{"id":7047,"date":"2025-03-30T21:47:52","date_gmt":"2025-03-30T21:47:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bhiggs.x10hosting.com\/foodie\/?p=7047"},"modified":"2025-03-30T21:47:58","modified_gmt":"2025-03-30T21:47:58","slug":"the-hairy-bikers-paella","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bhiggs.x10hosting.com\/foodie\/the-hairy-bikers-paella\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hairy Bikers’ Paella"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you haven\u2019t heard of the Hairy Bikers, you\u2019ve missed something! They are two guys from the Northeast of England who ride motorbikes, and have created an enormously successful series of cooking shows on BBC TV. Go to https:\/\/www.hairybikers.com\/about <\/a>to learn about them, and be sure to visit their recipes page. They are surprisingly talented and diverse.\u00a0Warning: you may need to turn on subtitles\/CC in order to understand their accents.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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<\/div>\n\t<\/g><\/svg><\/span> Print Recipe<\/a>\n\t\n\t\n<\/div>\n

The Hairy Bikers’ Paella<\/h2>\n
<\/div>\n
Transport the flavours of the Mediterranean into your kitchen with our delicious paella recipe.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Prep Time<\/span>30 minutes<\/span><\/span> mins<\/span><\/span><\/div>
Cook Time<\/span>1 hour<\/span><\/span> hr<\/span><\/span><\/div>
Total Time<\/span>1 hour<\/span><\/span> hr<\/span> 30 minutes<\/span><\/span> mins<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n\n
Servings: <\/span>8<\/span> to 10<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n
Author: <\/span>The Hairy Bikers – from The Hairy Bikers’ Comfort Food<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n

<\/span>Ingredients<\/span><\/h3>
  • 1<\/span> tbsp<\/span> olive oil<\/span><\/li>
  • 6<\/span> chicken thighs<\/span> boned, skinned, cut in half (about 600g\/1lb 5oz)<\/span><\/li>
  • 150g<\/span> (5oz)<\/span> cooking chorizo<\/span> skinned and cut into 5mm\/\u00bcin slices<\/span><\/li>
  • 4<\/span> garlic cloves<\/span> crushed<\/span><\/li>
  • 300g<\/span> (10\u00bdoz)<\/span> fresh large tomatoes<\/span> halved, seeds removed, flesh grated (then skin discarded)<\/span><\/li>
  • 1<\/span> tsp<\/span> sweet smoked paprika<\/span><\/li>
  • 1<\/span> lemon<\/span> zest only<\/span><\/li>
  • 1.5liters<\/span> (2\u00bd pints)<\/span> hot chicken stock<\/span><\/li>
  • 3<\/span> bay leaves<\/span><\/li>
  • 2<\/span> sprigs<\/span> thyme<\/span><\/li>
  • 200g<\/span> (7oz)<\/span> green beans<\/span> cut into short lengths<\/span><\/li>
  • 500g<\/span> (1lb 2oz)<\/span> Calasparra rice*<\/span><\/li>
  • 1<\/span> tsp<\/span> saffron threads**<\/span> soaked in a little warm water<\/span><\/li>
  • couple<\/span> handfuls<\/span> live mussels<\/span> cleaned, de-bearded and rinsed (discard any mussels that do not snap shut when tapped)<\/span><\/li>
  • 12<\/span> raw king prawns<\/span> (jumbo shrimp)<\/span><\/li>
  • lemon wedges<\/span> to serve<\/span><\/li>
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper<\/span><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div>\n

    <\/span>Instructions<\/span><\/h3>
    • Heat the oil in a 36cm\/14in paella pan or a very large frying pan set over a medium heat. Season the chicken thighs with salt and freshly ground black pepper and fry for five minutes, turning regularly until lightly coloured. Add the chorizo and cook for a further minute.<\/div><\/li>
    • Add the garlic and cook for a further couple of minutes, then push everything to one side. Add the tomatoes and fry for a few minutes, then mix everything together and sprinkle in the paprika and lemon zest. Pour in all but a large ladleful of the chicken stock and return to the boil. Add the bay leaves, thyme and green beans and season with a little salt.<\/div><\/li>
    • When the chicken stock has returned to the boil, turn down to a simmer and sprinkle in the rice, trying to get it into as even a layer as possible. Pour in the saffron and stir \u2013 this is the only time you should stir your paella once the rice has been added! Bring to the boil again, then simmer for 5 minutes.<\/div><\/li>
    • Turn the heat down and leave the rice to simmer slowly \u2013 this should take between 12\u201315 minutes. If it is getting dry, taste \u2013 if still a little too firm (crunchy), add a little more stock. When you are satisfied the rice is al dente, arrange the mussels and prawns over the paella. Cover with a damp teacloth or a lid if you have one and wait for the mussels to steam open and the prawns to turn pink. Serve with lemon wedges.<\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div>\n
      <\/div>\n

      <\/span>Notes<\/span><\/h3>
      *Calasperra<\/strong> rice may not be easily available (I couldn’t find it on Whole Foods, but I did on Amazon – often in huge bags, but some more reasonably sized). A common alternative for Paella is Bomba<\/strong> rice (again, I couldn’t find it at Whole Foods, but it’s available on Amazon – you can search for Paella Rice<\/strong> as well).
      One online suggestion was to use Goya medium grain rice<\/strong> (again, not seen at Whole Foods, but available on Amazon)<\/span>
      <\/div>\n**Saffron<\/strong> is expensive, and can be a little tricky to find. Shaws has it in Milford, at least. Or you can get it on Amazon. Strangely, it wasn’t available on Whole Foods, at least at the closest one to me.<\/span><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      If you haven\u2019t heard of the Hairy Bikers, you\u2019ve missed something! They are two guys from the Northeast of England who ride motorbikes, and have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2506,136,3865,130,697],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dinner","category-entree","category-hairy-bikers","category-spanish","category-stove-top"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bhiggs.x10hosting.com\/foodie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/our_paella_92328_16x9.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bhiggs.x10hosting.com\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bhiggs.x10hosting.com\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bhiggs.x10hosting.com\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bhiggs.x10hosting.com\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bhiggs.x10hosting.com\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7047"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bhiggs.x10hosting.com\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7050,"href":"https:\/\/bhiggs.x10hosting.com\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7047\/revisions\/7050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bhiggs.x10hosting.com\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bhiggs.x10hosting.com\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bhiggs.x10hosting.com\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bhiggs.x10hosting.com\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}