Chicken Paella is one of those dishes that you see various people make on the Food Network and you think it sounds really good, but it seems extra complicated. It has a lot o different ingredients that are browned or cooked and removed and then added back to the pot. I had seen various iterations of the recipe in different magazines "easy" or "quick and easy" or "short cut." But none of those sounded exactly right to me. So enter the wonderful people at Everyday Food Magazine (which I receive for free for answering surveys and such at e-rewards). Earlier this year, they had an issue devoted almost entirely to chicken from around the world, and they had a recipe for paella.  Appealing especially because it fit on one (smallish) page.  I still made quite a few changes, and since I have altered the recipe somewhat, feel like it is more mine then theirs and am posting it here:

Chicken and Shrimp Paella

2 large chicken breasts cut into small chunks (not too small, like for stir fry)
2T olive oil
Salt and Pepper

Heat oil in wide deep pan over medium high heat.  Add chicken and brown, this might take 5 or 6 minutes. Remove chicken from pan.

Add to pan and cook
1/2 lb chorizo sausage, cooked and sliced in small pieces (Public only has Choricuo which the label said was Cuban, but I figured it was close enough.)
1/2 bag frozen peppers and onions (it might say for stir fry--the one I bought was Birdseye)
2 clove garlic, minced (if you haven't discovered minced garlic in the jar, I recommend trying it.  No more bad garlic going to waste in the pantry)
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 packet Vigo flavoring and coloring (You could add your own paprika and saffron, but this worked well, no measurng, and no expensive saffron threads to worry about.)

Cook, stirring occaisionally, until most of the liquid evaporates (if someone in your house doesn't like big tomato pieces, give the tomatoes a whirl in the blender first. If you do this, it is harder to tell that the liquid has cooked down, but basically the tomatoes will get thicker.)

Add
1 cup Arborio (short grain) rice--I used Mahatma Valencia Rice (which doesn't actually say arborio, but is short grain rice)

Cook, stirring until rice is translucent, about 1 to 2 minutes.

Add
1 can (14.5 oz) chicken broth and chicken pieces, bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for about 10 minutes.

Add 1 lb shrimp (peeled and deveined), pushing down into liquid to cover (traditionally, here you would add peas (the original recipe called for one small box of frozen peas, but my husband doesn't like them, so I left them out).  Replace lid and cook 4 to 6 minutes longer.  Eat!  and then, because it is sooooooooooooooooooo good, eat some more and then eat leftover the next day.  (This makes a lot of food for 2 people.)

Finally a quick note about my dissertation.  It has passed both the final approval from my committee and the final formatting/mechanical check from the graduate school.  And it all happened days before the deadline! YAY!  I know I posted these before, but just because I can:

8 years + too many classes to count + 3 comprehensive exams + 150 pages or 46, 354 words = one Ph.D in Public Adminstration!