Must try in Spain

Chicken and Shrimp Paella.

Name: Chicken and Shrimp Paella
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h 15 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Spain
Ingredients: 3 tbsp olive oil; 500 g boneless chicken thighs, in large chunks; 300 g large shrimp, shell-on if possible; 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped; 2 ripe tomatoes, halved and grated (skins discarded); 1 tsp smoked paprika (pimentón); 300 g bomba or other Spanish short-grain rice; 900 ml chicken stock, hot and well seasoned; 1 pinch saffron threads (a generous pinch); 100 g frozen peas; to taste fine salt; 1 lemon, in wedges; 2 tbsp chopped parsley

Paella · say it: pah-EH-yah

This is a mixed paella — chicken thighs and shrimp over saffron rice — scaled for a wide pan on an ordinary home stove. The rice is the point: each grain cooked separate and plump in a stock stained gold with saffron and deepened with smoked paprika and a tomato-garlic sofrito, finished with the socarrat, the crackling toasted crust where rice meets pan. It tastes of saffron, seared chicken fat and sweet shrimp, with no cream and no tricks. To be clear about what this is not: it is not paella valenciana, the rabbit-and-beans original. It is the mixed style eaten all over Spain, made carefully — which mostly means seasoning the stock well and never stirring the rice.

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Chicken and Shrimp Paella

Gate: SpainValencia (adapted)
Prep: 25 min
Cook: 45 min
Total time: 1 hr 15 min incl. 5 min rest
Serves: 4
Status: Medium
Nutrition / serving · estimated: Calories 640 kcal; Protein 45 g; Carbs 66 g; Fat 20 g; Fiber 4 g

Why this recipe works.

Honest about tradition: a mixed paella done properly, not a fake "authentic valenciana."
Sized for one home burner — a thin rice layer in a 30 cm pan, rotated so it cooks evenly.
The socarrat step is explicit, with the sound and smell cues that tell you when to stop.
Bomba rice and real saffron where they matter; no chorizo, no cream, no shortcuts that muddy the rice.

Tips from our kitchen.

Do not stir the rice after the stock goes in — not once. Stirring releases starch and turns paella into risotto. Rotate the pan over the burner instead.
Taste the stock before adding rice: it should be slightly saltier than soup you'd serve, because the rice absorbs and mutes it. Under-seasoned stock is the number one home paella failure.
Use bomba or another Spanish short-grain rice if you can — it absorbs more liquid without bursting. Arborio is an acceptable stand-in; long-grain rice is not.
Steep the saffron in a few spoonfuls of hot stock for 10 minutes before it goes in — dumped in dry, half its color and aroma never gets out of the threads.
For the socarrat, trust your ears and nose: a faint crackle and a toasty (not acrid) smell means the crust is forming. Smoke or a sharp burnt smell means take it off now.
Rest the finished paella 5 minutes under a clean towel — the top grains finish steaming and the whole pan settles.

Substitutions.

Bomba rice → Arborio or other short-grain rice: Works, but use slightly less stock and watch it closely — these grains burst sooner than bomba. Never rinse the rice.
Saffron → A pinch of turmeric for color: Honest note: turmeric copies the color, not the flavor. Saffron is expensive but you need only a pinch — it is the single most worthwhile purchase for this dish.
Shrimp → Mussels or firm white fish chunks: Mussels open on top of the rice in the last 10 minutes; fish goes in at the same point as the shrimp.

Variations.

Paella valenciana (the original): Rabbit and chicken with flat green beans and garrofó beans, no seafood, traditionally over an orange-wood fire. If you want the dish Valencians defend, this is it.
Paella de marisco: All-seafood: shrimp, mussels, squid and a stock made from the shells. No chicken at all — common along the whole Spanish coast.
Arroz negro: The dramatic cousin: rice cooked with squid and its ink until jet black, served with alioli. Same pan, same no-stir rules.

Storage & reheating.

Leftover paella keeps 2 days refrigerated. Reheat it in a wide pan with a splash of water over medium heat until steaming — a microwave works but sacrifices the texture, and any socarrat softens either way. Do not freeze it; the shrimp turn rubbery and the rice goes mealy. Eat the socarrat the day it is made.

Serve with

Lemon wedges, a simple green salad, and alioli on the side — plus cold Spanish white wine or beer.

The story behind Chicken and Shrimp Paella.

Paella comes from the countryside around Valencia, on Spain's eastern coast, where the Moors established rice cultivation in the wetlands of the Albufera lagoon over a thousand years ago. The dish that grew out of those paddies was farm-laborers' food, cooked outdoors at midday over a fire of orange-tree prunings: rice, whatever the land gave — rabbit, chicken, snails, flat green beans and the big white garrofó beans — simmered in a wide shallow pan. That pan is called a paella in Valencian, and the vessel eventually named the dish. By the nineteenth century it had become the region's defining preparation, and paella valenciana still means that specific combination; Valencians have even codified its permitted ingredients.

Which brings up the awkward truth this recipe should own. Chicken-and-seafood paella — paella mixta — is not the Valencian original. Mixing meat and shellfish into one pan is a later, popular adaptation that spread through Spanish restaurants and tourist coasts, and Valencians famously reject it, sometimes filing it under the running joke of "arroz con cosas" — rice with things. The mockery is real and well documented; so is the fact that millions of people, Spaniards included, happily cook and eat mixed paella at home. Both things are true. What Valencians and everyone else agree on is what makes any paella worth eating: good rice in a wide thin layer, a stock worth drinking on its own, no stirring once the rice goes in, and the socarrat — the toasted bottom crust that you hear crackle in the final minute and fight over at the table. This recipe honors those rules while using the chicken and shrimp a home cook actually has.

Questions, answered.

Is chicken and shrimp paella authentic?

Not by Valencian standards, and it is worth being honest about that. The original paella valenciana contains rabbit, chicken, flat green beans and garrofó beans — never seafood mixed with meat. Mixed paella (paella mixta) is a later adaptation, hugely popular across Spain and abroad, that Valencians famously mock as "arroz con cosas" — rice with things. It is a legitimate, widely eaten dish; it just isn't the original.

What is socarrat and how do I get it?

Socarrat is the thin, toasted, crackly layer of rice that forms on the bottom of the paella pan in the final minutes — for many Spaniards the best part of the dish. To create it, raise the heat for the last 60–90 seconds once the liquid is absorbed and listen: a gentle crackle and a nutty toasted smell mean it is forming; smoke means it has gone too far. The crust should be deep golden, not black.

Can I make paella without a paella pan?

Yes — the requirement is width and shallowness, not the specific pan. Use your widest skillet (30 cm or more) so the rice sits in a layer no deeper than about 2 cm. What you cannot substitute is the method: a thin layer, no stirring after the stock goes in, and even heat, which on a home stove means rotating the pan every few minutes.

Why shouldn't you stir paella?

Stirring rubs starch off the rice grains and makes the dish creamy — which is exactly right for Italian risotto and exactly wrong for paella, where the ideal is distinct, separate grains and a toasted crust on the bottom. Once the stock is in, the rice is only leveled once and then left alone; heat adjustments and pan rotation do the rest.

What rice is best for paella?

Spanish short-grain varieties — bomba is the famous one, with calasparra and senia close behind. Bomba absorbs roughly a third more liquid than ordinary rice while keeping its shape, which forgives timing errors. Arborio is a workable substitute with a little less stock; long-grain and basmati stay too dry and separate to bind the flavors, so avoid them.

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