This is paella scaled down for a home stove and a normal-sized pan — not the 90cm version we cook live at events, but the same method, the same order of operations, and the same result if you follow it properly.
Paella Valenciana is the original — chicken, rabbit if you can get it, green beans, butter beans, and saffron rice. No seafood, no chorizo, despite what half the paella sold outside Spain would have you believe. We'll get into seafood and mixed versions in a future recipe.
Ingredients
- 400g bomba or Calasparra rice (don't substitute long-grain — it won't absorb the same way)
- 1.2 litres hot chicken stock, plus extra if needed
- 500g chicken thigh, cut into chunks
- 200g rabbit or extra chicken, cut into chunks (optional, traditional)
- 150g flat green beans (or runner beans), trimmed
- 150g butter beans or garrofón, drained if tinned
- 2 ripe tomatoes, grated or finely chopped
- 1/2 tsp sweet smoked paprika
- A generous pinch of saffron threads, soaked in 2 tbsp warm water
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- Sea salt, to taste
- Lemon wedges, to serve
Method
- Heat the olive oil in a 38–40cm paella pan over medium-high heat. Season the chicken (and rabbit, if using) and brown well on all sides, about 8 minutes. Push to one side of the pan.
- Add the green beans and butter beans to the cleared space and cook for 3–4 minutes until they start to soften.
- Add the grated tomato and paprika, stir into the vegetables and cook for 2–3 minutes until it darkens slightly — this is the base (sofrito) that flavours the whole dish.
- Combine everything in the pan, then pour in the hot stock and add the saffron with its soaking water and the rosemary sprig. Bring to a strong simmer and taste the stock for seasoning — it should be slightly stronger than you think, since the rice will absorb a lot of that flavour.
- Sprinkle the rice evenly across the pan in a thin layer — don't stir it in, just distribute it and gently shake the pan so it settles. From this point, do not stir the rice again.
- Simmer over medium-high heat for 10 minutes, then reduce to low for a further 8–10 minutes, until the rice has absorbed almost all the liquid and you can hear a faint crackle at the bottom — that's the socarrat forming.
- Remove the rosemary sprig, turn off the heat, cover loosely with a clean tea towel and let it rest for 5 minutes before serving with lemon wedges.
The one rule that matters more than any ingredient: once the rice goes in the pan, you stop stirring. Every other mistake is recoverable. Stirring the rice isn't.
This is the home version
Here it's home-sized. At your event, it's the same recipe in a much bigger pan, cooked live for a crowd, with full cleanup included.
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