Paleoodie's Seafood Paella Mixta

I love paella for its simple, yet rich flavors.  For me, a great paella maintains the distinct flavor of each ingredient, and also blends these ingredients into a unique dish that is cohesive...and absolutely delicious.  The chicken & sausage taste meaty, the seafood fresh and light, and the tomatoes, garlic, herbs perfectly permeated in every bite.

The tricky part of this dish is that the protein is traditionally cooked alongside the rice, for almost 20-30 minutes.  Since I am using cauliflower, there is no need to cook it for such a long time and I don’t want the it get too soggy.  You’ll see in my recipe that the chicken will actually finish cooking in the oven.  This also means a lot less liquid should be used since the cauliflower won’t absorb it like rice would.  This causes a bit of a issue because there needs to be enough liquid to steam and cook the seafood.

After tinkering with some different combinations, here is my paleo version of a seafood paella mixta:

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time:  45 minutes
Serves: 4-6

Ingredients:
Protein
1 small whole chicken cut into pieces, or 6 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
2 Spanish Chorizo sausages, sliced (or any sausage you prefer)
½ lb raw shrimp, peeled and deveined (tail-on optional)
½ llb raw mussells in shells, washed and scrubbed
½ lb raw small clams
1/4 lb of raw calamari, cut into rings
1 cup of chicken broth or stock

Vegetables
1 small Spanish onion, chopped
1 small- med. sized cauliflower
1 large bell pepper (red, orange or yellow), sliced lengthwise
14 oz can of whole tomatoes, crushed by hand or roughly chopped.  Keep half of the juice from the can & reserve the other half for another use.

Spices/Herbs/Seasonings
1 Tbsp Spanish paprika
1 tsp. thyme
¼ tsp of Salt
½ tsp of freshly cracked black
1 tsp. hot pepper flakes (more if you desire)
½ tsp of saffron
2 tsp. tomato paste
1 bay leaf
4 garlic cloves, minced
Additional salt and pepper to season

Garnish
lemon wedges
parsley (about ¼ cup chopped)

Method:
1.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2.  Mix the Spanish paprika, thyme, salt and pepper together.
3.  Pat dry the chicken pieces and sprinkle all sides with the spice mixture liberally.  Set aside.




4.  Place cauliflower in a food processor and chop until pieces are to desired size.  I recommend about half the size of peanuts (if you can remember what they look like!).  It will help maintain some bite in the dish.  



5.  Heat a large pan with one Tbsp of coconut oil over med. high heat.  When the pan becomes hot, add the chicken pieces skin down.  Do not crowd the pan.  If necessary, do in two batches.



6.  Brown the chicken on all sides.  Remove onto prepared baking sheet and cook in the oven until cooked through, about 20 minutes.

7.  Lower the heat to medium and add sliced sausages.  Quickly cook sausages and set aside.
Discard excess oil if necessary.  Add chopped onions, garlic, and red pepper flakes.  Stir until the onions and garlic soften, 4-5 minutes.

8.  Add crushed saffron and stir into mixture for another 20 seconds.

9.  Add the tomatoes and tomato paste.  Gently scrape the pan to loosen up all the goodie bits of fond leftover from the chicken and sausage.

10.  Stir in 3 cups of cauliflower rice and coat with the pan mixture.

 


11.  Add chicken stock, bay leaf, shrimp, mussells, clams, and calamari.

12.  Cover and simmer on medium low heat and until shrimp is pink and shells have opened up, about 13-10 minutes  Discard any mussell or clam shells that do not open.

13.  Add sliced bell peppers (you can add it in step 12 if you prefer softer peppers instead of ‘al dente’).    

14.  Remove chicken from oven, and add to pan.

Sprinkle parsley, grind fresh black pepper all over, and serve with lemon wedges.



Variations:  I am all about being creative and making the dishes your own.  The key is to know what flavors you like, and how flavors work together.

Extra spice- add 1 more tsp of red pepper flakes to step 8 and/or, add 1 tsp of cayenne pepper to the chicken spice mixture.

Replace some of the seafood with some meaty fish, like salmon or halibut.

Prefer more shrimp?  Then add ½ lb more shrimp and remove the clams, or vice versa.

Season to taste- add salt, pepper, lemon juice and lemon zest to adjust the flavors.

Notes:
I’m still perfecting this recipe so please feel free to give any suggestions.  I would like to find a way to crisp up the cauliflower on the bottom of the pan (like in traditional paella dishes when the rice creates a toasty layer on the bottom of the pan, called soccarat in Spain).  I’m not sure if that’s possible with cauliflower, but if you know how to create this, let me know!