Over three-cheese-stuffed manicotti, homemade meat sauce is served. The best manicotti I’ve ever had is this one. I’m frequently asked for the recipe.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 40 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 10 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
Ingredients
- ½ cup olive oil
- 1 ¼ pounds chicken thighs
- ½ cup onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- ¼ pound calamari rings
- ¼ pound small shrimp – peeled and deveined
- ½ green bell pepper, diced
- ½ red bell pepper, diced
- 6 cups water
- 3 cups long grain rice
- 1 (14 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
- ½ cup peas
- 2 teaspoons saffron threads
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 6 large clams in shell, scrubbed
- 6 jumbo shrimp in shells (21-25 per lb.)
- 6 large sea scallops
- 6 wedges lemon
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a very large skillet or paella pan over medium-high heat until it begins to smoke. Sear chicken thighs, skin-side down, in hot oil until golden brown on both sides, about 5 minutes. Remove chicken thighs to a plate and set aside.
- Stir onion and garlic into drippings in the skillet. Cook and stir until onion is softened and translucent, about 1 minute. Add calamari, small shrimp, and bell peppers; cook and stir for 2 minutes.
- Stir in water, rice, tomatoes, peas, saffron, and salt until well combined. Return chicken thighs to the skillet; simmer over medium-high heat for 15 minutes, stirring frequently to make sure rice does not stick.
- Decoratively nestle clams and jumbo shrimp into rice-chicken mixture. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes. Place scallops into paella. Continue simmering, covered, until rice is tender and scallops are firm and opaque, about 5 minutes. Garnish with lemon wedges to serve.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 814 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 87 g |
| Cholesterol | 211 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 4 g |
| Protein | 47 g |
| Saturated Fat | 6 g |
| Sodium | 770 mg |
| Sugars | 2 g |
| Fat | 30 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This is the first time I’ve ever made or had Paella. I changed a few ingredients. I didn’t use chicken, only used a ton of large shrimp and some scallops, traded the rice for jasmine rice, and instead of water used chicken stock. Topped it with a little creole seasoning and sriracha and WOW! Might be one of the best things I’ve ever ate.
This is my go-to paella recipe from now on. Flavors and textures were spot on!
We added artichokes and peppers and was very good
I WISH I took a picture! But the guest dug in so quickly, and demolished this. A fantastic recipe!
I never thought a first time made paella recipe would turn out so good! My bible study friends loved it and I was so so happy with it. Just as a comment, I added sausage, diced pork ( little) and scallops. I used parsley flakes and paprika for color added to saffron. Rice came out perfect a little softer than al dente. I used chicken breasts so I also added chicken bouillion for flavoring. Thanks for a great recipe in 4 steps!!!!
I’ve made this recipe at least ten times it’s excellent and rivals any Paella dish I ate in Barcelona when I was there. I highly recommend it!
Add extra Rosemary, Thyme, Garlic powder, Sage. Very good!
I added muscles instead of calimari
Wow!! I used 2 1/2 lb skinless boneless chicken thighs cut into quarters…I used 1 3/4 C. rice, 2 frozen chopped tomatoes and a splash of vegetable juice, 2 tsp. turmeric, 1 T. smoked paprika, 1 onion, 1 red bell pepper and 1 orange bell pepper, 1 lb. bay scallops, 1 lb. jumbo shrimp- I shelled them and made shrimp stock from them for the liquid in this recipe. I used 1 1/2 lbs cooked mussels in the shell, 1 C. peas, salt, pepper, 2 cloves chopped/smashed garlic….I sauteed the chicken in olive oil and fresh cracked black pepper, then removed, put onions and garlic in pan for a minute and sautéed, then added peppers for another 2 minutes. Then added rice, 1 lb. sliced fresh mushrooms, seasonings and shrimp stock, red pepper flakes, and chicken pieces back in. Brought to a simmer on med-high- stirred a LOT…then when 15 minutes was up, dumped in peas, shrimp, calamari, scallops, and mussels. Put lid on, turned to low and simmered for 10 min. This made a LOT! Too much for my Dutch oven- (I don’t have a wok or a paella pan). I scooped out a bowl full. This took me 2 hours from getting ingredients out of the freezer and fridge, chopping, washing up as I went and cooking. The cooking only took about 30-35 minutes. The biggest amount of time was prepping beforehand. I will make this for company when I want to impress someone:) This is DELICIOUS!! The only thing I forgot was to garnish w/ lemon wedges.
I will definitely make this dish again. I read the majority of the reviews and decided to make my own adjustments like using less water. I did 4 cups instead of 6 from the comments stating it was too mushy or more like risotto. I also subbed the calamari rings for beef smoked sausage and used Rotel instead of plain tomatoes. If I had chicken broth I would have used that instead of water. Also the next time I make this dish I will be using more meat then the recipe calls for. Overall we really enjoyed this and I cant wait to try again!!
Get rid of the onions, garlic, and bell pepper in order to make a mild but still delicious version of the paella. Although the children in our house did not like it, I grew up loving paella, so it’s worth a try.
I didn’t have any saffron on hand, but I had saffron rice (with the seasoning in the packets). I used 3c of that and substituted 3c of seafood broth for 3c of the water, and 1c white wine for 1c of the water. I added 3 tbs chopped green olives, 1c peas, 1c smoked sausage, 2 tbs smoked paprika, 2 tsp salt, 1 tbs black pepper, and one minced Jalepeno for a little heat. It turned out amazing and I will definitely make it again. It got rave reviews by the dinner guests and there are plenty of leftovers for tomorrow.
Excellent paella! Just to be sure, I cooked all the meat separately, and added after the rice was cooked (I baked chicken thighs and took the meat off the bone.) Instead of water, I used 6 cups chicken broth plus 2/3 cup of white wine, and also let it cook an extra 10 minutes. Like many other reviewers, I added thawed, frozen peas when I added the meat. FIRST TIME PAELLA MAKERS, READ AS MANY REVIEWS AS YOU CAN BEFORE MAKING! All these reviews will greatly help you achieve a perfect entree! 😀 This is a WONDERFUL, fool-proof dish to make for company! Serve with some fresh fruit and maybe some cornbread for a perfect meal!
This was a good paella recipe, but it was a bit bland for us and the rice to seafood ratio is way too heavy on the rice. Next time we’ll reduce the rice to 2 cups, which will still be plenty. I know paella isn’t supposed to be spicy, but we enjoy a bit of fire. We added hot pepper sauce to ours and it was much more to our liking.
Not my favorite, a lot of rice and a bit on the bland side. Added red pepper flakes at the table to pep it up a bit, think the Rotel idea would be good and adding some paprika as I’ve seen in other recipes. Added the seafood at the end, still plenty of seafood flavor and it wasn’t overdone.
I chose this recipe since it seemed to be one of the most authentic on the site. I made it for mother’s day lunch and the results were absolutely delicious! I was a little worried because my father is a tough critic when it comes to food and a master rice maker but he loved it and even had seconds. The only change I made was to use chicken broth instead of water. An excellent dish with room for variation. Thanks for this excellent recipe- will be making for company soon!
This is a very good Paella recipe, but I would cut the rice in half and add more shrimp, clams, mussels, scallops,etc.
I was skeptical when I read the recipe because it didn’t have any chicken/seafood broth in it. As expected, it was a pretty dry and not very flavorful paella. I’ve had much better. It didn’t have that seafood flavor that defines a paella, instead, it just tasted like rice with some seafood on it.
I made this for a group of our friends, after we returned from Catalunya (Barcelona, Spain). It was a hit! I did adjust it slightly. I used Rotel to replace the crushed tomatoes and chicken broth to replace the water. I will definitely make this again. Thank you for the recipe from your family heritage.
First time making paella, but made a few changes. I added about a pound of chicken breast tenders instead, hubby didn’t want any bones. Instead of using water I used chicken broth and reduced the amount from 6 cups to 4 cups. I saw in a another recipe to add a bay leaf and i did. Definitely brought together the flavors. Last but not least i added large cooked shrimp and fully cooked mussels. AMazing we usually pay $45 at a local restaurant for this and now we can just make it ourselves. Overall great recipe. Hope this helps!!
We recently ate our way through Barcelona, trying different paella dishes. This recipe is one that comes really close to what is served there. Most other recipes on the web have chorizo in them, which is NEVER used in the better restaurants since it overwhelms the taste of the seafood. You can add whatever veggies or extras you want to this as well. Thanks so much for this great recipe!