Paella Valenciana
Paella Valenciana and its seafood variation are authentic Valencian recipes that originated in their modern form in the early 1800s in Spain's Valencian region near lake Albufera. Prior to the 19th century the ingredients for Valencian paella varied greatly with the most unusual being marsh rat. Valencians consider only Valencian paella and seafood paella as true paellas. They view all other variations as impostors.…
Ingredients
- 500 g (17.5 ounces) chicken
- 500 g (17.5 ounces) rabbit or duck
- 20 g (0.75 ounce) salt
- 8 tablespoons olive oil
- 250 g (10 ounces) chopped green bell peppers (optional)
- 1 clove garlic (optional)
- 1 tablespoon sweet paprika
- 500 g (17.5 ounces) diced or grated tomatoes
- 2 liters (2 quarts) water (preferably hard water)
- 24 boiled snails (optional)
- 125 g (4.5 ounces) large haricot beans (canned or fresh)
- 100 g (3.5 ounces) small haricot beans (canned or fresh)
- 125 g (4.5 ounces) fresh runner beans or green beans
- 8–10 threads of saffron and/or 1½ teaspoons yellow food coloring (see notes)
- 400 g (14 ounces) calasparra rice, bomba rice, or pearl rice
- 6–8 branches of fresh rosemary
Steps
- Clean snails, poultry and rabbit thoroughly. Cut poultry and rabbit into small pieces. Salt generously.
- Heat olive oil in paellera. Sauté poultry and rabbit until golden brown.
- Add green peppers. Sauté 1 minute. Add garlic. Sauté until brown; garlic burns easily.
- Add paprika, then quickly tomatoes to prevent paprika burning. Sauté until tomatoes are dark and pulpy and mixture has reduced.
- Add water. Bring to rolling boil. Add snails, fresh haricot beans (add canned ones later), runner beans and saffron (and/or food coloring). Boil 10 minutes over high flame. Sweep rosemary branch through broth no longer than 30 seconds. Remove it.
- Taste broth. Add more salt, a pinch at a time, if needed.
- Add rice. Stir with rice skimmer. Spread rice over bottom of paellera, 1 cm thick. Cook over high flame 10 minutes.
- Reduce heat to medium. Simmer 4 minutes. Add canned haricot beans. Reduce to low. Simmer 4 more minutes. Taste rice frequently; done when slightly firm to the bite.
- Toasted rice (socarrat) should stick to bottom. If not, increase flame to high until rice crackles.
- Remove from heat when rice is almost dry. Place unused rosemary branches on top. Cover with clean white towel. Rest 5 minutes before serving.
Notes from the original
- Throughout history, saffron has been the natural ingredient used in Spain to color rice yellow. However, it's very expensive 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. Cooks and chefs in Spain (and throughout Latin America) solve this problem by using yellow food coloring, sometimes mixed with seasoning, which is much more affordable.
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Paella Valenciana” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2025-09-30, 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. 01 Paella Valenciana original.jpg by Jan Harenburg, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia. Resized; otherwise unchanged.