1 ½ cups (300 g) white rice, uncooked
⅔ lb (300 g) chicken thigh, cut into 1” pieces
Spice Rub
1 teaspoon ground paprika
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 clove garlic, grated
7 shrimp, shell-on, peeled and deveined
8–10 mussels, scrubbed and debearded
½ teaspoon saffron threads
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 whole squid, cleaned–body cut into ¼” rings and tentacles cut into small clusters
1 oz (30 g) prosciutto or Spanish chorizo
¾ medium onion, finely chopped
1 ½ tablespoons tomato paste
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
Garnish
Chopped fresh parsley
½ lemon, cut into wedges
Equipment
Glass or Stainless Steel Lid
Season chicken by rubbing in Spice Rub and set aside for at least an hour. Remove shrimp heads and roast them in a toaster oven.
In a medium pot, add 1 ¼ cups (300 ml) water and shrimp heads from Step 1 and bring to a boil over medium heat. Once water boils, skim any foam from the surface, simmer over low heat for about 3 minutes. Add in mussels and boil for another minute. Once mussels open up, transfer ingredients to a sieve and separate ingredients from the soup. Make 1 ⅓ cups (330 ml) broth by adding water to the soup. Add saffron and salt. Set aside for about 15 minutes.
Preheat the pan over medium-high heat for about 90 seconds. Add in 1 tablespoon of olive oil and swirl to coat evenly. Allow smoke to rise from the entire surface of the pan, then add shrimp and squid in the pan. Sauté quickly and remove from the pan.
In the same pan, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil and spread evenly. Sear the chicken skin-side down, turn down to to medium heat; add prosciutto and onion. Sauté for about 1 minute. Once the onion is translucent, add rice and sauté for another minute. Add in tomato paste, lightly stir and sauté rice for about 30 more seconds.
Add the broth from Step 2 to the pan. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Level the rice and add shrimp and squid from Step 3 on top. Cover with lid and steam over low heat for about 3 minutes. Once steam starts to escape, turn down to very low heat and simmer for another 10 minutes.
Turn off heat and add back the mussels. Cover and turn up to medium heat for about 30 seconds (to make crispy rice on the bottom). Turn off heat and let steam over residual heat for about 10 minutes. Garnish with lemon and chopped parsley. Serve warm.
Check out the recipe video below.
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