Paella Roja

Paella is a Spanish rice dish that derives its name from the utensil used to prepare it, a paellera—a flat round pan with two handles. Paella roja is a classic version of mixed paella in Spain (not including the Valencian region). Paella aficionados refer to it as mixed because it combines meat from land animals with seafood. The recipe below is based on the one displayed on Spain-recipes.com but with more…
Ingredients
Broth
- 225 grams (½ pound) chicken wings
- 225 grams (½ pound) of any of the following: frozen seafood mix, fish heads, whole crabs, shrimp heads, smelts
- 1 medium onion
- 1 green bell pepper
- 3 garlic cloves
- 3.8 liters (1 gallon) Water
- 2 bay leaves
Paella
- Olive oil
- 1½–2 red bell peppers, cut into strips
- Salt to taste
- 340 grams (12 ounces) boneless chicken breast or tenderloins
- 6 large garlic cloves, minced
- 225 grams (8 ounces) onion, diced
- 450 grams (1 pound) red bell pepper, diced
- 450 grams (1 pound) tomatoes, diced
- 1 tablespoon sweet paprika
- 225 grams (6 ounces) canned beans (e.g. chickpeas, butter beans, great northern beans, lima beans; optional), thoroughly rinsed and strained
- 720 milliliters (2½ cups) Valencian rice
- 1½ tablespoons food coloring for yellow rice (see notes)
- 340 grams (12 ounces) squid mantles, diced or cut into rings, shrimp
- 340 grams (12 ounces) scallops
- 24 live mussels, cleaned with beards removed
Steps
Broth
- Bring about 1 inch of water to slow boil in pan. Add mussels. Cover. Wait about 2 minutes.
- Remove open mussels. Check for open mussels about every minute. Discard those that will not open. Save the water.
- Twist off and discard empty half shells. Refrigerate half shells with meat until used on paella.
- Quarter onion and bell pepper. Put in large pot with remaining broth ingredients and mussel water.
- Boil down to about ½ gallon of broth. Occasionally press ingredients against pot bottom with potato masher.
- Strain broth. Set aside. Discard boiled seafood and chicken wings, or eat them separately; do not add to paella.
- Taste broth for strong seafood flavor and moderate chicken flavor.
Paella
- Cut red bell pepper into strips.
- Pour pool of oil in center of paellera, about 2 inches from edge on all sides. Heat over high flame.
- Cook pepper strips just until scorched. Remove. Set aside.
- Add ½ tablespoon salt to chicken. Sauté until golden brown.
- Add garlic. Sauté until brown, without burning, 1 minute to 90 seconds.
- Add tomatoes, paprika, onions and diced peppers. Sauté until vegetables are tender, making sofrito.
- Add 960 milliliters (4 cups) broth, food coloring and another ½ tablespoon salt. Mix well.
- Bring to rolling boil. Lower heat. Simmer about 2 minutes.
- Taste broth; it should be very lightly salted.
- Add rice. Mix well. Bring to rolling boil again. Reduce to moderate simmer. Mix frequently to prevent burning.
- After about 20 minutes simmering, start tasting rice and reduce heat a bit. Do not let rice get too soft. Taste every 10 minutes, reducing heat slightly each time, until center is slightly underdone. This takes 30 minutes to 1 hour.
- Add seafood (except mussels) and beans. Cover all with rice. Simmer 10 more minutes without mixing. Done when rice is slightly firm (al dente), paella is a little moist but not soupy, and toasted rice is on the bottom.
- Remove paellera from heat. Cover with clean white towel. Rest 5 minutes.
- Remove towel. Place mussels around edge, round edges down, pushing into rice. If mussels are very cold, microwave no more than 30 seconds.
- Arrange pepper strips on top like spokes of a wheel. Serve.
Notes from the original
- This recipe calls for live mussels. Please read these safety guidelines for buying, eating and cooking live bivalves (mussels and clams).
- Never use stewed beans.
- Throughout history, saffron has been the natural ingredient used in Spain to color rice yellow. However, it's very expensive (a pound costs over US$1,500) because it's labor intensive to process and each saffron crocus yields a minuscule amount of saffron. Consequently, supermarkets sell only a few grams per container for three or four US dollars. The best solution to this problem is to use commercially manufactured food coloring containing both natural and artificial ingredients (but usually no saffron). The two most popular US brands are Bijol and Badia. These companies sell containers each holding several ounces of coloring for less than five US dollars.
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Paella Roja” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2026-04-12, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photo. Red paella with mussels.jpg by RecoveryMinded, Public domain, via Wikimedia. Resized; otherwise unchanged.






