The Gluten Free Party Dish You're Missing

Paella is the Ultimate Party Food

Hello Party People,

Before we get started, would you mind hitting the heart on this email? It helps my emails get into your inbox and away from the dreaded spam folder! (Also, It’s lovely to know you’re out there!)

I come to you today with the simple delicious food for a crowd that you’re sleeping on. It’s the perfect food for a crowd, always stretches for more guests, endlessly adaptable, and so fun to make. Paella.

Now, don’t go anywhere if you’ve only ordered paella in a restaurant you might think of it as a complex dish with lots of ingredients and featuring expensive seafood.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

You can of course make a seafood paella filled with lobster, cockles, and the fanciest clams you can find invite over your bougiest friends and have a great time.

Or you can make a simpler chicken paella for a group of 12-year-olds and watch it get devoured.

It’s really up to you, but this dish is a great choice for either group.

If you love food history (as I do, really I’m just a food nerd) check out

José Andrés

Paella Valenciana in

Longer Tables with José Andrés

In essence a big wide pan of short grain rice, with many vegetables and proteins mixed in. Inherently gluten free - why aren’t you making this for your gatherings when you’re sick of tacos?

Paella is flavored with saffron, the inside of a crocus flower. It’s widely known as “The Most Expensive Spice in The World” which sounds a little intense. But you need VERY little to flavor the dish. You can even get it at Trader Joes, where a whole bottle is $6 near me.

Also, just a little trivia for you, the second most expensive spice in the world is vanilla. I bet you have some of that floating around the pantry.

I love to make this for a party - in nice weather, I make it on my grill outside! Invite friends over, and hang out on the patio cooking the paella over the grill (I use a paella pan, like this one, but you could use another wide shallow pan.)

Saute the vegetables, add the rice, and hang out with your friends around the grill adding broth. The seafood portion (if you’re using it) only takes a few minutes at the end.

Then put a huge pan of paella in the middle of the table and it’s a party! You hardly need much else and it feels festive and fun.

I’ve made this for many a class, party, and event, and even had friends use it for a very nontraditional Thanksgiving!!

Happy Partying,

Rachel

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Party People Paella

Serves 8

1 large pinch saffron threads (one very rare instance where I measure with my heart)
1 c dry white wine (I use something drinkable but not fancy)
¼ cup olive oil
1 lb boneless chicken thighs cut into chunks
1 yellow onion, diced
1 sweet red bell pepper sliced
2 tomatoes diced
2 tsp salt
1 lb short grain (arborio, bomba, etc) rice
4-6 cups fish or chicken stock
1 ½ lb raw mussels in shell (If desired, if you’d like to leave this as a chicken paella, omit)
1 ½ lb raw shrimp, peeled and deveined (So great, this could also be langoustines, squid, chunks of white fish, or omit it altogether)
lemon wedges to serve
1 bunch parsley, chopped to serve

Put saffron in white wine in a small bowl, and set aside to “bloom” for at least 15 minutes.  Put the broth in a saucepan to warm.  

Place a paella pan or large sauté pan over medium heat and add the olive oil.  Sauté the chicken – seasoning with 1 tsp of the salt.  Sauté the onions and peppers until the onions are softened and translucent. Add rice and sauté 2-3 minutes, coating all the rice in olive oil. Add tomatoes and remaining salt and sauté one more minute.

Add the saffron-infused wine to the pan and cook 2-3 minutes, stirring.  Pour broth into the paella pan until ingredients are all covered.  Keep adding broth to the rice as its absorbed until rice is almost al dente (until it is slightly undercooked in the middle.) Arrange mussels and shrimp in the pan over the almost cooked rice.  Add a lid or foil to the top.  Simmer until rice is al dente- Remove from heat, let rest 5 minutes.  Top with herbs and serve with lemon wedges.