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Paella for twelve. Chicken and chorizo

A paella the size of a car wheel, cooked outside for twelve, in Manilva. Chicken browned hard, chorizo bleeding its red fat into the rice, saffron, a sofritto built the day before. This is not a weeknight pan of rice. This is the dish you make when people are coming and you want them to remember the afternoon.

First, forget everything the frozen-aisle 'paella' taught you. Real paella is about one thing: the rice, and what the rice drinks. Every step before the rice goes in exists to load that liquid with flavour, the seared chicken, the chorizo fat, the sofritto, the saffron, the wine. Get the stock right and the rice does the rest. Get it wrong and no garnish on earth will save you.

The secret is the sofritto, and you make it the day before, no shortcuts. Plum tomatoes, one small onion, eight cloves of garlic, cooked down slow in good oil until it is dark, jammy and reduced to almost nothing. That little pot of concentrated sweetness is the backbone of the whole pan. The paella spice I mixed myself at the market, but a good shop-bought blend does the job, nobody at the table will cross-examine you.

And then the rule that separates paella from risotto: once the stock is in and the rice is spread flat, you do not stir. Not once. You are building a socarrat, the toasted, caramelised crust on the bottom of the pan that every Spaniard fights over. You cook it hard, then low, you listen for the crackle, you trust your nose. When it is done, off the heat, a towel over the top, ten minutes. Then lemon, edible flowers, and you carry the whole pan to the table and let them see it before you serve.

Total time: 1 h 35 min
Serves: 12 people
Difficulty: 4 / 5
Pair with: The same dry white that went into the rice: a cold Sierra de Málaga blanco, organic if you can get it. Served outside, long table, afternoon light. Paella is not indoor food.

Ingredients

The meat
- 12 (≈2 kg)chicken drumsticks
- 1.5 kgorganic chicken breast, in chunks
- 1 kgchorizo sausage, sliced
Sofritto (made the day before)
- 1 kgplum (pera) tomatoes
- 1 smallonion
- 8garlic cloves
The base & rice
- 1 kgbomba rice
- 3 Lhot chicken stock (fresh)
- 1 tspsaffron
- 600 gred pepper, in strips
- to tastepaella seasoning (market blend or shop-bought)
- a good glugdry white wine (Sierra de Málaga, organic)
- to cookolive oil
Green & finish
- 1 kgmixed sugar snaps and lima beans
- to finishlemon wedges
- to finishedible flowers (marigolds)

Method

1
The day before: grate or finely chop the plum tomatoes. Soften the small onion and the 8 garlic cloves in olive oil, add the tomato and cook down slow for 40 to 45 minutes, until it is dark, jammy and reduced to almost nothing. Cool and keep overnight.
2
Heat the chicken stock until it is good and hot. Bloom the saffron in a ladle of that warm stock with a splash of the white wine, and leave it to steep.
Bloom the saffron: warm a ladle of the stock with a splash of the wine and steep the threads in it while you cook. You want the colour and perfume in the liquid, not sitting dry on the rice.
3
Set the big paella pan over the fire or a strong burner with a film of olive oil. Season and brown the 12 drumsticks and the chicken breast chunks hard on all sides. Lift the meat out and leave the fat behind.
4
In the same pan, render the sliced chorizo until it gives up its deep red, paprika fat.
Let the chorizo render properly before the rice goes in. That red, paprika-heavy fat it gives up is flavour you cannot buy in a jar. It stains the whole pan, and that is exactly the point.
5
Add the red pepper strips and fry a few minutes. Stir in the sofritto and the paella seasoning, and let it fry and darken for a minute.
6
Add the bomba rice and toast it in the sofritto and fat for 2 minutes, stirring to coat every grain. This is the last time you stir.
7
Pour in the hot saffron stock, three parts to one of rice, and a good glug of white wine. Spread the rice flat and even across the pan. From here on, do not stir.
heads up Once the stock hits the rice, put the spoon down and walk away. Stir paella and you are making risotto. No stirring, no peeking under the rice, no fiddling. The pan knows what it is doing.
8
Tuck the browned chicken back into the rice and scatter the sugar snaps and lima beans over the top. Cook hard for 8 to 10 minutes, then drop the heat and cook gently another 10 to 12 minutes, until the stock is absorbed.
9
Listen for the socarrat, the crackle of the rice catching at the bottom of the pan. When you hear it and the rice is just tender, kill the heat, cover the pan with a towel, and rest 10 minutes.
Everyone's scared of the socarrat and shouldn't be. That crackle near the end, that smell right on the edge of burnt, that IS the dish. Pull it too early and you miss the best part: the caramelised crust at the bottom of the pan.
10
Finish with lemon wedges and edible flowers, marigolds if you have them. Carry the whole pan to the table and serve straight from it, scraping up the crust from the bottom.

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