What rice actually goes in paella

One question comes up before almost every first attempt at paella: which rice? Here's the short, sourced answer — and why it matters beyond taste.

Short-grain, not long-grain

Traditional paella uses a short to medium-grain, round Spanish rice — Bomba, Calasparra, or Sénia are the varieties most consistently named by Spanish food sources. Long-grain rice, including basmati, doesn't absorb stock the same way these varieties do, and gives a different, less traditional texture as a result. It's not a small stylistic difference: swapping in a long-grain rice changes how the dish behaves in the pan, not just how it looks on the plate.

How much liquid

Spanish Sabores gives a general water-to-rice ratio of roughly two and a half to three parts liquid per part of rice. Treat that as a starting point rather than a guaranteed result — pan size, your stove/hob's actual heat output, and even altitude all change how much liquid the rice really absorbs on the day. Watching the pan rather than only measuring by the clock is the more reliable approach most sources describe, though the exact figure to start from is the one above.

Why it matters beyond texture

Rice type is one of the first things people ask about before cooking paella for the first time, and it's easy to see why: get a long-grain variety instead of a short-grain one and the rest of the recipe won't behave as written, however good the pan or the heat source is — the liquid ratio above assumes a short-grain rice, not a long-grain substitute, so swapping the rice changes more than the ratio needs adjusting for.

Rice type is also the first of three factors behind getting a good socarrat — the crispy layer that forms at the bottom of the pan — which we cover in a separate guide, including the pan-surface and technique factors that go alongside it. How much rice you're cooking at once also depends on your pan size, which our pan sizes guide covers separately.

See also: how socarrat actually forms, paella pan sizes, and how a paella pan works.

Sources (accessed 2026-09-04): Spanish Sabores, "Traditional Spanish Paella Recipe (Paella Valenciana)", for the named rice varieties, the long-grain caveat, and the water-to-rice ratio. Per-variety ratios for Bomba versus Calasparra specifically, and any claim about how these grains expand while cooking, are not stated here because no source we opened supports a specific figure for either.