Paella is a favorite dish of mine both to eat and to cook. It seems complicated but it's really not.
First, assemble the ingredients:
Chicken: (~1 piece per person) Use thighs or separated legs and thighs.
Sausage: preferably linguiça, but a fresh chorizo will do nicely. Slice it into discs.
Littleneck clams. (~6 per person)
Good sized shrimp. (~3 per person) Tail on, shelled and cleaned.
Arborio or valencia rice. (1 or 1.5 cups depending on the size of your pan and the size of your crowd)
Tomato paste. (1 tablespoon)
Hot smoked paprika. (1 tablespoon)
Saffron. (a generous pinch)
Garlic, crushed. (1-2 tablespoons to taste)
Clam juice. (one bottle)
Chicken stock. (a quart)
Frozen green peas. (about 1/4 of the bag)
Sliced pimentos.
Lemon for garnish.
Get your grill ready to cook over direct heat: if you're doing this on a gas grill you're missing out on a bunch of flavor--so use charcoal. It will need to be hot for about half an hour. You need a paella pan: they're thin stainless steel, with low sides and handles. You can go out and pay a whole bunch of money or go to Williams Sonoma and pay $25 to $35. These are great pans. A paella cooked in the small pan (13 inches or so) will feed four easily.
Once your grill is hot, put the pan on the center of the grill and add a tablespoon or so of olive oil. Lightly salt and pepper your chicken and once the oil is shimmering in the pan add the chicken skin side down. Brown the chicken on both sides and remove from the pan. Add the slices of sausage and let it crisp on the edges. Add the rice and stir it around in the fat in the pan. Once the rice has a shine to it, add the tomato paste, paprika, saffron and garlic, stir well. Add the clam juice and let it come to a boil to deglaze the pan a bit. Begin pouring in the chicken stock, just enough at a time to keep the rice covered. Now you can start putting the chicken back into the pan.
So this is important: unlike when you're making risotto, you're not going to stir this rice dish. Once you start adding the stock, resist the urge to stir it. You're trying to create a crust on the bottom called la soccarat.
After you've added the second batch of stock, turn the chicken and start adding the seafood. Add the clams first: just push them right down into the rice and stock. Wait about five minutes, then start putting the shrimp into the rice, too.
Add stock as necessary. Once the rice has absorbed all the stock--all of it or la soccarat won't form--all the clams have opened, and the shrimp are done you're finished.
Pull the pan off the fire and place some pimento and lemon slices over the top. Serve directly from the pan at the table if you can. Don't forget to provide your guests with shell bowls.
This dish is friendly with a range of wines. A rioja or tinta pinheira will hold up well. I particularly like to serve it with a dry rosé.
