Paella Without Paella Pan

You Can Make Paella Without That Big Pan You Totally Don’t Own Chef Lolo Manso of Socarrat Paella Bar in New York City has a paella pan-free recipe to try at home

Often referred to as the national dish of Spain, paella traces its roots to the eastern shores of Europe in the port city of Valencia on the edge of the Mediterranean, and the rice that the Moors brought with them when they conquered the region.

As the story goes, the dish was created when servants of the Moorish kings began scraping together meals for their families by taking the leftover scraps from royal banquets and cooking them together in giant pots with rice and anything else that it was easy to get their hands on — including tomatoes, beans, onions and sometimes even snails or rabbits. With Valencia being a port city, shellfish and other seafood soon made their way into the humble dish.

Vegan Paella Recipe

As for the name, paella takes its moniker from the flat, oversized pan that the dish ended up commonly being cooked in over an open fire, “

.” In addition to a cooking vessel, the double-handled pan also doubled as a serving vessel people would gather around and eat from it with wooden spoons.

Your home kitchen, sadly, probably does have a fire pit. It also, sadly, probably does not have a big, ol’ paella pan.

Easy Paella Recipe

But, as Chef Lolo Manso of three-restaurant chain Socarrat Paella Bar in New York City explains, that doesn’t mean you can’t make paella at home as the pan and open fire are not required as long as the dish meets other mandatory requirements.

“There are no rules for cooking paella. You can make paella in a casserole dish, thick cast-iron pan or even a frying pan, ” Manso tells . “If you use the paella pan, great. But if you never use it, it can be great as well. It’s different, but it’s not the end of the world. At the end of the day, paella is a comfort food that you can make anywhere. You can cook the same thing in a wok that you can in a frying pan. Same thing with the paella pan. As long as you cook the rice nicely and it tastes good, you can do paella anywhere.”

No matter what it is cooked in — and a thick cast-iron pan works just fine — paella must have a broth base, well-cooked rice that stays firm and doesn’t get soggy and draw its flavoring from a mixture of finely chopped vegetables simmered in oil with garlic that’s known as sofrito. Another key component of paella is where Manso’s collection of restaurants gets its name: socarrat.

Paellapfanne Emailliert Durchmesser 12 Cm

“We looked it up somewhere and the definition is socarrat is the ‘seductive caramelization of the bottom layer of a perfect paella when the liquid is absorbed and the rice is done.’ It’s when the rice in the pan gets a little dry and a little crispy and very crunchy. It’s a crust on the bottom of the pan with a nice texture. Every country that makes rice has a dish where the rice gets dry, crispy and is crunchy that is their version of socarrat.”

“I don’t know if it’s true or not, but there used to be a story about a very famous French chef having paella for the first time, ” he says. “After trying it, he said, ‘Oh my God, this is terrible. This is seafood, chicken and beef. That’s just disgusting.’ It was a lot of things together, but after he finished he said, “But I really like it. It’s so good.” Paella is something special. When you do it right is, I think it is a masterpiece. I have family in Spain that I don’t see that often. I love them and they are great, but I don’t go to see them as much as I am supposed to. With paella it’s the same thing. It’s something wonderful and great that people don’t eat as much as they are supposed to.”Classic Seafood Paella is a delicious meal to serve on special occasions to family and friends. This Spanish one-dish meal is loaded with seafood flavors and floral saffron.

If you’re a seafood lover, you’ll adore this easy paella recipe. We will give the home cook an easy, step-by-step paella for the paella novice suited for cooking on the stove top, not an open flame in the backyard.

Paelleras Cid Spanish Paella Pan

Paella is a Spanish dish often made with rice, seafood, chicken, and saffron, which are cooked in a large, shallow pan. I’ve had amazing family-style paellas out and about and wanted to try it at home.

Paella was first cooked over wood fires in the fields of Spain and made with rabbit, chicken and snails. In the states, these flavors probably wouldn’t go over too well.

In the states, the most commonly used proteins are clams and mussels, as well as chicken thighs. Seafood stock or chicken broth is used for the rice regardless of the other proteins being added.

Mixed Seafood Paella

Small amounts of saffron were used for fragrance and color, but not necessarily for flavor. Afterall, saffron was expensive and the hue of your rice could symbolize your stature in society. The more you used, the wealthier your family!

What is a paella pan? Most paella pans are flat, shallow, and made of carbon steel. Carbon steel is an excellent conductor of heat which makes for excellent, even cooking. Tiny divots or simples in the bottom of the pan help to maintain its shape and provide even cooking.

Paella pans are meant for fire cooking- either an open flame, on a grill or even a gas stovetop. They do not work as well and might scald on an electric cooktop.

What Is A Paella Pan? (and Do I Really Need One?)

Are there alternatives to paella pans? Surely! Just because you don’t have the special pan or have the ability to cook with fire, doesn’t mean you can make delicious paella at home. The best alternative to a paella pan is cast iron. Also a great conductor of heat, it cooks evenly and is oven safe should you need to swap them back and forth.

The ingredients for paella change from recipe to recipe and like Italian’s with their red sauce, every family has their own “best seafood paella recipe”. There is no one right way, but a million really good ways to prepare it. With the exception of the rice to liquid ratios, the rest of the ingredients can be altered depending on what you have on hand.

Common variations include adding crushed red pepper for heat, green beans, a bay leaf, whole garlic cloves (creates a garlic confit inside the dish) and tomato paste instead of fire roasted tomatoes.

How To Make Paella Without A Recipe

The best paella is not known for being spicy. This is a common misconception. Actually, paella shouldn’t be spicy at all. If you like spice, feel free to add a teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes.

Simply put, tomato sauce with peppers, onions and garlic. It is the foundation to many Spanish dishes, as it rounds the flavour of the stock and provides sweetness and depth to the rice. In this recipe, the peppers, onions and garlic are cooked separate with the tomato added later. This is an easy paella recipe and meant to be a shortcut, we recognize and do not claim this to be “authentic”.

The showstopper of this Classic Seafood Paella is the socarrat, a layer of crunchy, caramelized rice on the bottom of the pan, created by applying high heat at the end of the cooking process. Rice will also cook faster since it is in a thin layer as opposed to being cooked in a saucepan.

Chicken And Pepper Paella With Chorizo

How do you reheat seafood paella? Unfortunately, seafood has the tendency to get rubbery when reheated. The best way to prevent this is by gently reheating in a skillet over low-medium heat on the stovetop. You can certainly microwave it, but this increases the probability of it being a little tough, it is unavoidable with this cooking method.

Salmon Croquettes are a southern classic! Full of salmon, peppers, onions and seasoning, this versatile dish is sure to be loved by all!

This Asiago Mushroom Salmon is one of my favorite pan fried salmon recipes! You only need 10 minutes to make this easy weeknight meal!

Wood Fired Seafood Paella

If you’re a seafood lover, you’ll adore this paella. My Classic Seafood Paella recipe gives you an easy, step-by-step paella for the paella novice.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. Reheat in a skillet on the stovetop to prevent seafood from becoming rubbery.

Calories: 302 kcal , Carbohydrates: 45 g , Protein: 24 g , Fat: 1 g , Cholesterol: 203 mg , Sodium: 1142 mg , Potassium: 400 mg , Fiber: 2 g , Sugar: 2 g , Vitamin A: 565 IU , Vitamin C: 32.1 mg , Calcium: 154 mg , Iron: 2.6 mg

Vegetarian Paella With Artichokes (easy Recipe)

Jessica the mom, wife and food lover behind Savory Experiments. She is obsessed with butter, salt and bacon and spends all her time in the kitchen and behind a camera. Jessica is a contributor to