My First Paella

I was reading all of the paella threads in the Iberian Peninsula forum and they made me hungry, I love paella but have never had a proper "paellera" (thanks Rivet, I learned the proper terminology from your thread).  I gleaned from posts by Tas and Hoser that Cost Plus World Market has good deals on paelleras.  Believe it or not, I had never heard of World Market.  I was all ready to order online when I decided to do a search on the World Market website:

Here's my attempt.

Unfortunately, I only took a pic of the finished product but the process is pretty well covered in the other paella threads.  I loosely based my version on the recipe in my "The Cooking of Spain and Portugal" cookbook from the Time-Life series as well as incorporating info on ingredients, equipment, and technique from the other paella threads here on the FOTW forum.

3 bone-in split chicken breasts cleaved (is that the right word?) into 2 or 3 pieces each, depending on size
1 pound chorizo sausage
1/2 pound crab legs
1/2 pound medium raw shrimps peeled and deveined
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 cups short grain rice (I used Mahatma brand Valencia rice)
1 medium tomato
1 medium onion finely chopped
1 clove garlic crushed
1/2 cup tomato sauce
5 cups chicken stock
1 t pimenton de la vera (smoked Spanish paprika)
1 t kosher salt
1/4 t freshly ground black pepper
1/2 t saffron (crushed in a mortar)
1 cup frozen green peas

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Heat the extra virgin olive oil in the paellera until hot then brown the chicken on all sides.  Set the chicken aside and brown the chorizo.  I slice the sausages after I brown them as the slices then retain their shape better.  Once browned set the sausages aside and slice into slices when cool.

Next is to make the sofrito.

Add the onion and garlic to the paellera and cook until clear, add more oil if needed.  Blanch the tomato and remove skin then dice finely and add to the paellera along with the tomato sauce, the pimenton de la vera, and black pepper.  Cook the sofrito slowly until it is very thick and will hold the shape of a spoon.  While cooking the sofrito heat the chicken stock to a boil.  When the sofrito is ready add the rice, saffron, and salt, and mix well.  Add the hot stock and mix well.   Arrange the chicken pieces and chorizo slices in the paellera and bring to a boil then place in the oven on the lowest rack nearest the bottom of the oven.  You want to bake it until all the liquid is absorbed, this took about 40 minutes in my oven and it also gave me a wonderful crust on the bottom of the paella.  I added the peas, raw shrimps, and crab legs about 20 minutes into the baking.  Whatever you do, do not stir the paella once it goes into the oven or else it will not develop that delicious crust on the bottom.

Here is the finished paella.  I am really pleased with how it turned out and everyone in the family agreed that it was delicious.

Thanks Ron,  I need to work on my photography as the pic doesn't do it justice since it tasted even better than it looks!

Glad to be a member of the brotherhood.  I can assure you, my paellera will be getting lots of playing time.

Another convert to the paellera...it's good to see. You did a wonderful job Andy. I'll bet those crab legs were awesome. Paella is a scary proposition at first, but when you come right down to it...all we do is put everything in the pan and wait. Heck,,,,I'm GOOD at waiting and drinkin beer!

I made another paella last night, this one being all meat and poultry, no seafood, I sort of just used what we had on hand and it turned out to be delicious!  Chunks of boneless chicken breast, sliced sausage, and pork medallions.  Got another really nice layer of costra from this awesome World Market paellera and the bottom-most position in our oven.

Here's a pic from after the first wave of servings, there wasn't much left after the second wave!

If I were left on an island and could only have one cooking utensil and one compact disc I would choose my paellera and my Creedence CD.