🥘 Paella Valenciana
Paella valenciana is the original paella of Valencia: saffron rice cooked in a wide pan with chicken, rabbit, flat green beans and snails, scented with a sprig of rosemary. It contains no seafood; its flavour comes from browned meat, vegetables and the crisp, toasted rice crust at the bottom of the pan. It is traditionally cooked outdoors over a wood fire and eaten for Sunday lunch.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 320 g short-grain rice (such as bomba)
- 400 g chicken, cut into pieces
- 400 g rabbit, cut into pieces
- 200 g flat green beans, cut
- 100 g cooked snails (optional, to tradition)
- 1 pinch saffron
- 1 sprig rosemary
- 1 tomato, grated
- 1.2 l water
- 4 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp sweet paprika, salt
Method
- Heat the oil in a paella pan and brown the chicken and rabbit with salt over medium heat for 15 minutes.
- Add the green beans and cook for 5 minutes, then the grated tomato and paprika for 2 minutes.
- Pour in the water with the saffron, add the snails and simmer for 20 minutes to make a broth in the pan.
- Scatter the rice evenly, lay the rosemary on top and cook for 18–20 minutes without stirring.
- Let the bottom toast for the last minute, remove the rosemary and rest for 5 minutes.
How to make it lighter
- Rabbit and skinless chicken are lean; trimming the chicken skin saves a good share of the fat.
- Use 2–3 tbsp oil instead of 4; each tbsp ≈ 120 kcal.
- Add extra green beans to make the portion larger with fewer calories.
History
Paella comes from the rice-growing area around the Albufera lagoon near Valencia, where farm workers cooked rice in a wide, shallow pan over an open fire; the word 'paella' is Valencian for that pan. The chicken, rabbit, bean and snail combination is regarded in Valencia as the traditional recipe, and Valencians often insist that other versions are simply 'rice with things'.
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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →