How long should paella be cooked?
If you are making a paella with chicken/rabbit plus shellfish then the deciding factor is that of cooking the rice. The chicken/rabbit fried gently with the shallot/onion and garlic will be at least half cooked before the rice is added (say 20 minutes on a gentle heat). The rice, added together with the chicken stock and white wine, will take, may be, five minutes to come to the boil. Then turned down and cooked gently for around 20 minutes until the rice grain is slightly al dente the shellfish added for a further five minutes or so of cooking i.e until the prawns/langoustines are a nice red colourand the clams/vongole/mussels are steamed open. So around 50 minutes cooking time. But really it’s done when it’s done; go with the flow!
