Best Paella Ever

Paella has bits of everything I love: rice, seafood, and most importantly socarrat: crispy crunchy toasted rice bits.

Have you ever been obsessed with a dish even though you’ve never eaten it? For me, that dish was paella. It was one of those food bucket list items – I don’t remember how or why I became so obsessed with having paella from its birthplace of Valencia, but I’m pretty sure it has something to do with the fact that paella is so pretty and such an iconic dish. It’s so iconic that people around the world think of it as the quintessential Spanish dish, even though it’s actually more Valencian. I mean, Valencia is in Spain, so it’s all good to me.

Ingredients:

30 threads saffron lightly crushed, about 1/2 tsp

1/4 cup neutral oil high heat such as grapeseed preferred

2 links Spanish chorizo sliced

4 bone in skin on chicken thighs

10-12 large shrimp peeled and deveined

1 small onion minced, about 1 cup

3 cloves garlic crushed

3 medium tomatoes diced or grated, about 2 cups, see notes

1 tbsp smoked paprika

6 cups chicken broth no sodium preferred

2.5 cups bomba rice

1 red or orange pepper sliced into 1" strips

12 clams