Paella with Chicken, Pork Sausage, Mussels and Shrimp

Paella with Chicken, Pork Sausage, Mussels and Shrimp

Paella is one of those dishes that is pretty easy to prepare, inexpensive and so delicious. Once you know the technique of how to make paella you can pretty much mix and match any kind of ingredients and proteins. Paella is also great if you have a bunch of leftovers in the fridge like sausage, pre-cooked chicken, frozen seafood medley, ribs, vegetables, etc.

Ingredients:	serves 2-4
~ 2 T	canola oil
2 pc	chicken breasts or leg and thigh
1 pc	pork sausage
1/2 pc	red pepper, 1/4 in julienne
1/2 pc	onion, small dice
1 cup	cup medium or long grain rice
3/4 cup	cup white wine
pinch	saffron
2+ cups	cups chicken stock, hot (best if home-made)
1 pc	carrot, small/medium dice
5-7	shrimp
5-7	mussels
1/3 cup	peas, frozen
to tast	kosher salt
to tast	black pepper
Tools:
1 pc	heavy-bottom/cast-iron pan
1 pc	sauce pan

Delicious Paella Crust.

Techique:
You don't need a Paella pan to make Paella, but it is important to have a heavy-bottom pan - preferably a cast iron pan that retains heat and gives you the delicious crust around the outside that a good Paella should have.

Also, because cast-iron pans have such great hear retention and distribution you can reduce the heat to medium or lower once the pan has heated up.

• Preheat the oven to 400F.
• Soak the saffron in a little bit of hot stock. Set aside.
• Heat chicken stock in sauce pan.
• Heat the oil in the pan and brown all protein (chicken, beef, pork, sausage etc.), except fish and other seafood, in this case the chicken pieces, seasoned with salt and pepper, on all sides. Remove. 
• Add sausage to pan and brown, breaking up sausage into smaller, bite-size pieces. Remove.
• Pour off excess fat.
• Add red peppers and carrots and cook until they start to brown. All onion and a little salt and sweat vegetables until the onions are parched (turning translucent). 
• Add rice and stir to coat with the fat in the pan for about 1 minute.
• Deglaze pan with white wine and scrape off all browned bits from the pan.
• Add saffron-chicken stock mixture. Stir.
• Add 2.5 cups hot chicken stock. Stir. Increase heat.
• Add cooked sausage. Stir.
• Season to taste with salt and a little black pepper.
• Press chicken pieces into rice.
• Cover pan with lid or aluminum foil and cook in the oven for about 25 minutes. Check after about 15 minutes to see if you need to add a little more stock.
• When rice is cooked add frozen peas, shrimp, and mussels. Cover and return to oven for another 10 minutes.

Serve hot and enjoy!