- 9 minutes ago
Bon Appétit joins Master Spanish chef José Andrés at his home to show how he makes a perfect paella. This open-fire cooking technique is Valencia’s traditional method of cooking authentic Spanish paella, and the best way to achieve perfectly absorbed bomba rice with a crispy bottom. Learn chef-level tips on how to build flavor from scratch with saffron-infused stock for a paella that is sure to impress your family and friends.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:05Hello people of America, I am Chef José Andrés and welcome to my house where this is actually
00:13my backyard and today you and I we're gonna make paella together. Paella my friends is the name
00:24of the pan the very shallow pan where we cook rice in Spain. A paella is about the rice the
00:32rice is
00:32like a sponge and that sponge absorbs all the flavor of all the ingredients and possible the
00:41bottom is gonna get crunchy what we call the sucarrat and if you are able to achieve this
00:46this is perfection so the most traditional paella paella valenciana will be things like chicken
00:53rabbit green beans but today I'm gonna show you how to make the paella in an open fire like my
00:58father showed me almost more than 40 years ago we have the bounty of all the vegetables in the
01:10farmers markets all across America in the middle of the summer I got the vegetables I found but
01:15the important part here the chicken my friends I guess the first thing you do is to take the head
01:21out I mean we can put it you want me to put it I'm gonna put it yeah okay goes
01:25in there I go and
01:26I cut the neck right there then I go and I cut the wings then the feet and my friends
01:32my feet go into
01:34the paella why because they're gonna give so much gelatin it's a nice texture in your lips so we go
01:40and we
01:40cut the wings let's go one and two there we go so what I like to do sometimes is use
01:48upside down take a
01:50look listen do you hear oh yeah I broke the bones not big deal but it's gonna make it easier
01:57to find
01:58that place that you're gonna go with a knife and you're gonna be almost separating the legs from the
02:03breast and the carcass with almost no effort as you go and you put the knife and there you can
02:08see that
02:08almost without cutting you are almost separating the bone from the rest of the carcass down here
02:14right now you got the first leg piece of cake you do the same with the other one and obviously
02:20we
02:20keep the skin why because I love the skin why because it's gonna be protecting the meat and why
02:24because the skin is very delicious you have the line right here that shows you where to cut and you're
02:30gonna be cutting right here like I'm doing when you find something here towards the neck that this kind
02:38of hard that's the wishbone I'm gonna cut through the bone like this you see wow one time if you
02:45do it
02:46hard you're not gonna hurt yourself it's easy but I already cut it through it I already separated the two
02:53breasts make sense great I'm not devoting anything I want all the bones part of the paella because the
03:00bones even more than the meat is what is gonna be giving the flavor to the stock that we are
03:05about to
03:05make in the pie itself that's why it's so important to be using the whole chickens bone in and everything
03:12they will cut the chicken in smaller pieces but almost the same size and now my friends I have all
03:20this whole chicken and all these chicken wings and with this and all these vegetables we're gonna make a
03:26great paella or arroz of chicken with vegetables all right okay people ready to cook the paella
03:43ah this is a big one so you see this is the paella looks like a UFO yeah it does
03:48look like a UFO even I
03:50have one that can fit 500 people it's like two meters long bigger so you know the paella is very
03:56shallow right because if you make a paella that is this thick of the rice the rice that is right
04:02in
04:03the middle always is gonna be cooking more if you make a paella that the layer is thinner the rice
04:09cooks so
04:10much more evenly this is what makes paella cooking so extraordinary to cook the rice to perfection I'm gonna
04:17start with the vegetables this is kind of strange because usually a paella everything goes in and
04:22nothing goes out but this way we're gonna be having certain control over these vegetables the squashes
04:32even the green beans the cauliflower and it's better that you cut them slightly bigger than
04:38smaller why because vegetables cook fairly quickly thicker it's okay don't go for a small my wife loves
04:45vegetables and the more I put the happiest cheese so who you think is in charge look at how happy
04:52they are you see they're celebrating listen that's a celebration do you see how the vegetables are getting
05:00brown that's a good news and now we're gonna add the mushrooms why at the end because you know mushrooms
05:05they have so much water content that will make the entire pan watery very quickly so I'm gonna put them
05:12right here at the last moment and now now we can add some salt why because the vegetables are telling
05:19me can
05:19you hear them don't worry it's not too much so now I'm gonna start taking the vegetables out and I'm
05:28gonna be
05:28putting them back in the same pot I had now they are all happy because they are all together okay
05:36babies don't be unhappy you are gonna come back
05:40sometimes you need to talk to your vegetables and to your ingredients so they know what's going on they are
05:46very much like us yeah don't worry and yeah you got it we need more oil why because it's the
05:52time for the chicken to come into action and the chicken goes in
05:55it's always good to put one piece to make sure that gets hot and then everything goes in
06:00first everything else that is not the breast the reason we are cooking the vegetables separate from
06:07the chicken is this we're gonna be using water today so we're gonna have to be cooking the chicken
06:12with the water around 10 minutes why because those 10 minutes I am making the stock the chicken is cooking
06:20but
06:20the chicken is giving flavor I already got the flavor in the water but these 10 minutes that I'm saving
06:26from the vegetables being cooked inside this way the pie is gonna be even better make sense and then we
06:33go
06:33with the chicken wings and now we put the breast but it's okay if you put it before okay people
06:41now the
06:41chicken you can see the color I'm adding the carrots right now and you're gonna be wondering why now well
06:47the
06:48carrots are a root right they're under and now is a good moment to add the salt I like to
06:54do it at the
06:55end why the same as the vegetables to make sure that the salt doesn't let the chicken start crying and
07:00giving water away too early and now is an important moment everything in the middle I open a little bit
07:07on
07:08the edges pimenton what is pimenton pimenton is paprika it's Spanish paprika that is a slightly smoked this
07:18moment I don't want the pimenton to burn that's why the wine is handy now the pimenton got the aroma
07:29oh
07:31oh yeah and the wine is helping to make sure I don't burn it I mix again and this is
07:39the moment
07:40I add tomato skin and everything and right here we are making like a sofrito only with the oil the
07:47pimenton and the tomato but the sofrito will be a base a mother sauce that will allow you to make
07:54many
07:54other dishes here is gonna be caramelizing getting all this flavor it's gonna be amazing so I'm gonna
08:01put the saffron and I'm gonna cook it very quickly I'm gonna burn it saffron obviously we grow it in
08:07Spain are the pistils of the crocus satibus that's the Latin name for this amazing beautiful purple flower
08:15that when comes to life gives you three pistils of saffron that people pick by hand one by one and
08:23it's
08:24such a delicacy and my friends this is the moment of truth I'm bringing the water I'm gonna put 15
08:30quarts of water I'm crazy yeah probably 15 quarts of water because I'm doing one and a half kilos
08:38one part of rice is one to ten I think it's something very profound when you're able to make a
08:46paella
08:46from scratch from water and this is another trick put the saffron in this hot broth it's like if you
08:54are making a tea like an infusion of saffron itself this is another way to release not only the aromas
09:00of
09:01the saffron but the other part of the saffron the beautiful reddish orange color that saffron provides
09:07to the rice dish so remember that then if here is less boiling even it's boiling you have to put
09:13more
09:13wood in this side because the flames are gonna be moving just be ready to sweat so now we got
09:21the
09:22saffron infusion oh yeah and in this moment it's time to taste before I add the rice but I like
09:30to
09:30try the broth before I add the rice yeah we're not like the Italians and I like Italians they're good
09:40people but it's so many injuries with the risotto man I call it the risotto elbow they make you stir
09:48rice
09:48for 30 minutes non-stop who does that Spanish people we drink we watch we smell we celebrate and we
09:59let
10:00the fire do its work so we are using this amazing rice friend of mine Molino Roca it's unbelievable comes
10:08from Valencia bomba rice that everybody knows it's more rice than bomba we have a lot of different
10:13types paella rice bomba rice it's called bomba in a way it's almost like a little bowl it's a very
10:19small very short grain rice this is gonna be tripling quadrupling its size is how much this rice
10:26gelatinizes absorbing the liquid that's it and in this moment my friends with all the rice now I'm gonna
10:34make sure the fire doesn't stop because if it stops I'm in trouble because now from the moment it's
10:41finished it's gonna be around 16 minutes and a half 17 this is good already the evaporation begins
10:48already the rice is start and now my friends is the moment I'm adding the vegetables right now one
10:54ingredient that is as important is this is smoke that the fire is giving the smoke that the wood gives
10:59to
11:00the pie is an ingredient as important as the rest of the ingredients that's why the smoke we can never
11:05forget this is a moment you're gonna be putting some branches of rosemary doing a little infusion
11:10I want only to release a little bit of the aroma of the rosemary into the paella rosemary has a
11:15very
11:15intense flavor after some time one minute or two I take now all the rosemary out you see the boiling
11:22keeps going and still we are eight minutes away from being finished but there still is a lot of water
11:27that needs to evaporate so I need to still this be heavy but now is when this is getting hot
11:34and
11:35without any moisture the rice very quickly may be sticking to the bottom but this is a very thin line
11:42between achieving that perfect crunchy round rice in the bottom from a rice that burns and you will have
11:51the aroma of barn so that's why to bring it down to this dry perfection is so important I'm controlling
11:58the overcooking of the rice used by making sure has no more liquid so now you see we have a
12:03perfect layer
12:03in the bottom not too thick is very shallow now is the moment to take it out and this is
12:09too big for
12:09me so I need help okay people okay one where are we going there people the rice is talking to
12:19me the rice is
12:20saying Jose I'm happy oh my god my elbow I'm due are we putting here my wife knows yes you
12:27want here to kill
12:28me I'll kill you okay well you see this looks like a very precious gorgeous paella pan with beautiful rice
12:38that is being perfectly gelatinized with the chicken the vegetables that play the role and actually I don't
12:44care about the vegetables I don't even care about the chicken I only want the fork that is going to
12:49go into
12:50my mouth to be this one bite of amazing flavorful rice that's paella 101 oh yeah
13:00precious oh look at you see we got a little bit of the brown I'm serving myself the neck of
13:06the chicken
13:07and why not a wing oh yeah oh my god the aroma
13:18I am in Valencia I am in Spain I'm such a good cook and obviously
13:26we got some sugar right you can see the brownies in the bottom but you can see that the brownies
13:31in the bottom was achieved
13:32you know you're only as good as the last meal you made and the pie is the perfect dish to
13:38prove that
13:39you are one person with a fire with your paella pan and with your destiny time is the most precious
13:45thing we have and when you put that time if you like cooking invested into mastering the art of cooking
13:52a
13:52paella in an open fire is the best feeling in the history the best feeling in the history
14:00you
Comments