Pressure Cooker Paella with Chicken and Sausage
I love using my Instant Pot pressure cooker to make an easy, weeknight version of paella. It cooks up quickly and evenly, and there’s no need to tend to a pot or pan on the stove.
The method is very simple—you sauté the vegetables with chicken and sausage, add the rice and liquid, and then cook everything under pressure for just ten minutes. That’s it!
Paella is such an adaptable dish, especially in the Instant Pot. If you prefer white meat chicken, dice up some tenders in place of the chicken thighs. If you can’t find classic Spanish chorizo, use andouille or another spicy, cooked sausage. Or use a mild sausage!
As for the spices, saffron is traditional for authentic paella—it adds a yellow hue and distinctive floral flavor. But it’s expensive and can be hard to find; skip it or use a pinch of turmeric instead.
If you don’t have smoked paprika, regular sweet paprika will work just fine.
After cooking, you may see a crust of dark caramelization and crunchy rice at the bottom of the pan — this is ok! This is called “socarrat” and is traditional for paella. Just mix it in and enjoy.
Here’s a time-saving pressure cooker trick that I use in this recipe: Heat up the chicken broth ahead of time, and thaw the peas in the broth. You can do this on the stovetop or in the microwave, whichever you prefer. Hot ingredients take less time to come up to pressure so you shave a good 5 to 10 minutes off the total cooking time doing this, and dinner gets on the table sooner!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth
- Big pinch of saffron threads (roughly equal to 1/4 teaspoon)
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 1 medium ripe tomato, or 1 canned whole tomato (from a 15-oz can)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- 1 pound (3 to 4) boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 6 ounces (about 2 links) chorizo or other spicy sausage, sliced
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups (325 grams) short or medium grain rice
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
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