Paella Valenciana

I first tried this classic Spanish dish while I was travelling for work in Vegas. Yes those were the good days when we were allowed to travel for work. Now everything has a budget, including my wardrobe!

I cannot recall the name of the restaurant, other than it was in one of those big name hotels on the strip. They brought this amazing dish to my table still in the Paella pan, and served it table side. The presentation was spell bounding, the smell of this Paella was invigorating to say the least.

The server, scraped up a little of the bottom of the paella and a little of the top, ensuring each person got a little of that delicious crusty bottom. This is what is so special about Paellas. Its the brown bits formed at the bottom of the pan, by not stirring it at all after adding the rice to it.

I know NOT stirring a dish is hard for some of you to do, like my brother, he has this unhealthy habit of always wanting to stir my pot or flipping my BBQ wings every minute on the grill!

Resist the urge to stir. In a true Paella Valenciana, it is a combination of rabbit and chicken, I omitted the rabbit because someone has an affinity to wild rabbits that is named George for each one of them.

So out of respect for George and Peaches (my little cousins pet rabbit) I decided to forgo that part of it. If you follow me on Instagram, you would see a picture of Peaches, who eats a lot of fresh herbs, and i secretly think she would be one tasty bunny because of all the fresh herbs she eats.

I have tested this paella, two times already, it is important that your pan is really hot, the chicken has to caramel. The veggies also has to brown. The flavors of this dish depends on that.

And once again…DO NOT STIR!

Check out the video below, head on over to my YouTube Channel and subscribe or give the  video a thumbs up.

You can find the Paella Valenciana recipe here.