The Capsule Pantry: Valencian Paella
Rice done right
Welcome to The Capsule Pantry. Highly flexible, waste-reducing recipes delivered to your inbox every Wednesday, designed to be adapted to what’s in your fridge and pantry. The Capsule Pantry is paid-subscriber only. If you’d like full access, sign up for $5 a month or $50 a year and revolutionize the way you cook today.
I’m the sort of person who likes to deep dive into a food culture. At one point, I became obsessed with Paella.
I knew that authentic Valencian Paella was nothing like the abomination I had been subjected to back in the UK, which was more like a risotto filled with prawns, chicken and chorizo. But I didn’t know how different until I visited Valencia.
The thin layer of rice. The socorrat - the crispy bit at the bottom of the pan that everyone fights over. The fact that you should never ever stir it while it’s cooking.
I spent hours online researching the most authentic recipes, cooking paella after paella in the pan I’d brought back in my hand luggage from Valencia. And I got pretty good.
This week, I returned to my love of paella, making it on the scant equipment in my current Airbnb down in Southern Spain.
Although the basics of Paella are sacred, the extra ingredients are pretty flexible making it a perfect S+S recipe. You can also make it in a frying pan - as I often do on the road - no special paella pan required.
The authentic recipe will always start with the basics: Rice (the bomba variety is the easiest to work with), garlic, tomato, and olive oil. Aside from that, you can use varying types of meat or fish (although rarely together), beans and vegetables.
Let’s get to it.
Authentic Valencian Paella
Serves 4
Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
Two ripe tomatoes, the flesh finely grated (use good quality canned tomatoes if you can’t get good fresh ones - around 1.5 finely chopped tinned plum tomatoes will do)
300g / 1.5 cups bomba rice
2 boned chicken thighs cut into bitesize chunks
Optional: 1/2 a rabbit cut into bitesize chunks (I don’t love rabbit so I leave it out)
3 cups chicken stock / water (the exact amount will depend on your rice absorption but this is a good start, you may need to add more).
Pinch saffron
Handful flat green beans chopped into 1cm length pieces
Sprig of rosemary
Heat up the stock and throw in the saffron in to color it.
You want the rice to be in as thin a layer as possible so use as large a frying pan as you can. Heat a glug of EVOO in the pan on medium heat and throw in the chicken (and rabbit if you’re using it). Stir until the chicken begins to color.
Add the green beans and fry for a few minutes.
Add the garlic and stir for a couple more minutes.
Thow in the grated tomato and stir for a couple more minutes.
Pour in the stock. Wait until it’s simmering then slowly add the rice handful by handful, ensuring an even layer across the bottom of the pan. Add the whole sprig of rosemary.
Bring the stock up to a boil then turn it down to a low simmer. You don’t want to stir the rice if possible here because you don’t want to develop the gluten in the rice otherwise you’ll have something akin to risotto. You can give the pan a shake instead though.
Once most of the stock is absorbed, take the rosemary out and check the rice. It should be slightly al dente. If it’s still hard, add a little more water, very carefully and a tiny amount at a time.
Once all the stock is absorbed, you’ve got the tricky bit - developing the socorrat on the bottom of the pan. You’ll start to hear the rice begin to crackle as it starts to cook on the bottom. Keep the pan moving around the hob to try and ensure even cooking. I ruined the bottom of my paella for the first few times until I got the hang of making socorrat, but the key is the smell. As soon as it smells toasty, it’s done. You can always lift a little of the rice away from the pan with a spoon to see how it’s going.
Take off the heat and use a wooden spoon to scrape the socorrat - and pile of the rice - onto your plate.
Variations
The meat
Mini meatballs - I will always use chicken but instead of rabbit, some recipes call for little meatballs which I like to use as an alternative.
Take some ground beef or pork, season and add a small amount of bread soaked in milk (this helps to keep the meatballs soft) and turn into tiny meatballs about 3/4 inch in size. Add them once the rice has gone in and turn them half way through cooking.
Chorizo - Rarely used but I like it. I’ll start by frying bitesize pieces of chorizo to colour up the oil. Take them out, fry the chicken, and re-add when you add the stock.
Other meats - snails are very traditional (I’m not a fan). In some places, they’ll add pork ribs or duck.
Seafood
On the Valencian coast - and up in Catalonia where paella is also popular - you’ll find seafood paellas the order of the day. Squid, mussels and prawns are all used, as is fish stock. Often, these are made with a short type of pasta called fideuá but it’s tricky to easily find outside of Spain so you can also use rice.
The vegetables and beans
Green beans are the favored here but you can also use broad beans. Most recipes also call for some kind of white bean. In Valencia, they’re called Garrofo - lima beans - but I tend to replace them with butter beans, or omit them entirely.
The herbs and spices
Rosemary is the go-to but parsely and thyme are also used.
I like to add a little Spanish smoked paprika to the mix (you’ll see this in my Instagram reel). Not wholly authentic but it works!
Pro tip
If you really want to get into Paella, Wikipaella is the best resource out there. It documents everything from authentic recipes to where to eat Paella across the world.