Recipe courtesy of Ellen Barnes
"Ayuh" Seafood Paella
- Level: Advanced
- Yield: 30 servings
- Total: 50 min
- Prep: 20 min
- Cook: 30 min
Ingredients
One 4-pound package boneless chicken breasts, cut into 2-inch pieces
8 tablespoons paprika
6 tablespoons olive oil, plus 10 tablespoons
5 tablespoons kosher salt
Five 1 1/2-pound lobsters
4 pounds chorizo, cut into chunks
1 heaping cup chopped onion
1 heaping cup minced fresh garlic
4 pounds shrimp, heads off and shells on
5 pounds Maine scallops
3 cups fresh peas
6 dozen Maine mussels
3 green peppers, seeded and cut into strips
2 red peppers, seeded and cut into strips
3 cups seeded, chopped tomatoes
4 quarts broth, from the cooking of the lobsters
6 cups long grain rice
1 1/2 cups brandy
2 teaspoons saffron, ground into a powder with mortar and pestle
Freshly ground black pepper
3 lemons
Directions
- About 2 hours before cooking, prepare all ingredients. Cut up the chicken breasts and put in a resealable plastic bag with paprika, 6 tablespoons olive oil, and kosher salt. Seal the bag and shake to be sure all of the chicken is well coated.
- Cook the lobsters, one at a time, in a very large pot in 8 quarts of boiling, salted water for 10 minutes each. Remove the lobsters and reserve 4 quarts of the cooking liquid. Shell the lobsters. Keep the small claws whole, if you can, and cut the rest into large pieces. Return the bodies to the 5 quarts water and continue gently simmering for the broth.
- In a large, shallow baking pan on a hot stove, add the remaining 10 tablespoons of the olive oil. Saute the chicken in the olive oil until brown. Add the chorizo and cook for 5 minutes. Add the onion and garlic and cook for several minutes longer. Add the shrimp and scallops and cook for 10 minutes. Add the peas, mussels, red and green peppers, tomatoes, and 6 cups of the reserved lobster broth. Add lobster meat and sprinkle the rice evenly overall.
- In a small bowl, mix together the brandy and the ground saffron. Add 6 more cups of broth and brandy mixed with saffron. Cover pan and cook for 10 to 15 minutes until rice is al dente and all water is absorbed. If you need more broth, add to it. Season with freshly ground black pepper to taste. Before serving squeeze lemon over all.
- Arrange on platter artfully, with mussels around the sides and shrimp poking out.