Love Paella inspired dishes? Check out my Chicken and Chorizo Paella. This is one of my very favorite recipes. It’s on regular rotation at my house. I’m a huge fan of paella, but like most people, I don’t always have time or budget to make traditional Paella that’s packed with expensive shellfish and takes hours to cook.
What is Paella
Paella is a flavorful rice dish originally from Valencia, Spain (although it’s also found in Portuguese cuisine). Traditionally, it takes about two hours to cook and consists of meat, sausage, seafood, and it’s flavored with spices and saffron.
Paella Made Easy
If you love Paella, you’ll love this easy take on the classic dish. It has all flavors traditional Paella has by using shrimp, Spanish Chorizo, and Safron in the rice. This one-pot dish is an easy weeknight supper that is going to knock your socks off! If you love Spanish inspired recipes, you’re going to love this dish!
Choosing Chorizo
For this dish, I use Spanish, Dried Chorizo which is a richly spiced, hard cured pork sausage (not to be confused with fresh, raw Mexican chorizo). It’s intensely flavored with spices like smoked paprika and garlic that comes in mild and hot varieties. If you can’t find it, you can use Mexican chorizo, but be sure to cook it thoroughly.
What Rice For Paella
Short grain, parboiled rice or Arroz Redonda rice work best for traditional paella. This recipe called for parboiled rice as it’s easiest to find. If you chose to use Arroz Redonda, keep in mind that cooking times and liquid ratios may need to be adjusted.
Seafood Variations
You can easily add Calamari rings, baby clams, scallops, or muscles to this dish. All cook quickly and they all bring different levels of flavor to the party! Update Notes: This recipe was orginally published in 2014, but was updated with new photos and tips in 2020. Erren’s Kitchen is written and produced for informational intentions only. We are not certified nutritionists, and the nutritional information found on this site has not been assessed or authorized by a nutritionist or the FDA. The nutritional information found in our recipes is offered as an estimate and should not be considered a guarantee or fact. The estimated data is provided as a courtesy and calculated through a third-party online nutritional calculator, spoonacular API. Although we do our best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered rough estimates. Many factors, such as brands or products purchased and the nutritional fluctuations that naturally occur in fresh produce, can alter the effectiveness of the nutritional information in any recipe. Furthermore, various online calculators provide different results depending on their particular algorithms and nutrition fact sources. To obtain the most precise nutritional information in a provided recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the exact ingredients you are using when preparing the recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.
