Valencia · 80 min · Meat · Main course · For confident cooks
Paella valenciana
In German: Paella aus Valencia · In English: Valencian paella
For 4 servings · US units
Valencia's rice pan with chicken, rabbit, beans, saffron and a crisp golden crust
Paella valenciana comes from Valencia, where it belongs to Sunday: chicken and rabbit, flat green beans and garrofó, the region's big white bean, cooked with saffron and rosemary in a wide, shallow pan. The short-grain rice drinks up the broth and leaves a crisp crust on the bottom, the socarrat everyone scrapes for. It's a summer dish and a party dish, best shared around the pan with plenty of people.
Ingredients
- 11½ ozricepaella rice, e.g. bomba or senia
- 1½ lbchickencut into pieces on the bone
- 1⅓ lbcut into pieces on the boneLean, pale meat with a delicate, faintly gamey flavour, usually jointed and braised.Substitute: Bone-in chicken thighs come closest; they are juicier and milder, cook slightly faster, and lack the faintly gamey note of rabbit.Read more
- 7 ozgreen beansfresh, trimmed, cut into 3–4 cm pieces
- 6⅓ ozif jarred or canned, rinsedCaution: Like all lima beans they contain cyanide-forming compounds when raw, so they must be soaked, the soaking water discarded, and the beans cooked through thoroughly.A large, flat white lima bean from Valencia, essential to paella valenciana, creamy and mild with a thin skin.Substitute: Dried large lima beans, often sold as butter beans, come very close in flavour and texture. Greek gigantes will do at a pinch, but they have a thicker skin and stay firmer and more floury.Read more
- 2tomatoesripe, grated, skin discarded
- 2 tsppaprikatoast only briefly, burns easily
- ⅛ ozdissolved in warm liquidThe dried stigmas of a crocus, thin deep-red threads that turn food golden yellow and give it a bitter-sweet, floral, faintly honeyed aroma.Substitute: There is no true substitute: turmeric or safflower will match the yellow colour but not the aroma, and turmeric adds an earthy note of its own, so the dish will look right but taste different.Read more
- 2rosemaryfresh sprigs, laid on top near the end
- ½ cupolive oilextra virgin, for frying
- 3¾ cupswaterhot; chicken stock as an alternative
- saltto taste
- 4quartered, fried with the vegetables (optional)The tender, fleshy core of the artichoke flower bud, with the tough leaves and choke removed.Substitute: Frozen artichoke hearts are the best substitute and keep more bite than jarred ones; no other vegetable matches the faintly bitter, nutty flavour.Read more
Method
- Prepare the ingredientsCut the chicken and rabbit into pieces on the bone. Trim the flat green beans and cut them into 3–4 cm lengths, and rinse the garrofó. Grate the tomatoes and discard the skins. Dissolve the saffron threads in a little warm liquid.
- Brown the meatHeat the olive oil in the paella pan and brown the chicken and rabbit pieces until golden all over.
- Fry the beans and garrofóPush the meat to the edge of the pan and fry the green beans and garrofó together in the middle.
- Cook down the sofritoAdd the grated tomato to the middle, let it cook down into a sofrito, then stir everything together with the meat.
- Season and build the brothStir in the sweet paprika and saffron for just a moment, since the paprika burns easily, then pour in the hot water or chicken stock straight away. Season with salt, bring to a boil and let the broth simmer in the pan for about 15 minutes.
- Cook the riceScatter the rice evenly across the pan and don't stir from this point on. Cook over high heat at first, then over medium to low heat, for 15–20 minutes.
- Add the rosemaryIn the last few minutes, lay the rosemary sprigs on top of the rice.
- Form the socarratOnce the liquid has evaporated, turn the heat up briefly so the crisp crust, the socarrat, forms on the bottom of the pan.
- Rest and serveTake the paella off the heat and let it rest for about 5 minutes. Remove the rosemary sprigs before serving.
Tips and variations
You can use chicken stock instead of water, or at a pinch water with instant chicken stock. If you like, fry quartered artichokes along with the vegetables, add snails to the boiling broth, or brown the rabbit liver with the meat at the end. It also works with chicken only and no rabbit, in which case garlic and pepper go in too. Some cooks add the rice with the paprika and saffron before pouring in the liquid, or take the rosemary out again after a few minutes. Do use short-grain rice, ideally Arròs de València in the Senia, Albufera or Bomba varieties, never long-grain. A wood fire or gas flame is ideal for cooking it. Cover the pan with a cloth or foil while it rests, then bring it to the table in the pan.
Something not right?
This recipe was put together from independent sources and checked before publishing. Even so, a mistake can slip through — an amount that does not add up, a step that does not work as written. If you spot something, write to us: we will look into it and put it right.
