Saffron-tinted rice crowned with chicken, rabbit, and green beans, cooked in a wide pan until the bottom crisps into the prized socarrat.
Sunday lunch in Valencia
Paella was born in the rice paddies of Valencia’s Albufera lagoon, where farmworkers cooked short-grain rice over orange-wood fires with whatever the land offered — rabbit, chicken, and beans. Eaten straight from the pan at lunchtime, it remains Spain’s great social dish, made for sharing, arguing over, and finishing to the last crunchy grain.
Get the rice right every time with our How to Cook Perfect Rice Every Time.


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