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This one-skillet dish is rich in seafood and spices.
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Cleaning and debearding mussels
Pull the stringy beards from the mussels before cooking. See tip below.
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Handling and storing bivalves (mussels, clams or oysters)
Keep your seafood safely stored and chilled, and cook within 24 hours of purchase. See tip below.
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Blanching foods
Blanching vegetables and fruits is a great way to prep foods for the next step in a recipe. See tip below.
SERVES 10–12
Use as much or as little of your favorite seafood as you desire in this dish.
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
3 pounds chicken pieces, bone-in or boneless
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup all-purpose flour (more if needed)
3 red bell peppers, seeded and chopped
3 medium yellow onions, peeled and chopped
5 garlic cloves, minced
3 cups prepackaged Spanish rice mix
3 tablespoons tomato paste
2 pinches saffron threads (ground turmeric may be substituted for color, but the taste will differ)
4 large tomatoes, peeled and diced
1 cup white wine
10 cherrystone or other clams
1 pound chorizo sausage, smoked, sliced ¼-inch thick
3 cups fish stock (or chicken stock)
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
10 shrimp, peeled and deveined
10 mussels, cleaned and debearded (see tips below)
1 pound seafood (choose baby lobster, scallops, snapper or crayfish)
2 cups frozen peas, thawed
10 crab legs, sauteed in butter and garlic (optional)
1 tomato, sliced in wedges (optional)
Red bell pepper strips, blanched (optional; see tips below)
Fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish (optional)
Whole black olives for garnish (optional)
Preheat oven to 450 F. In a paella pan or very large ovenproof skillet, add just enough olive oil to cover the bottom. Place it over medium-high heat. Season the chicken pieces and dredge in flour. When the oil is hot, add chicken and brown well. Transfer chicken to a platter and keep warm.
Add chopped bell peppers, onion and garlic to skillet, and saute over high heat for 1 minute. Add remaining oil and rice and cook, stirring to coat rice evenly with oil, until rice is slightly brown.
Stir in tomato paste, saffron, diced tomatoes and wine. Return chicken to the skillet, and add clams and sausage. Add stock and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil, then place skillet, uncovered, in the preheated oven. Bake for 20–30 minutes, adding shrimp, mussels and other fast-cooking seafood about 10 minutes before finished.
Rice should be cooked but still very firm. If additional cooking is needed (to fully cook the rice), add more stock and return to oven. When dish is done, remove from oven and stir in thawed peas. Garnish with sauteed crab legs, tomato wedges, red bell pepper strips, parsley and black olives.
Recipe tips
How to clean and debeard mussels: Scrub each mussel individually, trying to remove as much of the stringy bits clinging to outside as possible. Look at the crack where the two shells meet, and you'll see a little “tag” of what looks like threads of brown seaweed. This is the mussel’s beard. Pinch the beard between your thumb and first finger. Use a side-to-side pulling motion and firmly tug the beard out.
How to handle and store bivalves (mussels, clams or oysters): When you purchase bivalve seafood, make sure you prepare and eat it within 24 hours. While they are stored in the refrigerator, make sure the bivalves are not totally sealed in the plastic bag in which you brought them home. They need to breathe, because they are still alive. Place the bag in a bowl of ice, and roll down the sides of the bag.
When you are prepping them, if some of the shells are open, just tap them—they should close immediately. If they do not, discard those that do not close. After cooking, if there are any that did not open, discard those as well. Because you may lose a few in this process, you may want to purchase extras.
How to blanch foods: Blanching is the process of submerging vegetables and fruits in boiling water for a short time and then shocking them in an ice bath to stop the cooking process. Use this method to prep vegetables for freezing or peeling or as a “holding” stage for further processing. For example, if you want to peel fresh tomatoes, cut an X in skin on the bottom of the tomato. Blanch in a pot of boiling water for 30 seconds; remove and put in an ice bath. When the tomato cools, the skin will peel off easily, starting with where you made the X.