Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups of Bomba Rice
- Frozen garden peas
- 4 Chicken Thighs
- 1 Fennel bulb
- 6 cloves Garlic
- Lemon
- 3 Shallots
- 1 Tin of Tomatoes
- Paprika and Saffron
- Spanish extra virgin olive oil
- Rock Fish
- 4 King Prawns
- Mussels
- Clams
Fish Stock:
Fillet and skin your fish and retain the head and skeleton. Bring a large pan of water to the boil and drop in the head and skeleton of the rock fish. Remove the heads from three of the King Prawns and add to the pan together with the tops of a bulb of fennel. Add a tablespoon of black peppercorns and boil for around 20 minutes to create your fish stock.
Mise en place:
Prepare your ingredients – Trim off your chicken thighs but leave on the skin as you will be browning this off. Dice up the fish fillets into good sized chunks. Finely dice a fennel bulb. Halve and then slice three shallots.
Paella:
Cover the base of your Paella pan with Spanish Extra Virgin Olive Oil then add the diced fennel and shallots to soften. Chop six cloves of garlic and sprinkle with sea salt before grinding together to form a paste and adding to the pan.
Check your fish stock and add a pinch of Saffron (not essential but adds so much flavour).
When the base ingredients have softened turn down the heat and add the Bomba rice, stir to make sure every grain is coated with oil.
In a second pan add oil and brown off the chicken thighs. Place the thighs skin down in the pan and season with a pinch of salt and pepper before sprinkling with a pinch of paprika.
Remove the stock pan from the heat after 20 minutes. Turn the chicken over to ensure both sides are browned.
Bring the paella pan back up to heat and add three pinches of paprika, stir well before slowly adding the stock a ladle at a time. Nestle your chicken thighs in the paella dish and add a cup of garden peas. After a few minutes start to add the chunks of rock fish to pan. Top up with fish stock as required. Spoon in a tin of high quality chopped tomatoes, Mike uses Italian tomatoes in this recipe, but you can also use Spanish. Add a few strands of saffron and drizzle over with olive oil.
Place the king prawns into the pan and it adds the wow factor if you place an entire prawn head up in the centre. Dot the remaining space with mussels and clams and add a sprinkling of paprika. Place into a Traeger for 10 – 15 minutes at 320°F until all the juices have absorbed and the clams and mussels have opened.
Remove from the Traeger and sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt, a squeeze of lemon juice and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. To finish finely chop some parsley, lemon zest and garlic together and sprinkle over the top. A final sprinkling of Paprika and you are ready to serve!