If you’re tired of eating duck sausage with a side of eggs, this duck sausage paella is the recipe you’ve been looking for.
Paella (pronounced pie-A-ya) is a classic Spanish dish that blends meats from land and sea, an array of seasonings and a base of rice to create a delicious shareable dish.
The Slayer team cooked up this duck sausage, chicken and seafood paella recipe al fresco — outdoors in a big paella pan. Paella is the perfect meal for a dinner party with close friends or a big family gathering, and it’s best enjoyed with good conversation and a bottle of Spanish wine.
One of the great things about paella is that it’s easy to tweak the recipe. Not a fan of lobster, but love to chow down on calamari? Try swapping the ingredients! Prefer a little kick in your paella? Pop in some peppers. Personally, we suggest going heavy on the garlic, because you can never really add too much garlic.
If you try this recipe, let us know what you think! Tag @SlayerDuckCalls in your photos on Instagram, or share your experience directly with the Slayer team.
Serves: 6 people
Time to cook: 2.5 hours
Ingredients for duck sausage, chicken and seafood paella
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- 2 teaspoons oregano
- 3 lbs. frying chicken, cut into 10 pieces
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 duck sausages, thickly sliced
- Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
- Pinch of saffron or turmeric, for color
- 1 Spanish onion or yellow onion, diced
- 4-6 garlic cloves, crushed
- Bunch flat-leaf parsley leaves, de-stemmed and chopped (set some aside for garnish)
- 15 oz. can whole tomatoes, drained and hand-crushed
- 4 cups short grain Spanish rice
- 6 cups warm water
- 1 dozen littleneck clams, scrubbed
- 1 lb. jumbo shrimp, peeled and de-veined
- 2 lobster tails, pre-cooked or raw
- Lemon wedges, for serving
How to make duck sausage, chicken and seafood paella
- Cut your frying chicken into 10 pieces and set it aside. In a small bowl, mix the paprika and oregano. Add in the chicken and coat it thoroughly with the spices. Cover the chicken and let it marinate in the fridge for an hour.
- While the chicken marinates, prep the rest of your ingredients. Thickly slice the duck sausage, scrub the littleneck clams (leave them in the shells), peel and de-vein the jumbo shrimp and thaw or boil the lobster tails, if needed. Dice the onion, crush the garlic cloves, drain and crush the tomatoes, and measure out the other ingredients.
- In a paella pan or a wide skillet, heat the olive oil on medium. Add the duck sausage and saute it. When it’s cooked, take it out of the pan and set it aside in a large bowl.
- Grab your chicken from the fridge and add it to the same olive oil, skin-side down. Add salt and pepper to taste. When the chicken is browned on all sides, take it out of the pan and set it aside in the bowl with the duck sausage.
- Add a pinch of saffron on top of the chicken and duck sausage. Cover the bowl.
- Using the chicken and duck sausage olive oil, make the sofrito. Saute the onions, garlic and parsley for up to 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes and any additional salt or other spices to taste, if you’re a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants chef. Keep cooking until the ingredients in the pan caramelize.
- Add the dry rice to the sofrito, sauteing to make sure all the rice is covered with the puree.
- Add the water. Let it simmer for about 10 minutes to start cooking the rice. Pro tip: Wiggle or rotate the pan to make sure the rice cooks evenly, but don’t stir it.
- Add the chicken, chorizo, clams and shrimp into the pan and cook until the shrimp turns pink.
- Keep letting the paella simmer without stirring for another 15 minutes. Pro tip: If the rice starts to dry out, add a little more warm water.
- When the rice is fuller but still al dente, add the lobster and cook 5 more minutes, until the rice is fluffy.
- If you want your paella to be truly authentic, toast the rice on the bottom of the pan by turning the heat on high for half a minute or until you smell the rice. Be careful not to let it burn! Spaniards call this toasty rice bottom the socarrat.
- Take your paella off the burner and let it rest for a few minutes. To serve, leave it in the paella pan, garnish it with parsley and lemon wedges, and place it on a trivet at the center of the table.
