Lean and Mean Paella

Hello, here’s the picture of my home made paella which I made a couple of days ago. It is really delicious and doesn’t take too much effort but it is simply tasty and brilliant for feeding lots of people with a 1 pan dish.

Here’s the ingredients that I used, although you can supplement and change these depending on what you have left in your fridge.

fry light

salt and freshly ground black pepper

either 3-4 chicken breasts or 8-10 chicken thighs (bones removed from thighs)

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 red pepper & 1 yellow pepper deseeded and chopped into chunks

about 5 inches of chorizo sausage (or salami sausage) chopped into bite size pieces

4 garlic cloves

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

pinch saffron threads

2 pints of hot chicken stock

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

13 oz / 396g Arborio Rice (which is used for cooking risotto)

10-12 large raw tiger prawns, shells on

handful frozen peas

1 lemon, 1/2 cut into wedges, the other half juiced and squeezed

Here’s how I made it

1 Spray a large non stick pan (I used my Wok) with fry light and place on a high heat. Add the chicken to the pan and brown lightly (takes about 6-7 mins) Remove the chicken from the pan and set to one side

2 Add the onion, peppers, chorizo and garlic and fry for 8 mins until the colour and a bit of the oil from the chorizo has been released and is colouring everything.

3 Then add the  paprika, saffron and cook for another minute or so then add the chicken back into the pan. Then stir well before adding the stock, tomatoes and give it a really good seasoning. Simmer for 10 mins, stirring occassionally

4 Add the rice and bring back to the boil, give it a good stir and simmer for another 10 mins. Then add the tiger prawns and the peas and make sure that you dunk the tiger prawns right into the hot liquid, you will be able to tell when they are cooked as they turn pink in colour – then simmer for another 10-15 mins until the rice isn’t grainy and is cooked through. If you need to add more liquid at this point add boiling water a little at a time.

5 Remove from the heat, stir in the lemon juice, serve into dishes and gatnish with the lemon wedges.

I served this with crusty bread with an olive oil and balsamic vinegar dip… if you make it let me know your comments and share your pictures