Quinoa Chicken and Seafood Paella
Ingredients
- 1 lb large shrimp (peeled and deveined)
- 1 lb scallops
- 1/2 lb mussels
- 2 chicken breasts
- 1 1/2 cup quinoa (uncooked)
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 1 medium yellow onion
- 3 plum tomatoes
- 5 garlic cloves
- 2 tsp saffron
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 1 tsp pink sea salt
- 5 tbsp olive oil (divided)
- 2-3 tbsp fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
- lemon wedges for garnish
- fresh parsley for garnish
- pink salt and pepper to taste for seafood and chicken
Instructions
Prep Ingredients:
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Prep seafood by peeling and deveining shrimp, rinse and scrub mussels. Dab dry chicken breasts and scallops. Cut chicken into bite size cubes. Salt and pepper shrimp, scallops and chicken to taste.
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Remove top and insides of red bell peppers and julienne bell pepper. Dice tomatoes and onion and mince garlic cloves. Squeeze lemon juice, measure out spices. Rub together saffron strings with your thumb and index finger to get the flavors to be released. Set all prepped ingredients to the side.
Start Cooking Ingredients:
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Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to paella pan and heat-up on medium-high heat. Add cubed chicken and stir fry until it's cooked through and reaches golden-brown color on the outside. About 7-8 minutes. Remove cooked chicken from pan and set aside.
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Clean paella pan with a damped paper towel and add another tablespoon olive oil and bring to a heat on medium-high. Place shrimp on heated pan spacing them apart throughout the pan. You may have to cook in batches depending on how big your pan is. Cook shrimp for 1-2 minutes. Flip over and cook for another 1-2 minutes. They're done when they reach a pink and opaque color. Make sure you don't overcook shrimp. Remove shrimp from pan and set aside. Cook the other batch if you have one the same way and set aside with the rest of cooked shrimp.
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Clean pan again with a damp paper towel and drizzle another tablespoon olive oil and bring to a heat on medium-high. Place scallops on heated pan spacing them out throughout the pan. Sear for 1-2 minutes then flip over and sear for another 1-2 minutes again. Remove from pan and set aside.
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Get rid of any excess juices there may be from scallops. Don't clean pan however. The flavor from the seared scallops will transfer to the rest of ingredients adding more flavor to the paella.
Cook Quinoa:
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Drizzle another tablespoon olive oil and sauté onions and garlic for 2-3 minutes on medium-high heat until onions begin to get translucent and you can smell the onion and garlic aroma. Toss in red bell pepper and continue to sauté for 1-2 minutes. Toss diced tomatoes and continue sautéing for another 2 minutes until tomatoes begin to release juices. Stir in all spices; saffron strings, paprika, ground turmeric and pink salt and lemon juice. Stir until spices are well combined with sautéed veggies.
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Stir in quinoa and mix with sautéed veggies and spices making sure quinoa is well coated. Pour chicken broth and bring to a simmer. Add cooked chicken and peas and stir into quinoa. Set quinoa with added chicken and peas. At this point, you won't be stirring quinoa any more.
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Turn heat down to low and cover pan. Allow quinoa to simmer on low for 10 minutes. Remove cover and at this point quinoa should be cooked through for the most part. You can use a fork to fluff quinoa around chicken and peas if you wish.
Cook Paella:
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Add cooked shrimp and scallops to pan over quinoa. Place mussels over quinoa around the other seafood. Cover pan again and allow mussels to steam for 10 minutes on low.
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Remove cover from pan and discard any mussels that didn't open. Turn heat off and garnish with lemon wedges and fresh parsley. Serve and enjoy!
Recipe Notes
Tips and Substitutions:
- Use a paella pan to make your paella- This will give you all the space you need to cook all the ingredients in and will cook the quinoa through.
- Rinse your quinoa before cooking- Quinoa has a natural coating called saponin. This gives quinoa a bitter and soapy taste. Rinsing your quinoa will get rid of this coating and will make your paella taste much better.
- Rub together saffron strings with your thumb and index finger- This will to the flavors to be released. Don't skip using saffron. This is what gives paella its authentic flavor.
- Don't clean pan after removing excess liquid from scallops- This will give your paella so much more flavor.
- Don't stir quinoa after you add chicken and peas- You want the quinoa to set on the bottom. This will prevent the quinoa from sticking to the pan and burning. It will actually form a light-crust which is known as socarrat. Trust me, you want that!
- Get rid of any mussels that didn't open- Any mussels that don't open during cooking means that are not good and you want to discard these.
- Substitute for quinoa- You can of course just use rice. Use a long grain rice such as jasmine rice that doesn't get mushy or clamps up.
- Switch up your seafood- Get creative with your seafood and use any variations you may like. Clams, calamari, lobster meat or even lobster tails are great in this paella.
- Substitute for parsley- You can use fresh cilantro.
- Substitute for chicken broth- Use vegetable stock.