Easy Spanish Paella Recipe

This simple Spanish Paella recipe delivers amazing flavor from chorizo, shrimp, and traditional paella ingredients. It’s quick and easy enough for a weeknight family meal, but impressive enough for dinner guests!

Traveling is not really my thing – I’m quite happy being a homebody, plus I hate flying. But there are some countries on my bucket list to visit, including Spain. Mainly to experience authentic Paella. Is that weird? It’s their most beloved dish and too many American restaurants screw it up.

Not at all surprising how much I love paella…because RICE. Give me a big bowl of my Cilantro Lime Rice, Spanish Rice, and Rice Pilaf, and I am happy!

Seafood Paella Recipe

Paella is an iconic rice dish of Spain and practically synonymous with Spanish cuisine. It’s a colorful mixture of flavored rice and various meats or seafood, getting its name from the paellera, the flat, round pan in which it’s cooked.

While it’s incredibly easy to make, it’s also easy to get it wrong. There are 4 elements that separate it from just any ‘ol rice dish.

For real authentic Paella, yes. A true paella pan is large, round, and shallow with two looped handles. The emphasis is on diameter, rather than height. The flat bottom ensures the rice cooks in a thin layer and is what helps develop that awesome socarrat that I mentioned above. The pan is actually so important that it’s where the name comes from – the word “paelle” means “pan.”

Easy Shrimp And Chicken Paella • Curious Cuisiniere

If you don’t have a paella pan, an acceptable alternative is a skillet. Use one that is stainless-steel or aluminum. Stay away from cast-iron (which retains too much heat) or nonstick pans (which will never give you the socarrat we’re after.) Try to use a heat source that can accommodate the whole paella pan or skillet. If your burners are a bit spaced out, you’ll need to move and rotate the pan a bit while cooking to evenly distribute the heat.

Interestingly enough, true authentic paella, dating back to the 1800’s, usually consisted of rabbit, snails, chicken, maybe some eel, and lima beans. Sounds delicious, right? Not. Luckily, that list is in the history books and not typically used today. But purists will argue anything other than those ingredients and you’ve simply got arroz en paella (rice in a paella pan.) But I say if you stick with the 4 elements I talked about, it’s Paella!

Now that I’ve probably scared you off from making this paella recipe, make it anyway! LOL. The fact is, paella, while super easy, does take practice to get it right, and I still bungle it from time to time. Even if you don’t have the right size pan, or burners close together, or accidentally use too much liquid, or stir it one too many times, this is still a delicious dish!

Simple Paella Recipe

I simplified the steps and ingredients to make this easy and a great option for any weeknight meal. You’re going to love it!

I hope you love this delicious and simple recipe – be sure to give it a review below! Also don’t forget to follow Belly Full onFacebook, Instagram, Pinterest, andYouTube!

This simple Paella recipe has amazing flavor from chorizo, shrimp, and traditional paella ingredients. Made easy enough for a weeknight family meal!

Easy Paella Recipe

Calories: 457 kcal | Carbohydrates: 49 g | Protein: 28 g | Fat: 16 g | Saturated Fat: 5 g | Cholesterol: 211 mg | Sodium: 1366 mg | Potassium: 474 mg | Fiber: 3 g | Sugar: 4 g | Vitamin A: 1466 IU | Vitamin C: 10 mg | Calcium: 138 mg | Iron: 5 mg

Nutritional information given is an automatic calculation and can vary based on the exact products you use and any changes you make to the recipe. If these numbers are very important to you, I would recommend calculating them yourself.

Subscribe for free to receive new weekly recipes and instantly get a week’s worth of family meals that are quick, easy, and inexpensive to make!This saffron-infused easy seafood paella with shrimp and lobster is a simpler take on the traditional beloved Spanish dishwith fewer ingredients and no special pan. It will deliver the WOW factor on all level, but you don't need to wait for a special occasion to make it!

Chicken & Seafood Paella

This is my personal take on this dish and is different from the traditional, but it offers a few easy tips for the home cook (be sure to check out the tips and video below)

According to this History of Paella article, paella combines the Roman and Arabic cultures as Arab conquerors introduced rice in Valencia. The word paella, may have stemmed from the Arabic word baquia, which simply means leftovers. And it is said that this meal was introduced by Valencia farm workers as the delicious solution to leftovers. Basically, a one-pot rice meal embellished with whatever ingredients one had on hand. And that's why, it makes perfect sense that there are many variations of it today.

In an article by The Guardian, Valencian chef Llorenç Millo is quoted saying, paella has as many recipes as there are villages, and nearly as many as there are cooks. To me, that makes it one of the most exciting and inviting dishes.

Easy One Pan Chicken Paella Recipe

And I'll say right off the bat, this seafood paella recipe is my own pared down version, prepared as an easy weeknight solution that does not require a special fire nor a special pan.

Historically, in Valencia, this dish would have incorporated things like chicken thighs, rabbit, snails and beans (about three kinds of fresh beans). But, as mentioned earlier, paella is the mother of leftover solutions and one-pot meals, and the ingredients will vary from place to place, depending on the traditions and what ingredients are available. Nowadays, particularly in the States, paella is almost always associated with seafood.

When you cook paella rice, you're looking for the end result to be dry, separated rice and not something like a creamy risotto or a sticky rice like you would eat at a Chinese restaurant. That's why, your choice of rice here is important.

Chicken & Shrimp Spanish Paella

The best rice option to use when making this dish is a medium-grain rice that can absorb the liquid while maintaining some bite and firmness. Round Spanish rice could be hard to find, but something like Goya medium grain rice (affiliate link) will work. Long-grain rice is not a good option here.

In this easy seafood paella, I kept the ingredient list short, focusing on two seafood options: shrimp and lobster. If either is not available to you, feel free to get creative using a firm fish or some mussels or clams. I did not add any chicken or chorizo, but again, if that is something you are looking for, feel free to adapt this recipe (see section below called variations).

And while, traditionally, this dish is cooked over open fire made of tree prunings, this easy, home-cooked version is simply cooked on the stovetop.

Easy Shrimp Paella Recipe

If you have a paella pan or even a special outdoor paella grill (affiliate links), that would be ideal. But I don't have one, and found it easy enough to use a sturdy skillet.

The important thing is that the skillet you use has a large and even surface, which aids in cooking the rice properly and quickly. That's why a round-bottomed wok is not a good choice for making paella. It's not impossible, but if you're new to making this, you would have better results using a carbon steel pan or a cast iron skillet, which is what I used in this recipe.

1- The first step here is to get the lobster cooking in boiling water. This will be quick, about 1 to 2 minutes. You don't want to overcook the lobster, but you're looking for it to turn a nice pink. When the lobster is cool enough to handle, remove the shell and cut into large chunks to use later. Important: keep the lobster water for later use.

Spanish Paella Recipe (seafood, Chicken, & Chorizo)

2. I like to soak the paella rice in water a few minutes (15 to 20 minutes or so) before using, this helps it cook evenly. Then, to begin making the paella, heat 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil over medium-high (making sure it's shimmering but not smoking.) Saute chopped onions first for a couple minutes, then add the rice (drain first).

Cook the rice for 3 minutes, stirring regularly. Yes, I am aware that in some recipes you are almost forbidden from stirring the rice. But it worked best for me this way. Grateful to Bobby Flay for this tip.

3- Now we add a few more ingredients: garlic and the lobster cooking water first. Then the saffron and it's soaking liquid along with spices, paprika, cayenne pepper, aleppo pepper, and salt.

Easy Spanish Seafood Paella Recipe {no Paella Pan Needed!}

3. b) Stir in the chopped tomato and green beans. Bring to a boil and let the liquid reduce, then cover (with lid or tightly with foil) and cook on low heat for 20 minutes.

4- Now, we add the shrimp over the rice, pushing it into the rice a little. At this point, if the rice looks to be too