Happy Valentine’s Day: Paella

It’s Valentine’s Day and we are making Paella. A bit extravagant for a Thursday but my wife and son are worth it. Going with a bit of land, sea, and sky to round out the dish. Going for a chorizo, chicken, clam, and mussel Paella. Here’s how we approached today’s experiment. I am sure people with any Spanish cooking skill will question some of the choices but we do our best without breaking the bank on ingredients.

First, we marinated the some chicken thighs in salt, pepper, garlic powder, sweet paprika, and oregano. Put it in the fridge for an hour or so. Here is the big picture ingredient list:

• salt and pepper
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 2 tsp sweet paprika
• 1 tsp oregano
• 2 lbs bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
• 2 glugs of olive oil
• 3 small links Chorizo, cut into 1/2 inch slices
• 2 small sweet onions, finely diced
• 5 cloves garlic, mashed
• big glug of Vermouth
• 2 tsp Fenugreek
• 2 tsp coriander
• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 C. Arborio rice
• 1 quart chicken broth
• 1 small can fire roasted tomatoes
• 12 little neck clams
• 12 mussels
• handful Italian parsley, finely shredded

Once the chicken has been marinated, put a glug of olive oil in a medium heat pan and let the oil shimmer. Add the chorizo and cook a bit to get some color on it on both sides. Remove from pan. Add chicken and brown on both sides (about 4 minutes per side). Remove chicken. Add onions and garlic and turn heat down to low to get sweating on the onions but not a lot of color. There should be a bunch of color from the chicken marinade to make it all pretty. Once the onions are translucent, add the Vermouth and let simmer to get out alcohol. Add the next set of spice and stir it up. Add the rice and do like you would for a risotto to get the rice slightly translucent. Add the tomatoes and broth and simmer with very little bubbly action until rice just a bit firm. Add the clams and cook 3 minutes. Add the mussels and cover. Check periodically to see if clams and mussels are open. Once they all open up (or most) turn the heat up to get a nice crust on the rice about 30 seconds

Let rest for about 10 minutes with a cloth and not a cover to chill everything out. Serve with a sprinkling of parsley.