Shrimp Paella

This Shrimp Paella recipe is full of all the classic Spanish flavors and is all cooked in one pan.

Paella is a classic Spanish rice dish with origins in Valencia, Spain. The word paella refers to the pan. Early versions of this dish did not include seafood, but ingredients that farmers had easy access to like rabbit, chicken, and even snails. 

My recipe is not a strictly traditional paella recipe. In fact, you can find online that paella traditionally doesn’t contain seafood, chorizo, OR peas. However, I’m not entirely sure about this now since when I was recently in Barcelona, the paella definitely had seafood and chorizo. No peas though. Regardless, in North America, when we think of paella, we definitely think of seafood, chorizo, and yes, often of peas. So this version is a nod to that general idea.

Do I Need A Special Paella Pan?

If you’ve seen this dish prepared in a restaurant, you’ve likely seen a special paella pan which has a wide, flat base and shallow sides to allow the rice to get lots of contact with the heat.

The traditional method of making paella involves not stirring the rice much so that it can start to brown and crisp up on the bottom forming a layer called socarrat. Whether or not you manage to get this layer will mostly depend on the type of pan that you use. 

So, it’s a little bit tricky. If you use a metal pan like an aluminum pan, then you will be more likely to get socarrat. However, it will be a bit tough to get it off of the pan because it sticks. If you instead use a non-stick pan, you will be less likely to get that crisped layer, but you will also have an easier time cleaning up. 

I will tell you that my choice here is to use the non-stick pan and not worry about the crispy layer. The clean-up is easier and so it’s the trade-off that I prefer. You can go either route, non-stick or heavy metal (like aluminum or cast iron), just make sure it’s a fairly large skillet.

Ingredients

We start building flavor in this dish with onion, bell pepper, and garlic. Then Spanish-style chorizo gets added. This is a dry, cured sausage that is often sold in shelf-stable packaging.

Next is a can of diced tomatoes and seasoning. We use smoked paprika, saffron, salt, and pepper. 

Of course, the rice is also super important. Bomba rice (also called Valencia rice) is a short-grained rice from Spain that is traditionally used in paella. It is of such a short grain that it’s almost round. It is known for its ability to absorb more liquid than normal rice, and thus doesn’t stick together. If your store doesn’t have it, you can get it online. Or, you can use Arborio rice, which is the rice used in risotto, and the next best rice choice.

The other ingredients I use in this recipe are chicken broth, frozen peas, and shrimp. I prefer a lower-sodium broth so that I can decide how much salt I’m adding. As to the peas, you’ll thaw them before adding them to the mixture. And note, you can use canned, drained peas instead but I find them to be a bit mushier.

Now, let’s talk about those shrimp! You want nice large shrimp. I use a 31 to 36 count, which are numbers often found on the shrimp packaging and refers to the number of shrimp per pound. Anything labeled “large” will be great, and anything labelled medium will also be a good choice.

You want shrimp that have been peeled and deveined. I go back-and-forth though about whether I prefer the tails on or off. You see, shrimp with their tails on look really pretty and make a great presentation for one-pan rice dishes like paella (and like my Italian Shrimp and Rice Skillet over here). However, those tails make the shrimp messy to eat. You have to pick each warm, saucy shrimp up with your fingers to remove the tail. I therefore typically choose shrimp without tails for this, but if the ones with tails are on sale, I get those instead. I will say though, that when shrimp are not being cooked in anything saucy (like shrimp for shrimp cocktail or when they’re bacon-wrapped or even when fried), then that tail makes a great handle. So sometimes if the tail-on shrimp are on sale, I buy them frozen and keep them for those purposes, choosing the ones without tails for the paella.

Can I Add Chicken?

This is a shrimp paella so I haven’t included chicken. But I do often make this dish with chicken as well!

To do so, cut a pound of raw boneless skinless chicken (that’s about 3-4 boneless skinless chicken thighs or 2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts) into 2-inch chunks. I really prefer thighs in this dish – they’re so juicy. Then, when you add the rice, also add the raw chicken and stir it in. Continue with the recipe as written, still waiting to add the shrimp when instructed. The shrimp is thus added later than the chicken because it takes less time to cook. But don’t worry, both the chicken and the shrimp will cook perfectly in the time given in the recipe.

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