Can You Use a Dutch Oven to Make Paella?

Technique

• Using a Dutch oven to make paella calls for a different technique, but the results are comparable to those achieved using the traditional method. Select an oven-proof pan with at least a 6-qt. capacity that measures roughly a foot wide and a long-handled spoon for stirring. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and place an oven rack to the next level down below the middle. This step illustrates an important difference between preparing paella in a Dutch oven and in a paellera. Traditional paella is made entirely on top of the stove or other heating unit and is not transferred to the oven for finishing.

Recipe Ingredients

• The ingredients in paella made in a Dutch oven are the same as those called for in recipes written using a traditional paellera. In all paella recipes, short-grained arborio or Valencia rice is the foundation of the dish, and all flavoring ingredients are standard. A combination of seasonings forms the paella's flavor base or sofrito. This is usually composed of onion, garlic and tomato. Additional ingredients, such as meats, fish and sausage vary per region, and can include lobster meat or rabbit. Other vegetables such as green beans, artichokes or lima beans are used in traditional paella and can be used in a Dutch oven as long as they are precooked before adding them to the final baking.

Preparation

• A traditional paella pan provides enough room and minimizes crowding the ingredients. The many ingredients are added in such as way as to not smother the rice. It's important to spread the rice in a very thin layer across the entire bottom of the pan to assure that each grain cooks to perfection and that it absorbs the flavors of all the other ingredients added to it during the cooking process. Paella prepared in a Dutch oven is more of a stew or a casserole than a collection of the recipe's classic ingredients that have a main purpose of flavoring the rice and that are returned to the paella pan for the final heating. Dutch ovens also have lids, which are used only during the final resting period when making it in a traditional pan.

Considerations

• Unlike in a paellera where liquids disributed across a wider cooking surface evaporate quickly, a Dutch oven retains more of this liquid, including the juice from the tomatoes and the chicken stock, making it unnecessary to keep adding more as the rice cooks. Preparing ingredients and moving them to another area of the pan is not possible in a Dutch oven, making it necessary to keep small bowls and plates nearby to hold each ingredient as it is cooked. Toasting the bottom layer of the paella is also not possible in a Dutch oven during the baking stage, a desired effect when cooking it in a paellera.