Paella Grits

Yum

*Special Black History Month Post* This recipe includes all the classic flavors of paella—shrimp, sausage, red peppers and more—over a bed of saffron quick grits to cut cooking time in half compared to traditional paella.

Why Make Paella Grits

• A new way to enjoy grits: get all the satisfaction of shrimp and grits, but with an international twist.
• Faster than traditional Paella: Thanks to quick grits vs. rice and cutting down the variety of seafood ingredients involved, you can make this recipe in about 20 minutes!
• One Pot Wonder: Everything is cooked in one single pot for fewer dishes and less stress.
• Great for Brunch, lunch or dinner: These grits can make a filling meal for any meal of the day!

The Story of Paella Grits

This recipe has been a long time coming. It started with me, in my pajamas on a cold (like frigid) Sunday morning in NYC during my early(er) blogging days. Still in my pajamas, I was looking around my house for recipe inspiration (still a creativity hack of mine) to figure out what to make. Luckily, my process has much improved since then.

As a black person, I almost always have grits in my house, but didn’t just want to do a shrimp and grits thing and started thinking of ways to make them unique—I’d recently realized that I bought saffron from Trader Joe’s on a whim (the cheapest place I’d found to buy it) . Instead I realized that I had many of the ingredients to make them inspired and got to work. Since my first iteration, I’ve swapped turkey bacon out for sausage, cooked the grits in chicken broth…and got way better at food photography (scroll down for my OG pic of the recipe.

The result has been something I’m waayyy happier with and is totally worth adding to your brunch table.

What Are Grits?

The History of grits

Grits are a uniquely American dish made of ground corn that have roots going back to native America, though they’re largely considered a quintessentially southern dish now. There are many ways to enjoy grits—they can be made savory (aka the right way to eat them), cooked with butter, cheese, and/or shrimp or fried catfish—or sweetened (the wrong way to eat them) with sugar. As you can probably tell, there’s a huge debate on the best way to eat them.

Today, grits are enjoyed across the country as a brunch staple, but they always have a special cultural significance to the black community.

What Is Paella?

Traditional paella is a Spanish rice dish that usually includes saffron and a variety of veggies (usually peas, peppers onions and garlic) and meats, such as shellfish (shrimp, muscles, clams, etc), chicken and chorizo. All ingredients are usually cooked together in a large pan and there’s a science to adding each ingredient at the right time to ensure all everything is perfectly cooked by the time the dish is ready to be served.

Because this recipe uses quick grits instead of rice, I decided to cook the grits separately from the other ingredients (like the meats and veggies), and serve them on top of the grits in a classic ‘shrimp and grits’ style. This allows everything to cook more evenly and, obviously, allows for a prettier presentation when served (because let’s be honest, the camera—I mean, our eyes—always eat first). To keep this recipe quick and manageable,

What Ingredients Do I Need To Make Paella Grits?

Grits Toppings

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 chicken sausage 
• 5 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon shallots 
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
• ½ teaspoon fresh cracked pepper
• 1/16 teaspoon  saffron (½ pinch) 
• ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
• ¼ cayenne pepper
• ⅓ cup frozen peas 
• ¼ of a red bell pepper
• 6 large shrimp 

Grits

• 2 cups chicken broth
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• ⅛ teaspoon saffron (1 pinch)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
• ½ cup quick grits

How to Make Paella Grits

1. Prepare your veggies and meats. Mince 5 garlic cloves and 1 tablespoon of shallots. Slice ¼ red bell peppers lengthwise to about ½ an inch thickness, then cut in half. Cut sausage into half moon shapes to about ¼ inch thickness.
2. Cook Your Sausage. Heat olive oil in a medium-sized nonstick pot on medium heat. Add sausages and cook for about 5 minutes. Stir every so often with a wooden spoon until mostly cooked.
3. Add Your Veggies and shrimp. Add garlic, shallot and red bell pepper, then add saffron, ½ teaspoon of salt, pepper, smoked paprika, stir to combine, then cook for 2-3 minutes until garlic and shallot are translucent, stirring frequently to prevent burning of garlic and shallot. Add frozen shrimp and peas, and stir until covered with veggies and seasonings so that they get seasoned and so the heat from the other ingredients cooks them more quickly. Add other half teaspoon of salt, cover and cook for another 5 minutes, stirring regularly to prevent burning.
4. Put veggies and meat aside. Once veggies and meats are fully cooked, scoop veggies and meat into a large bowl and cover to retain heat, attempting to keep as much of the oil in the pot as possible (but it’s okay if you scoop some out of the pan). The purpose here is to keep as much flavor in the pot to season the grits as possible.
5. Cook Your Grits. Pour chicken broth into pot, and all seasonings into to broth and bring to a boil. Once broth is boiling add grits, turn heat down to low and cover until cooked (about 7 minutes). Add additional water if needed—grits should be about the consistency of mashed potatoes.
6. Serve. Portion grits into two bowls, then divide meat and veggies on top of each both and serve.

Will Grits Be Good The Next Day?

While you can definitely eat grits the next day, I wouldn’t recommend it. Grits are best eaten fresh when their texture is still smooth and creamy. Because grits are so absorbent, when left to cool, they tend to stiffen up into a solid and no amount of microwaving will help. Truly the best way to revive grits would be to add additional liquid, cook them in a pot (again), and break up the solid pieces. I would not recommend that for this recipe in particular because it could throw off the balance of flavors, and if all of your grits are already topped with the veggies and shrimp, you’ll end up with an overcooked much. Gross.

If making this dish for a brunch, I would recommend making it right before you plan to eat and serving it fresh.