Seafood Paella

Easy to follow recipe. Made some minor substitutions . However, I had a concern about the shrimp. Even cooking them a bit before adding them per the recipe, they never turned pink. They did curl up quite a bit, so I know they were eventually cooked, thanks to Google.  Id pre-cook the until pink first before adding them next time. 

I used chicken thighs instead of breast and I used the Costco seafood medley. I also spent $35. for saffron. It turned out delicious. I will cook this again only next time I will drain off the liquid from the seafood as it made it a little to watery for me.

Excellent Recipe.

I made it using a seafood medley mix from Costco which worked great. I also included a lot of the juice from the mix which really upped the flavor.

I followed the advice of a previous poster and didn’t add the seafood until 10 minutes left. Additionally, I used chicken thighs as recommended by another poster so no problem with dry chicken.

I might add a touch less salt next time. It was a little salty but not overbearing.

All in all, an excellent meal for not much effort.

This was a really tasty dish and my guests kept raving about it. They said this was one of the best tasting paella they have ever eaten. Great recipe. This one is a keeper. Thank you so much!!!

Love it! Thanks for sharing this recipe!
I purchase a 5-gram jar of Spanish Saffron from Costco on line for $22. Saffron needs to be soak in liquid minimum of 2 hrs.
I substitute a few ingredients, I used chicken tights w the bones instead of chicken breast, peas instead of celery, lobster instead of crabs, 2 cups of rice instead of one, 1/2 pd of shrimp instead of 1 pd. (I did not peeled and de-veined
I season the chicken w a little of oil, s&p, brown the chicken and set aside, I cooked the rice for 15 minutes, add the chicken and let it cook for 5 min. then added all the seafood and let it cooked for additional 10 min.

I made this dish and it was awesome!!!….the only thing i change was the saffron…because it can become pretty expensive if you want to make this dish often…I used ACHIOTE (Bixa orellana), it’s available in every spanish store and very cheap…It gives pretty much the same flavor and the color its amazing!!!!
but CAREFUL Achiote can be very strong…..don’t use too much… just a table spoon of raw achiote will work for 1 pound of rice….

Ps: to get the color and flavor out o the seeds(if you don’t find it in paste) with the oil you’ll use for the rice…tossed up in a pan, drain and continue cooking as indicated on the recipe…..

I had it for the first time at a resturant by a chef that made it special for another guest (I got lucky and had some too) and haven’t been able to forget about it since (2 years later). So, I finally get around to making it for myself. I used fresh chorizo instead of an already cooked smoked sausage as the recipe calls for, which I am glad that I did. Everything else stayed the same. The chicken needs to be taken out while everything else simmers; was too dry in the end. And people – you cannot forgo the saffron! Its not a party until the saffron shows up…Ok! And you just cannot substitute saffron for anything else. Not a big job cooking and cleaning up afterward.

Our supermarket didn’t have saffron and I don’t know how it tastes since I never used before. My wife liked the dish very much because of the smoked sausage. I thought it was out of place in a seafood dish. I thought the dish was ok. Keep in mind we did not use saffron.

My main complaint is that the chicken and shrimpwere dried out. Next time I will remove the chicken from pan and put back in along with the shrimp for the last 10 minutes.

On a positvie note, this dish feeds at least 5 people for the $30 of ingredients since I substituted monk fish for the crabs. Easy recipe and one pan cooking.

Yes the monkfish was dry too. I let everything simmer for 25 min. It looks like the monkfish will be going in the pan in the last 10 min also.

I actually substituted more mussels for clams because I like them better, but otherwise I followed the recipe to the dot. If you are trying to find a more economical way to do the same dish – because this can be pricey (but worth it!!!) – try buying the seafood on sale and saffron rice instead of a bottle of the saffron spice itself. If you are thinking about even TRYING paella, try this one!!!!

Paella is a time intensive meal. I first had it in Miama, made by my father-in-law (he’s Cuban). This was the closest recipe to all the ingredients from the “old world.”

I am not the best cook or very kitchen inclined, but following the directions precisely made for a decent meal. The second and third time I made it, it just got better- tweaking the recipe to make it with the flavor I like.

This was the easiest recipe with seafood that I could find and recommend it for the beginner to the experienced chef. There is alot you can do with this dish, but something to remember…I have traveled alot, including Central and South America where these type dishes are very popular so going authentic, not with the “American” flavor was important to me.

Enjoy, this is a great meal especially if you have to feed a crowd! And experiment- I use lobster tails instead of crab.