Easy Slow-Cooker Paella

During the winter months, I love to make hot, delicious comfort food in the crockpot. Last year, I told you about my favorite meaty minestrone soup. This winter, I thought I'd share Adam's favorite crockpot meal: paella. I've hesitated to share this recipe on the blog, because I got the recipe from a crockpot cookbook. But through the years, I've refined the recipe according to my tastes and general laziness so that everything in this meal comes from a can or a bag, the flavor is just how I like it, and only one dish is required for prep. My favorite part of this recipe is that you can make it with only 5 ingredients:

Note: no cats were harmed in the making of this paella

Ingredients:

Frozen peas (about a cup will do)
One can of diced tomatoes with garlic and onion
Cooked sausage of your choice. I prefer spicy sausage.
32 oz. container of chicken broth
1 cup arborio rice.

optional: cooked shrimp (not pictured)

How to make it:

1. Chop your sausage, measure your rice, and open your broth and tomatoes.

2. Line your crockpot with a slow-cooker liner -- unless you enjoy scrubbing disgusting bits of congealed rice from the bottom of your crockpot, in which case, by all means, skip the liner (but don't skip the non-stick cooking spray).

3. Add the rice, tomatoes, sausage, and broth to your crockpot.

4. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours. Go about your life. The rice will cook and soak up all the delicious flavors in the broth, sausage, and vegetables. Enjoy the delicious aromas emanating from your kitchen.

5. About 15 minutes before you want to eat, prepare your peas and your shrimp if you plan to include it. Defrost your cooked, frozen shrimp by running cold water over it until it's thawed. If my shrimp has tails, like these, I like to remove them. But that's up to you, of course. Defrost your peas in the microwave for a minute or so.

6. Give your paella a good stir, to make sure everything is combined, then stir in the shrimp and peas. Allow it to cook until the shrimp and peas are heated through. This usually takes about 7 minutes. If I accidentally over-defrost the peas so that they are already hot, I usually wait to add them until the very end, because I don't like the peas to be overcooked.

7. Spoon up your paella and enjoy.

The original recipe I followed included chicken instead of shrimp, but it required you to brown the chicken first, and I prefer my crockpot creations to involve little more than opening, dumping, and leaving. But if you like chicken and don't mind the extra clean-up, the chicken just makes it more delicious.

This dish keeps works well as leftovers; like stew, the flavors just keep on combining and getting better the longer they sit. As I'm typing this, I'm working up an appetite for the leftover paella awaiting me for lunch right now...so spicy and comforting and carbilicious...mmm....

...Um, excuse me, but I have to go eat now.