Valencian-Inspired Paella
Serves 6 Time 5 hours Difficulty 4/5 Ingredients 16 Steps 36
This is not a traditional Spanish paella recipe, however it is inspired by paella valenciana because it includes chicken, rabbit, duck and beans (the major ingredients of that dish).
Ingredients
- 500 g (1 pound) boneless, skinless chicken, diced
- 1 large whole rabbit (or additional pound of chicken breast as a substitute)
- 1 large whole duck
- Salt to taste
- 8 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 large red bell peppers, one cut into strips and the remaining diced
- 1 large green bell pepper, quartered
- 1 large onion, quartered
- 28 g (1 ounce) garlic
- 1 tablespoon sweet paprika
- 500 g (1 pound) diced or grated tomatoes
- 500 g (1 pound) canned cannellini beans in water, thoroughly rinsed
- 8–10 threads of saffron and/or 1.5 teaspoons yellow food coloring
- 3 cups short-grain white rice (also called Valencian rice or pearl rice)
- 3–4 branches of fresh rosemary
- 1–2 fresh artichokes (optional)
Steps
Broth
- Defrost duck if necessary.
- Remove organs and orange sauce packet. Set aside.
- Cut off tail. Trim off neck skin. Set aside.
- Quarter duck.
- Place quartered duck, spine, neck skin and tail in pot with frozen rabbit, onion and green bell pepper.
- Fill pot nearly to top with water. Boil at moderate boil about 1 hour.
- Remove rabbit and quartered duck; leave neck, tail and spine in water. Cool. All meat should be cooked.
- Remove skin from duck meat. Return skin to pot.
- Remove meat from rabbit and duck. Set aside.
- Return duck bones, duck skin and rabbit bones to boiling water.
- Boil until water reduces to half.
- Discard bones and skin. Strain broth.
- Add saffron and/or food coloring. Simmer 2–3 minutes until broth turns orange/yellow.
Artichoke
- Cut off stems. Rinse artichokes thoroughly.
- Boil stems and artichokes about 20 minutes.
- Remove from pot. Run under cold water until cool.
- Cut leaves from hearts. Scoop out spiny threads. Keep hearts and stems for paella.
Paella
- Heat olive oil in paellera over high heat until it shimmers.
- Sear pepper strips. Remove from pan.
- Add chicken breast and 1 tablespoon salt. Cook chicken about halfway.
- Add duck and rabbit. Sauté until golden brown.
- Add diced peppers. Sauté 1 minute.
- Make space in center of pan. Add garlic. Sauté until brown; garlic burns easily.
- Add tomatoes in same space. Cook about 1 minute. Mix thoroughly.
- Add paprika. Mix thoroughly.
- Add rice. Stir until coated.
- Pat mixture level. Add broth to almost top of paellera.
- Add rosemary branches, artichoke hearts and stems.
- Reduce heat to low. Simmer 10 minutes.
- Taste broth. Add more salt if needed. Mix gently to prevent spilling.
- Remove rosemary. Continue cooking. Do NOT stir, so toasted rice develops on bottom.
- Taste rice in various places every four to five minutes. Done when soft but not pasty.
- Replace bell pepper strips in circular pattern.
- Remove from heat. Cover pan with white dish towel.
- Rest 5–10 minutes.
- Serve hot, with toasted but not burned rice on bottom.
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Valencian-Inspired Paella” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2025-08-28, 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. A Valencian paella with red bell peppers.jpg by Moby-Dick4000, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia. Resized; otherwise unchanged.