Chicken and Seafood Paella

I hope you are all having a wonderful sunday. Now we are getting into spring, I am starting to make my favourite spring dishes, one of which is Paella. Its not quite a mid week meal as there is along of prep and ingredients involved so this is more of a weekend or holiday meal. I love Paella, especially Paella de Marisco (seafood Paella) and I never miss an opportunity to have it when I am in the south of Spain.

My own Paella is a more pared down, simpler version of course, a sort of cross between the Paella de Marisco that I usually get when I am in Malaga and a Paella Valenciana, in that I often add pork and chicken. They usually refer to this type of Paella as a Paella Mixta.

I tend to leave out the clams and calamari if you are cooking for fussy eaters and I use chicken thighs or breasts or whatever I have to hand that day, but really you can pretty much use whatever you like or have in the fridge which is the beauty of  this recipe.

I use calasparra rice as it really is an integral part of this meal, it is a short grain rice, and Marks and spencers stock it now so its easy to get your hands on it these days.

Ingredients
500ml short grain rice/Spanish calasparra rice
1 litre of chicken stock
125ml dry white wine
a few saffron strands
1 large onion chopped finely
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp thyme or fresh thyme leaves if you have them
pinch of dried chilli flakes or to your taste
1 red pepper
whole garlic finely chopped
150g chorizo diced
olive oil
salt and pepper
100g or 1 cup frozen peas doesn't have to be precise
4 large tomatoes deseeded and diced(I have used tinned as well and it is fine)
Garnish
flat leaf parsley
lemon wedges to garnish
Chicken
4 chicken thighs, or 2 breasts chopped and browned
Fish
A bunch of mussels say 12 or 15.  Washed and debearded.
Again about 12 or 15  jumbo prawns raw with their heads and tails on (really adds to the flavour)
200g calamari (optional)

Method

1. Heat your olive oil in the pan and fry the chorizo until crisp and then add in all the garlic bar 2 cloves (this will be fried with the prawns later), onion, red pepper and fry until softened.
   
2. Next add in the thyme, the chilli flakes and the rice and stir and dry fry for a few minutes until everything is well mixed.
3. Next add in your paprika, white wine and stock. When making up your stock, use hot water and add in the saffron strands at this stage. It just makes it easier to work with.
4. Throw in your chicken at stage and cover and leaving to cook for 5 to 10 minutes.
5. Next add in your mussels peas and chopped tomatoes and cook with the lid on for another 10 minutes.
6. Meanwhile we want to fry up our prawns in another pan with the remaining 2 cloves of garlic, just for few minutes until they the prawns go pink and are cooked and then place on top of the Paella.
7. Garnish with lemon wedges and parsley and serve immediately in the pan. Enjoy!