The 2 Types Of Meat Martha Stewart Uses In Her Paella

If you've ever been to Spain, chances are you've seen or tried one of the country's most popular foods: paella. This rice-based dish varies in ingredients, though many traditional Spanish versions incorporate different combinations of seafood such as shrimp, squid, and mussels. Practically anything is fair game though, including meat, so celebrity chef Martha Stewart embraces the best of both worlds. Specifically, she combines shellfish with two types of meat — chicken and pork — for a hearty and flavorful paella.

"Snails, believe it or not, were once the most commonly used meat in the Valencian paella, as they were cheap," Stewart explained in a paella tutorial she posted via Martha's Cooking School. "For special occasions, they added rabbit or duck, but nowadays you can have chicken; you can have pork."

These ingredients have more than proven themselves as two of many stars in Stewart's paella recipe. As a crispy and flavorful rice, the dish is actually capable of feeding up to 12 people. To ensure your paella truly pleases that crowd, follow Stewart's lead for preparing the meats. First, she marinates and browns her poultry before integrating it with pork and, later, seafood.

Any paella will incorporate an array of ingredients, but, for Stewart, it's best to start with meat. The chef begins her cooking process by marinating chicken thighs in paprika and olive oil. After 4 hours, she cooks that chicken with salt and pepper. Once the poultry has had time to brown, she then adds 1-inch squares of pork, cooking her meats as a precursor to the remaining recipe.

From there, Stewart adds her other ingredients: vegetables — namely, peppers, onions, and tomatoes — and, of course, seafood. Specifically, her recipe pairs that chicken and pork with a combination of shrimp, calamari, mussels, and clams. These flavors and textures synthesize in a dish that's bursting with intricacy. Plus, you don't have to choose between meat and seafood, or rice and veggies. With paella, you get a little bit of everything.

Just make sure to follow a few tips you need for cooking paella. Most notably, you'll want to stop stirring your rice to ensure that desired crispiness, which is yet another texture that complements your seafood and meat.