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Spanish Seafood Paella

The best way to make a paella is to have all of the ingredients prepped ahead of time and ready to throw into the paella pan. See instructions below. It is also worth noting that when making a paella for more than 4 people, it is easiest to prepare it on a large heating surface. We use our outdoor gas grill.
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Cuisine Spanish
Servings 6 people

Ingredients
  

  • 1.5 cups Bomba rice (Arborio rice is acceptable substitute)
  • 3 cups seafood or fish Stock
  • 1 large yellow onion diced
  • 1 large red bell pepper deveined, seeded, and diced
  • 6 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 cup canned petite diced tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 pound spicy Spanish chorizo sliced thinly
  • 1 pound shrimp peeled and deveined
  • 1/2 cup frozen peas
  • 1 pound mussels
  • 1/4 pound calamari tubes sliced into rings
  • 6 ounces halibut (or other mild white fish such as cod or seabass)
  • 3 piquillo peppers, canned sliced into thin strips
  • 2 eggs hard boiled
  • 1 lemon cut into wedges
  • 2 tablespoons parsley chopped
  • 1 gram saffron threads
  • Salt to taste
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 1/4 cup garlic aioli

Instructions
 

Prep Work

  • Clean and prep vegetables including the onion, garlic, bell peppers, lemon wedges, and parsley. Set aside.
  • Clean and prep shrimp, mussels, chorizo, and calamari and set aside. Heat skillet with about 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Pat halibut dry with paper towel and season with salt. Next, dredge the fish in the two tablespoons of flour. Sear for about 1 minute on each side to create a crispy golden crust. The fish will still be raw on the inside, but will continue cooking in the paella. Cut into bite-size cubes and set aside.
  • Clean skillet and add another 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Fry 3 minced cloves of garlic until golden brown. Pour garlic infused olive oil into glass container and set aside.
  • Boil eggs for about 10 minutes. Peel and slice into wedges, set aside. Slice piquillo peppers thinly and set aside.
  • Heat broth in saucepan until simmering. Add in 1 gram of saffron threads and stir to combine. Remove from heat and allow to steep for about 10 minutes.

Main Instructions

  • Place medium sized paella pan (about 15 in diameter) over heating surface. If using gas grill, set heat to high. Add enough olive oil to coat paella pan. If oil begins to smoke, decrease heat.
  • Now you will make the sofrito. Start by adding onions to pan and cook for about 5 minutes. Add bell pepper and cook for another 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add remaining garlic and cook for 2-3 more minutes. Add canned tomato and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
  • Slowly add in rice to sofrito mixture and stir until rice is mixed into sofrito. Make sure that the rice is in an even and thin layer.
  • Add about half of the broth mixture, until rice fully covered. From this point on, it is key NOT to stir the mixture, as this will create a mushy texture to the rice. If you need to readjust to help distribute liquid, simply shuffle the pan side to side. Let rice cook in broth for about 10 minutes, until the majority of the broth has been absorbed.
  • Next, evenly distribute chorizo over rice and add remaining broth. Allow to simmer for another 5 minutes.
  • Now you can begin adding all of the seafood. It is best to evenly distribute the seafood across the mixture. Cook for another 10 minutes, allowing liquid to further reduce. If at any point, the rice appears to have gotten very dry, you can add small amounts of additional broth.
  • Finally, add frozen peas and allow to cook for about 1-2 minutes.
  • Once broth has almost completely absorbed, remove from heat. Drizzle garlic oil over paella. Sprinkle with chopped parsley. Arrange piquillo peppers, egg, and lemon wedges as you like.
  • Serve with additional lemon slices and garlic aioli, if desired. Make sure to scrape up all the crispy rice on the bottom - this is the best part of the dish!