Spain / Main
Paella valenciana
Rice in a wide pan with chicken, rabbit and beans. It is never stirred once, and the crust on the bottom depends on that.
Ingredients
- Bomba rice, or another short grain320 g
- Chicken, in pieces400 g
- Rabbit, in pieces, chicken will do instead300 g
- Flat green beans200 g
- Large white beans, cooked100 g
- Tomato, grated1
- Olive oil60 ml
- Sweet paprika1 tsp
- Saffron1 pinch
- Rosemary1 sprig
- Chicken stock or water900 ml
- Saltto taste
Quantities are auto-calculated from the original recipe as a guide. Items without numbers (e.g. “to taste”) are not changed.
Method 6 steps
Heat the oil in a wide pan and brown the chicken and rabbit on every side. This is not a five-minute job: it takes a good quarter of an hour, and there is no point rushing it — the flavour of the whole dish is laid down here.
Push the meat to the edges, put the green beans in the middle and fry them for a couple of minutes. Add the grated tomato and the paprika and cook until the tomato darkens and stops smelling raw.
Pour in the stock, add the rosemary, saffron and white beans, salt it noticeably harder than feels right and let it boil for ten minutes. This is the last moment you can correct the seasoning.
Scatter the rice in an even layer and level it once with a spoon. After that do not touch the pan again — no stirring, no smoothing.
Cook on a high flame for ten minutes, then drop to medium for another eight, until the stock is gone. The rice should be showing above the surface.
Turn the heat up for half a minute and listen: the moment the sound turns from bubbling to a dry crackle, take it off. That is the socarrat. Cover with a cloth and let it stand for five minutes.
