Weeknight Paella with Chicken, Chorizo, Artichoke Hearts and Confit Garlic Aioli
This Paella for 2 is quick enough for a weeknight, but treat enough to make it a date night.
Serves 2
Sofrito
2 shallots
4 iarred Piquillo peppers
2 dried Ñora peppers
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp tomato paste
Paella
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 inch Spanish chorizo
2 skin-on bone-in chicken thighs
2 marinated artichoke hearts, cut into quarters
1/2 cup Bomba rice
1 1/2 cup chicken stock
4-6 saffron threads
1/4 cup frozen peas
2-3 Jarred Piquillo peppers
Poultry Rub
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp Pimenton (smoked paprika)
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cayenne
Confit Garlic Aioli
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 egg yolk
1/4 tsp salt
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
TL;DR
Season chicken with rub and marinate atleast 1 hour
Bring broth to a boil with saffron threads
Prep mise en place; soak Ñora peppers in hot water for 10 minutes, then mince. Mince shallot and 4 of the Piquillo peppers. Slice chorizo into thin slices. Slice remaining 2 piquillo peppers into 1/8 in rings.
In a 9 inch paella pan sauté the minced peppers, and shallots in the olive oil for about 8 minutes until quite soft. Add the tomato paste and continue to sauté for another 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, wipe loose seasoning off the chicken. Sear in a castiron pan until skin is crispy. Set aside.
In same castiron, sear artichoke hearts until browned. Set aside.
Add Chorizo to the sofrito in the Paella pan and cook until crispy.
Add Bomba rice and sauté until translucent.
Measure out and add chicken broth. stir once to combine. Cook on medium high for 10 minutes, until you see the rice just poking through the top of the broth.
Nestle in chicken and artichoke hearts and reduce heat to low.
Cook for 15 minutes until you can barely hear bubbling from the rice. Add peas and peppers on top of rice.
Cook for another 5 minutes until there is no more sound from the rice.
Make the aioli: Confit 2 of the garlic cloves in olive oil. Strain. Mortar and pestle 2 confit cloves garlic and 1 raw clove garlic with salt, until pastey. Add egg yolk. Stream in olive oil, stirring with pestle continuously. Add lemon juice. Stir.
Serve.
The Deets
This Paella is very loosely based on a Valencian Paella, which is the most traditional type of Paella, albeit not the most well known. A traditional Valencian Paella is made with Rabbit, Snails and Green Beans; all ingredients I LOVE but also (other than the beans) ingredients that are a bit hard to find or expensive. So in comes my super easy riff, which can come together in about 45 minutes and is made entirely from common and/or shelf stable ingredients that you can keep on hand.
The very first step is to get your chicken marinating in the rub. Do this anywhere between 1 day and 1 hour before you want to cook. . This is a pretty standard rub situation, with the addition of some lovely warning spices. Mix all the ingredients (1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp Pimenton (smoked paprika), 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp onion powder , 1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp cinnamon , 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp cayenne) and rub evenly over the chicken. Refrigerate until 30 minutes before cooking. About 30 minutes before you intend to cook pull that chicken out of the fridge and let it come to room temp on the counter.
The next step I take here is to prep the Mise en place. This starts with soaking the 2 dried Ñora peppers in water for around 10 -20 minutes. These are one of the more specialized ingredients in this recipe, but they are totally shelf stable and can last in your cupboard pretty much indefinitely. You can buy these (and almost any Spanish ingredients you can’t find, including the paella pan itself) from your local Spanish food store or The Spanish Table.
Once the Ñoras are soaked and pliable, de-seed them and mince them relatively finely. These peppers are not super hot so you should be ok without gloves. Next step also mice 4 of the jarred Piquillo peppers and the 1 shallot. You will eventually want to slice the remaining 2 Piquillo peppers into 1/8in rings. You can do this now, but you wont actually need them until shortly before you serve.
Now lets talk Sofrito. Sofrito exists in a lot Latin American cuisines, as well as in Spain, and the ingredients vary somewhat between them. But in this case we are using shallots , jarred Piquillo peppers, dried Ñora peppers, and tomato paste. Using the jarred/dried peppers instead of fresh bell peppers not only adds a bit deeper flavor, but also speeds up the process of creating this super flavorful paste since the peppers are already somewhat broken down when we start. Using tomato paste here instead of fresh tomato also helps to get us to that super rich paste more quickly.
To make the Sofrito just take your diced Piquillos, Ñoras and shallots and sautee them in the Paella pan (in 2 tbsp olive oil) for around 8 minutes on medium heat, , until softened, but not super browned. Then add the 2 tbsp tomato paste and continue to sauté for another 5 or so minutes until a very deep brick red.
Now, I hate to tell you to multitask, but multitasking is the key to weeknight meals. So go to it! **Meanwhile** pull out your side cast iron pan and heat it and 1 tbsp olive oil over medium. Turn to your chicken thighs (that you pulled out of the fridge where they were marinating 30 minutes ago… right??) and brush off the majority of the loose spices. Sear them in said castiron until the skin is super crispy and deeply browned. Then pull them off and set them aside. Next, in that same castiron, sear off the artichoke hearts until they are also pretty caramelized on both sides.
One more **meanwhile** for you. Take your 1 1/2 cup chicken stock and bring it to a boil with 4-6 saffron threads depending on how baller you are feeling on this particular night. Keep it at a covered simmer until you are ready for it.
Now back to your Paella pan. Once the sofrito is done, slice your 4 inches of Spanish chorizo into pretty thin slices and add them to the pan. sauté them around until they are crispy and beautiful red grease is rendering out of them.
A quick note on Chorizo, Here we want Spanish chorizo. This is a salami type, hard cured chorizo, usually bought as links of varying lengths. It is precooked, generally sold amongst the salami, and can be eaten right out of the package. This is not the same thing as Mexican chorizo which is generally sold raw from the butchers case and meant to be cooked like a loose sausage meat. Also to note, chorizo is not traditional for Valencian Paella, but I personally really love it and always have a link of it in my fridge, so I added it here. Forgive me. :)
Next we must contend with the rice. I really would get Bomba rice if you can (you can order it from The Spanish Table). It is a Spanish type short grain rice, and it absorbs water a bit differently than other short grain rices, so in a pinch you can use a regular short grain rice, but the ratios here are developed for Bomba specifically. Also to note, these rations are specifically for making a 2 person Paella in a 9 inch pan. The exact rice to water ratio is super important for paella success and unfortunately, as the pan size increases all sorts of funny math things happen, So I cannot guarantee success if you are doubling this in a bigger pan. But super loosely, probably a 1/4 cup of rice per person and a 1 part rice to 3 cups water ratio will work… but don’t quote me on it. I will try to test this later.
So toss that rice into your paella pan and sauté it around with the sofrito and yum chorizo fat for 1-2 minutes, until translucent. Then re-measure out 1 1/2 cups of your simmering stock and add it to the Paella pan. If you are short just add a smidge of water, its ok. At this point the water should comu up way over the top of the rice, but not overflow the pan. Give it 1 quick stir. Then bring that stock up to a boil over medium high heat and let it boil for around 10 minutes or until you start to see the rice poking through the top of the liquid. At this point you can nestle your sweet chicken thighs into the rice, along with the artichoke hearts. I like to make a lovely starburst pattern between the thighs, but you do you.
This is the part where we get all “cook by feel” “I can’t really tell you how long” etc. Turn the heat down to low and let it simmer until you can hear hardly any bubbling/sizzling sound coming from the rice. You shou.ld hear just a very soft tzzzzzz at this point. when you feel like you are there, arrange the 1/4 cup frozen peas and 2 Piquillo peppers you sliced into rings lovingly on top of the rice. DO NOT STIR IT. This is the point where you can scoop just a couple grins of rice off the top and nibble them to see where you are. they should seem cooked, but maybe slightly al dente.
One more **meanwhile** for you. While you are letting that simmer - make the aioli. In a small saucepan combine 2 of the garlic cloves with 1/4 cup olive oil and simmer on low for 5-7 minutes. Strain off the olive oil and reserve it for later. Use a small mortar and peste (or a food processor if you feel like it) to turn the confit cloves garlic and 1 raw clove garlic into smooth paste. Add the egg yolk and stir. Then stream the reserved garlic-y olive oil in, stirring with pestle (or processor) continuously until it starts to emulsify into ta thick mayonnaise textured cream. Then add the lemon juice to thin it out to your desired texture, stir it in and it is done!
So you have been continuing to let the Paella cook and you should be listening for there to be NO SOUND coming from the pan. (like none. actually NO SOUND) And then it is done and hopefully will have the socarrat (crispy rice on the bottom). Now pull it off and serve! If there is socarrat you won. You won it all. Take a pic and tag us.
