Chicken and chorizo paella recipe | Jamie Oliver recipes (2024)

FAQs

What type of chorizo is best for paella? ›

Spanish chorizo: Spanish chorizo is dry cured and smoked. Do NOT use Mexican chorizo, which is raw and crumbly. Arborio rice: This is my favorite type of rice for paella, and it's the same one I use to make risotto. Bomba rice is also great.

Bomba is the best rice for paella. It's not only authentic to the dish, but the results are almost always perfect. Calasparra rice is an excellent substitute if you can't get your hands on bomba rice. Arborio Rice can work if you can't get bomba or Calasparra.

Rice. Arguably the most important ingredient, paella rice should be very absorbent short- or medium-grain rice, never long-grain.

Authentic paella does not contain fish, chorizo or peas, say Valencian cooks.

The traditional character of the Spanish chorizo

There are as many recipes as there are chorizos, but what they all have in common are the main ingredients: pork meat and bacon, paprika, garlic, and salt.

It is pretty much interchangeable method of cooking… unless you are going for 100% authentic. Risotto uses a short grain rice and Paella uses a short grain rice, but they are not the same type of short grain rice. So they may not work optimally in the other dish.

This is a bit surprising to many people. Paella is a dry rice, and onions are a “wet” vegetable that adds unnecessary moistness to the dish (not to mention flavor). You don't want rice grains that are “open”, over-cooked. When this happens, we say that the arroz “se ha pasado,” is passed, and you better toss it.

What Can You Not Put in Paella? Real paella does not include many ingredients that go into other rice dishes. Some of these include onions, peas, mushrooms, carrots, and chorizo. While all good combinations with rice, these aren't part of the traditional paella recipes.

We normally use fish stock when we make paella with any seafood or fish. This post gives you some guidelines on how to make good stock for paella.

Nixing the onions. While onions are beloved for imparting a nice note of allium flavor to cooking, they're also known to bring quite a bit of moisture to the pan. In fact, they are made up of about 89% water, so they can completely throw off your broth-to-rice ratio but adding unexpected liquid.

Why don t you put chorizo in paella? ›

For a rice dish to be called paella, it must contain saffron and be made in a paellero (a special and unique container for making a great paella with socarrat). Given the delicate, subtle, refined, and distinctive flavor of saffron, adding chorizo to a paella would be outrageous!

The impact of rice and oil prices

Increasing demand, combined with climatic and political factors, has led to an increase in the cost of rice and oil. Rice, essential for paella, has seen its prices rise due to factors such as adverse weather conditions in producing regions and high demand in emerging markets.

In terms of the basic ingredients, paella is similar to a risotto. The main difference is paella doesn't require constant stirring. In fact, it's important not to stir it once the stock is added to ensure the delicious, light-golden crust, known as socarrat, forms on the base.

Spanish-style chorizo is also available, and is distinguished by the name chorizo español ('Spanish chorizo'). Argentine chorizos are normally made of pork, and are not spicy hot. Some Argentine chorizos include other types of meat, typically beef.

While Argentinian chorizo is seasoned with wine, paprika, and garlic, Mexican chorizo is seasoned with vinegar and chile peppers, making it quite spicy. The spice in Mexican chorizo means that it is usually enjoyed as ground meat in eggs or other dishes, while Argentinian chorizo is typically eaten in sausage form.

Chorizo can either be bought as a whole cured sausage or as soft cooking chorizo which must be cooked before eating. Cooking chorizo are softer, moister and more similar to a classic sausage, typically releasing delicious spicy red oil when cooked.

Achorizado. These smaller chorizos are cured and ready to eat, but they're really designed for cooking in stews and soups. They can be placed in whole to gently soften in the sauce, or chopped up so their flavour melts into the braising liquid and lends the dish its unmistakable taste.