Recipe: Paella on the Grill

Mr. MVP and I have made a seafood paella before and now we’ve got a great version with chicken and chorizo. Biggest way this differs from most recipes is that we use tomatoes instead of peppers.

1 pound of chicken thighs and legs

2 links of chorizo sausage

6 cups chicken stock (or vegetable stock, or combination of chicken and vegetable stock)

1/4 cup olive oil

1 onion, chopped

10 garlic cloves,  5 of them chopped, 5 left whole

3 cups cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes (or both)

1 chili pepper, chopped without the seeds

3 cups Spanish rice

1 tsp. saffron threads

1 tsp. sweet paprika powder

1 tsp. smoked paprika powder

1 tsp. salt

3 lemons, cut into wedges

Parsley

Seafood: optional (we like a dozen clams and mussels)

Salt chicken and cut chorizo into 1-inch pieces, then set aside meat before lighting the wood-fired grill. Heat the olive oil in the paella pan over the grill and brown the chicken and chorizo. Remove meat from the pan and set aside. Add the onion, chili pepper, and garlic to the pan and stir gently, letting them soften and lightly brown. Add the rice and stir it in the pan as the color changes slightly, cooking for 4-7 minutes. (Note: no more stirring from this point on.) Add the stock and spices and let it simmer until it looks like more than half the stock has been absorbed. Add the tomatoes and half the lemon wedges and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the meat and cook for another 5 minutes with the top down, to pick up smoke flavor from the grill. (If you’re adding clams and/or mussels, add them now and let them steam open.) Serve with the remaining lemon wedges and parsley sprinkled on top.