Paella Burrito
This post is sponsored by Old El Paso
A great paella and a great burrito are actually much more alike than you might think on first glance. They both have a lot going on, and are exciting as you take each bite discovering all the different flavors. They both use perfectly cooked and seasoned rice as the foundation for exciting flavors. And they both are very versatile, as long as you start with the same idea, you can customize them a million ways.
I decided to bring the two dishes together in this paella burrito and it was the perfect marriage of flavors. There are two secrets to making paella taste great as a burrito. The first was to take out some of the veggies and herbs and serve them instead as a salsa. The second was to make sure to not forget about that crispy rice that is so important to what a paella is.
Paella often has 3 meats, chorizo, chicken, and shrimp, but I have seen it with up to 10 different types of meat!
Fry up the chorizo first and it will render enough fat to cook the other meats in.
All the meats in the pan with garlic and onion.
The salsa is made from some of the ingreidnets you often see in a paella that I left out thinking they would work well as a salsa. Specifically tomato, parsley, and lemon.
Cook the saffron rice on a flat top before you put it into the burrito to get it nice and crispy.
Rice, then meat, and then salsa. Now just roll it up.
I also grilled the burrito on the outside to add another dimension of flavor and texture.
The flavors came together perfectly to form the essence of paella in burrito form!
Paella Burrito
Ingredients
Rice
- 1 cup white rice
- 2 cups water
- 1 pinch saffron
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- salt and pepper
Salsa
- 2 vine ripe tomatoes diced
- 1/2 red onion diced
- 1 small clove garlic grated
- 1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
- 1 lemon juice
- salt and pepper
Meat
- 1/2 pound spanish chorizo sliced into 1/4 rounds
- 1 chicken breast diced into cubes
- 1/2 red onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 pound shrimp cleaned deveined, and cut in half
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- salt and pepper
burrito
- Old El Paso Burrito Sized Tortillas
Instructions
prep rice and salsa
- To cook the rice, place all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Lower the heat, cover, and gently simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to sit 10 minutes.
- Make the salsa by mixing all the salsa ingredients and seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.
Make the meat mixture
- To cook the meat, start with the chorizo in a frying pan with a small amount of oil. A lot more oil will render from the chorizo itself.
- Cook the chorizo for 5 minutes just to start browning and get more of that oil in the pan, then add the onions. Cook 7 minutes until the onions have reduced in size.
- Add the chicken and cook about 5 minutes until the chicken has mostly cooked through and turned opaque.
- Add in the garlic and cook 3 minutes.
- Finally stir in the shrimp and cook 2 minutes.
- Deglaze the pan with the vinegar, stirring and scraping to get all the good flavor from the bottom of the pan. Simmer and cook 2 or 3 more minutes until the shrimp is fully cooked and remove from heat.
Crisp rice and build burrito
- Bring a frying pan or cast iron grill pan to medium high heat. Lightly coat in oil and add about 1/4 cup of rice. Cook about 3 minutes until the bottom of the rice has become crispy.
- Microwave your tortilla for 20 seconds to soften. Top with the rice, followed by the meat mixture, and then a big spoonful of salsa. Roll the burrito tightly.
- Place the burrito on the hot pan, seam side down, to toast lightly. Once browned, flip and toast the other side. Slice and serve.
Making it right now! It smells perfect.