Instant Pot Paella

The inspiration to make this Instant Pot Paella came from the seafood broth I had from my shrimp peels from the siomai dumpling recipe. Instead of throwing the raw shrimp peels right away, I put them in the Instant Pot with water and pushed on the broth button to make seafood broth.

I wanted to make a jambalaya, but finding cajun seasoning here in Madrid is difficult. Paella is quite popular here, but I never really made it because I don’t like to cook a Spanish recipe for a Spanish person. They will always say, their mother’s is better so I just stick to what I know.

I wanted to make a rice recipe from my seafood broth so I made my own version. My husband saw it and immediately said, “oh wow, paella, so good,” and thus, this Instant Pot Paella was born.

In this Instant Pot Paella recipe, I used onion, garlic, yellow bell pepper, and celery as my vegetables. For my meat, I used pork slices and chorizo. You can feel free to use a different type of meat like chicken and sausage. Or shrimp and fish. If you’re making seafood, however, cook the seafood first and stash it away. Don’t include the seafood when you cook the rice in the Instant Pot. Just mix it with the cooked rice after.

Whatever ingredients you decide to use with your Instant Pot Paella, the only thing you should always remember is your ratio of rice to broth. If I’m just cooking regular rice, I use a ratio of 1:2 – 1 cup of rice is to 2 cups of broth. For this Instant Pot Paella, however, since I already have some tomato sauce, I use the ratio 1:1.5 – 1 cup of rice is to 1.5 cups of broth.

Everyone’s broth is made differently. If you don’t have homemade broth like me, you can buy broth from the store or you can use water and a beef/vegetable/fish cube. Because of this, you add the salt after you put the broth and rice in the Instant Pot, but before you pressure cook it. The amount of salt you add really depends on the type of broth you have and your preference on salt level. I put a pinch of salt in mine a little each time to slowly build up the flavor to get the taste I want.

Instant Pot Paella

You favorite Spanish rice dish, cooked in the Instant Pot

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Servings 5

Equipment

• Instant Pot

Ingredients

  

• 1/2 kilo pork sliced
• 250 grams chorizo sliced in rounds
• 2 tsp seasoning blend for pork slices 1/2 tsp each of garlic powder, salt, pepper, sweet paprika
• 1 pc celery stalk chopped
• 5 cloves garlic minced
• 1 pc onion chopped
• 1 pc yellow bell pepper chopped
• 1/4 cup tomato sauce
• 2 cups rice
• 3 cups broth
• 1 pinch saffron
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

 

• Put the Instant Pot on saute. Add olive oil and saute chorizo/sausage. Take out chorizo.
• Mix the seasoning blend with the pork slices. Saute the pork slices. Add more oil if necessary. Take out the pork slices.
• Add the vegetables, one at a time. Start with the onion, then garlic, then celery, then the bell pepper. Once the vegetables are soft, add the tomato sauce.
• Add back the pork slices, the rice, then the broth. Mix everything together.
• Taste to see if more salt is needed (this depends on your broth), and add more salt until you find your preferred salt level.
• Put back the lid of the Instant Pot and set to high pressure cook for 8 minutes. Natural release for at least 10 minutes, then quick release the rest of the remaining pressure.
• Open the lid, add the chorizo/sausage, and mix it together with the rice.
• Serve on individual plates, topped with more chorizo and scallions. Enjoy.