice at the top nearly tender.

6. Cover and let rest.  Remove pan from heat and cover pan with a lid or tinfoil. Place a kitchen towel over the lid and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

Spanish rice (also called “bomba” rice, calaspara rice, arroz redonda) is traditional in Paella, and it’s what I recommend using. It’s a short grain rice that absorbs more water than regular rice, without turning mushy. You can buy Spanish rice on Amazon, World Market or an international food market.

Paella Mix (klp)

If you don’t like seafood, leave it out and substitute more chicken and vegetables. You can use any combination of your favorite seafood including clams, scallops and chopped pieces of fish. Frozen seafood is a great accessible option if you don’t live near the ocean. (Costco sells a great mixed seafood bag in their freezer section with shrimp, mussels, clams, scallops, and calamari.) Be sure to thaw frozen seafood in the fridge overnight before using.

When buying fresh seafood make sure to smell it to make sure it’s fresh. It should not have a strong fishy odor. Most of the seafood used here will smell like nothing, or just like the ocean (slightly salty). Be sure to clean it properly (remove “beards” from mussels, if necessary).

No, you can us a regular large skillet to make Paella (I use a 12×2 inch skillet and this recipe fills it to the brim). Traditional paella is cooked in a large paella pan because it allow the rice to be spread out into a thin layer and cook more evenly.

Paella With Spanish Passion Paella Spice Mix

You can make a delicious, authentic Paella--the most popular dish of Spain--in your own kitchen with simple ingredients like rice, saffron, vegetables, chicken, and seafood.

*Rice: Spanish rice (also called “bomba” rice, calaspara rice, arroz redonda) is traditional in Paella, and it’s what I recommend using. (If your grocery store doesn't carry it, try Amazon, World Market, or an International food market). If necessary you can substitute medium grain rice, like Calrose rice which can be found at Walmart or most grocery stores, and reduce the broth to 3 ¾ cups. (I don’t recommend using Arborio rice or long-grain rice for Paella).

*Broth: Authentic paella would include making your own fish stock from the discard shells of seafood. I usually substitute chicken broth for convenience.

Easy Chicken & Prawn Paella Recipe| Spanish Fish Recipes

*Seafood: If you don’t like seafood, leave it out and substitute more chicken or vegetables. You can use any combination of your favorite seafood including clams, scallops and chopped pieces of fish. Frozen seafood is a great accessible option if you don’t live near the ocean. (Costco sells a great mixed seafood bag in their freezer section with shrimp, mussels, clams, scallops, and calamari.) Be sure to thaw frozen seafood in the fridge overnight before using. If buying fresh seafood, smell it to make sure it’s fresh. It should not have a strong fishy odor. Most of the seafood used here will smell like nothing, or just like the ocean (slightly salty). Be sure to clean it properly (remove “beards” from mussels, if necessary).

*Saffron: this may be the most important ingredient, so it’s best to buy high quality. If your grocery store doesn’t carry it, try an International food market, or Amazon. If necessary, substitute 1 teaspoon saffron powder.

Calories: 535 kcal Carbohydrates: 59 g Protein: 37 g Fat: 15 g Saturated Fat: 3 g Cholesterol: 260 mg Sodium: 1159 mg Potassium: 805 mg Fiber: 3 g Sugar: 3 g Vitamin A: 1408 IU Vitamin C: 58 mg Calcium: 125 mg Iron: 4 mg

Paella Seasoning With Saffron Paellero

Welcome! I’m Lauren, a mom of four and lover of good food. Here you’ll find easy recipes and weeknight meal ideas made with real ingredients, with step-by-step photos and videos.Daniel joined the Serious Eats culinary team in 2014 and writes recipes, equipment reviews, articles on cooking techniques. Prior to that he was a food editor at Food & Wine magazine, and the staff writer for Time Out New York's restaurant and bars section.

Just a little longer, I want to get a really good socarrat for the photos. I said those words a little too confidently, and repeated them a few too many times, as my test batches of paella finished cooking over smoldering coals on an outdoor grill. I was aiming for that famed copper-colored crust of rice on the bottom of the broad paella pan, and I was sure I could nail it. Except I didn't. I burned it. And then I burned it again.

There are many things to know about paella, but one of the most important is this: Don't burn your paella in search of the ultimate socarrat. The socarrat is something you learn to do over time, as you master your own setup—the charcoal or wood you're using, the grill you're working on, the specific paella recipe you're making. It's not something you can casually pull off just because you think you know your way around a live fire. (That's a side-eye at myself, in case it's not clear.)

Best Seafood Paella

A few weeks later I was standing by the paella makers atMercado Little Spain, the New York City food court that is chef José Andrés's paean to Spanish gastronomy. They're not just making paella at Mercado Little Spain, they're doing it as close to a traditional al fresco Valencian paella feast as could ever be possible in New York. Despite being in an indoor concourse on the lower level of the new Hudson Yards development, Andrés's team is cooking huge pans of paella over roaring wood fires, all of it set up in a large rectangular fireproof box that looks vaguely like a shuffleboard court, if shuffleboard involved pushing around flaming strips of kindling instead of a bunch of plastic disks.

The setup is important because it allows them to do things I couldn't do as easily on the kettle grill—namely, constantly manage the fire throughout the cooking process. In their traditional setup, the pans are positioned on large iron stands, and the fire is built beneath them. The cooks use thin strips of firewood, which light quickly and burn fast.

In a matter of minutes, they can make a fire so energetic the flames shoot up above the pans, then reduce it to smoldering embers just moments later. Using a spade, they can push those embers out from under the pan to prevent the rice from burning as the paella finishes cooking, then sweep them back under for the last 30 seconds of cooking for one final boost of heat and, hopefully, a good socarrat.

Spanish Paella Seasoning And Spice Mix

Using a kettle grill makes managing the fire harder, since you can't tinker with it once the paella pan is set down on the grill grate. Any adjustments to the fire would require lifting the paella pan and removing the grate, then putting it all back before continuing. It's not something you want to do with a wide, shallow pan full of boiling liquid and rice. This means you're more likely to choose charcoal as your fuel, which burns longer and requires less intervention,