Prawn Paella Recipe

Prawn paella may be one of the easiest Spanish rice dishes you can cook, as its recipe doesn’t have many complications and it has a few ingredients. The result will delight you, getting the taste of the sea and the fruit of the land altogether in this healthy prawn paella.

Do you know what? You can make a delicious prawn paella at home just by following the straightforward steps you will see below.

You don´t have to saturate the paella with a big amount of ingredients as you see in pictures, as you won’t get the right flavour unless you make a stock and a sauté.

The ingredients

🥘 Difficulty: Easy
🥘 Serves: 4
🥘 Nutrition: 340 Kcal

prawn paella ingredients
  • 400g (30 Tbs) bomba rice (It can be just paella rice)
  • 1l stock (800g (60 Tbs) if you use paella rice)
  • 12-16 not-peeled prawns (Ideally fresh)
  • 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
  • 2 medium-size grated tomatoes
  • 2 small onions
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • A bunch of parsley
  • 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 4 strands of saffron
  • Salt

Tip 1: You can use king prawns or even shrimps in the scenario you don´t find prawns.

Tip 2: In the event you just find peeled prawns, make the stock with fish heads and bones

How to make prawn paella

🥘 Prep time: 20′
🥘 Cooking time: 25′

One of the secrets of this recipe is we will prepare an easy homemade stock with the heads and shells of the prawns. It doesn’t have any complications, because basically you only need to sauté the skins and let them boil for a while to get all the juices out of them.

Ideally, the sofrito (sauté) should be based on “ñora”, which is a kind of dry pepper with rounded shape typical in many easter Spain dishes, such as fish-based recipes, rice dishes…. Although it is not strictly necessary, it adds a special touch.
Ñoras has such a strong flavor that easily can kill the fish taste if exceeded, so, I’m not a big fan, so I usually add paprika.

I’m going to show you first how to make the fish stock and later the paella.

  • Peel the prawns and remove the skins and heads. Smash them to extract their essence.
  • Prepare the stock with the shells and heads of prawns. In a pot, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil and when it is hot, add diced small onion, 2 cloves of garlic and sauté. Then, add the shells and heads. Pour the water and bring it to the boil, letting it cook over medium heat for 25 minutes.
  • It’s time for the saffron. In a mortar or similar, crush the strands of saffron with a little of the hot broth, to extract its flavor.
  • Stir the stock with energy and make up the amount you need. Add the saffron juice to it.
    Congrats, you have made a great stock
  • Peel and finely chop the garlic and the fresh parsley. This will be one of the “touches” of this recipe
  • In a large frying pan or paella pan, heat the olive oil. Medium heat
  • When it is hot, add the prawns and brown them. Then, get them out of the pan.
  • Add the finely chopped small onion and the smashed garlic and parsley. Stir and sauté
  • When it begins to brown, add the grated tomato and a teaspoon of paprika. Mix well and sauté for a few minutes, until the tomato’s water evaporates.
  • Add the rice and stir. Sauteing the rice will avoid overcooking, a bit.
  • Pour the stock and add the salt too. Stir for the last time to spread all the ingredients evenly
  • Cook over medium-high heat for about 15 minutes (or until there is just a bit of stock left, what I usually do)
  • When the rice is almost ready, place the prawns back in the saucepan. I like to push them down to get them integrated with the rest of the ingredients, but this is not in the pictures
  • Set the heat to the minimum and wait 10 more minutes. Cover the pan with aluminum foil or the pan’s cover for about 10 minutes.
  • Finally, turn off the heat and wait 5 min. Enjoy it!

I hope you like this Prawn Paella Recipe, let me know if you make it!

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