Chicken Paella

Paella - Spanish national rice dishes. It is necessarily prepared with the addition of one or more types of meat, vegetables, seafood, various spices and spices. Like pilaf, it is a self-sufficient dish that does not require any additions. Most often, one of the main components of the dish is chicken, which is complemented by other types of meat products, seafood, vegetables and mushrooms. In different regions of Spain and even in different families, paella with chicken is made according to different recipes, but despite the difference in recipes, the general principles of cooking are still common. Knowing them, even an inexperienced cook will be able to please themselves and loved ones with popular Spanish food.

Cooking Features

Paella is a unique dish, which can simultaneously include chicken and rabbit, poultry and seafood. However, paella differs from other rice dishes not only by its composition, but also by its special cooking technology. Only knowing these nuances, it is possible to cook paella, and not pilaf with chicken.

The dish got its name by the name of the frying pan on which it was cooked. This dish is not very high, but thick walls, no less thick and very wide bottom. This allows you to quickly fry foods on medium or even high heat. The ideal is paella with a golden crust, which occurs only when briefly roasting an already prepared dish over a fairly high heat. If you are going to make a paella, choose the most suitable for this kitchen utensils.
Each national rice dish requires the use of certain varieties of rice cereal. For paella suitable round grain, well absorbing liquid. Regular Krasnodar round grain rice will be a good choice. Also all rice varieties used for making risotto will do.
You can use any chicken parts to make paella. Most often, it is made from chunks of chunks cut into small pieces. Many people like paella made from tender chicken breast fillet, sliced in plates with a thickness of about 1 cm or even smaller pieces.
If paella is cooked with seafood, then it is considered optional to clean them: mussels are cooked right in the shells, shrimps are in the shell. However, if you still bother to clean the seafood before cooking, guests and household are unlikely to be offended.
Before being mixed with rice, the chicken is usually fried, stewed or boiled until almost half cooked or even fully cooked. If the chicken is boiled, the broth is filtered out from under it and used to make paella in subsequent stages. If you do not have chicken broth, you can replace it with vegetable broth or even hot boiled water.
Usually, when cooking paella, vegetables and chicken are fried in a pan, then rice and broth are added to them, after which the pan can be closed and cooked until ready. Quickly digestible products and ingredients that do not like long-term heat treatment are administered 10 minutes before the readiness of the dish. At the last stage of cooking, the lid is raised, the fire under the pan is increased and the rice is browned for 2-3 minutes. If you do not have great cooking experience, it is safer to skip the frying rice over high heat.
Often in the paella include tomatoes, white wine or lemon juice, which give the dish its lack of acidity.
Sometimes green peas, green beans, and even cereal beans are added to satiety in paella. Grain beans are boiled separately in advance or replace canned.

There are so many recipes for paella with chicken that it’s hard not to choose an option that will appeal to the most fastidious gourmet. Despite the fact that the general principles of cooking this dish remain unchanged, the technology of cooking it according to different recipes can have significant differences. In order to avoid mistakes and get the expected result, it is necessary to adhere to the recommendations accompanying a particular recipe.

A simple recipe for paella with chicken and vegetables

Composition:

chicken breast fillet - 0, 2 kg;
tomatoes - 0, 2 kg;
round grain rice - 0, 2 kg;
Bulgarian pepper - 0, 5 kg;
green onions - 30 g;
garlic - 2 cloves;
lemon - 20 g;
fresh parsley - 20 g;
chicken broth - 0, 4 l;
salt, seasonings - to taste;
saffron - a large pinch;
olive oil - 60 ml.

Method of preparation:

Add the saffron to the hot broth, leave to infuse for half an hour.
Cut the garlic cloves into small pieces.
Wash, dry peppers and tomatoes with napkins. Pepper from the seeds, cut into small squares. Cut tomatoes into slices.
Slice the lemon into thin slices, removing the bones.
Wash and dry the parsley, finely chop it.
Finely chop the washed and dried green onions.
Wash, blot chicken fillet with a napkin. Cut it into small pieces across the grain.
Heat the oil in a wide pan. Place the chicken fillet and garlic in it. Salt it and pepper. Fry over medium heat for 5 minutes, sometimes turning the spatula over.
Add vegetables, lemon slices and greens. Extinguish them with chicken for 5 minutes.
Pour rice into the pan with chicken and vegetables, cover with broth.
Simmer the rice for 15 minutes on low heat without a lid.
Remove the pan from the heat, cover with foil and leave for another 15 minutes so that the rice is completely cooked.

This recipe for paella with chicken fillet is one of the simplest, but it also makes this popular Spanish dish very tasty.

Paella with chicken, rabbit and seafood

Composition:

chicken legs (tibia) - 0, 25 kg;
rabbit meat - 0, 25 kg;
mussels (peeled) - 0, 25 kg;
shrimp (peeled) - 0, 25 kg;
green beans - 150 g;
canned cereal beans - 150 g;
Bulgarian pepper - 0, 25 kg;
onions - 100 g;
garlic - 2 cloves;
canned green peas - 150 g;
tomatoes - 0, 25 kg;
olive oil - 60 ml;
dry white wine - 60 ml;
turmeric - 2-3 g;
saffron - a pinch;
salt - to taste;
rice - 0, 2 kg;
water or broth - 0, 3 l.

Method of preparation:

Wash the rabbit, cut into medium pieces.
Wash and dry chicken legs.
Rub the rabbit and chicken pieces with salt and spices.
Heat a little oil in a pan. Fry the rabbit in it first, then the chicken legs. Put them in a bowl.
Wash and dry the vegetables. Peel the onions and garlic, chop with a knife. Remove the seeds from the peppers, cut them into squares about 1 cm in size. Squash the tomatoes, peel them off, cut the tomato flesh into medium-sized cubes. Bean pods cut into 2 cm pieces.
Add butter to the pan, put the finely chopped garlic and onion into it, fry them until the characteristic flavor appears.
Add the mussels and shrimps, lightly browning them.
Add canned and green beans, sliced peppers and tomatoes. Pour in the wine.
Cook the food until there is almost no liquid left in the pan.
Pour rice into the pan, cover it with water or broth mixed with saffron and turmeric.
After 10 minutes add green peas, mix.
Spread on rice, alternating between pieces of chicken and rabbit. Continue cooking for 5-10 minutes.
When there is no broth left in the pan, remove it from the heat, cover with a lid and leave for another 20 minutes.

Paella made from chicken with vegetables, rabbit meat and seafood has a rich taste that can win the heart of any gourmet.

Paella with mushrooms and chicken

Composition:

chicken breast fillet - 0, 2 kg;
rice - 150 g;
water or chicken broth - 0, 25 l;
tomatoes - 0, 2 kg;
fresh champignons - 100 g;
Bulgarian pepper - 100 g;
garlic - 1 clove;
carrots - 100 g;
turmeric - a pinch;
salt - to taste;
pepper - to taste;
olive oil - 40 ml.

Method of preparation:

Mix the garlic passed through the press with pepper and turmeric, a tablespoon of oil.
Cut the fillets into small pieces, roll them in the resulting sauce.
Wash and dry vegetables and mushrooms with a napkin.
Pepper, free from seeds, cut into small squares.
Tomatoes, peeled, cut into small pieces of arbitrary shape.
Cut the mushrooms into cubes or straws.
Grind carrots on a coarse grater.
Heat the remaining butter in a pan, put the chicken pieces into it, fry them over medium heat until golden brown.
Add vegetables and mushrooms. Wait until the contents of the pan boil. Extinguish food for 5 minutes.
Pour rice into the pan. Cook it, stirring with a spatula, for about 3-4 minutes, until it becomes translucent.
Pour broth over food. Wait until it boils.
Turn down the fire. Cover the pan with a lid and cook the food for about 20 minutes, until the liquid from the pan evaporates and the rice is soft.

If you want to get a ruddy crust, 2-3 minutes before the rice is ready, remove the lid and add heat, stir the dish and allow the bottom layer to fry a little.

Paella with chicken is one of the most popular Spanish dishes. Similar foods are prepared in some other Mediterranean countries. Chicken paella has so many recipes that it's hard not to find an option to taste.

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