Couscous Paella — A Table Full of People Who Earned This Meal

We won. Twenty-one to seventeen. Same exact score as the regular season. Different game. Different story. We trailed by three at halftime. We trailed by ten at the end of the third quarter. We scored twice in the fourth — a Diego touchdown on a fade, and the shovel pass to the tight end on third-and-eight from their twenty-six that turned into a forty-yard run because Cherry Creek's linebackers had bitten on a run fake exactly the way we had drawn it up — and we held them on their final drive when Daquan got a sack on third-and-six and Anthony got a pass breakup on fourth-and-six. The clock ran out. We were going to the state final.

I am writing this Saturday morning. I have not slept. I went home from the game at one in the morning and lay in bed staring at the ceiling. I got up at five. Lisa is asleep. The kids are asleep. Diego is asleep — he had Hayley over briefly last night, Lisa let her stay until eleven, then drove her home. The house is quiet. The coffee is brewing. The dog tags are on the chain on the kitchen counter where I had put them down when I came home. They will go back on at six.

The state final is in two weeks. December seventh. At Mile High. Against — well, the other side of the bracket has a semifinal Saturday afternoon, and we will know our opponent by tomorrow night. The two contenders are Pomona, the two seed, and a 5A school from the Springs called Vista Ridge. Pomona is the favorite. Pomona has gone twelve and oh. Pomona is the most disciplined team in the state. Pomona is going to be hard.

Diego came up to me on the field after the game last night. He had tears in his eyes. He said, "Dad, we are going to state." I said, "Yeah, mijo, we are going to state." He hugged me. He hugged me with his pads still on, his helmet in his hand, his eyes wet. The team was around us. The boys were dogpiling on each other on the twenty-yard line. Mike Reyes was hugging Tony Davis. The school AD was hugging the trainer. The crowd in the home-side bleachers was screaming. The opposing team was walking off the field with their heads down.

The locker room afterward was the loudest locker room I have ever stood in. The boys were screaming. The seniors were singing the school fight song at the top of their lungs. Daquan was on a folding chair being carried around the room by three of his teammates. Marcus was on his knees with his hands on his head, crying with joy in a way that I do not think Marcus has ever cried before. The team chaplain stepped in at the end of the celebration and said a prayer. We took a knee. The room got quiet. The chaplain said, "Lord, we thank you for this team. We thank you for these brothers. We thank you for this coach. We thank you for the chance to play one more game. Help us prepare. Help us play with honor. Help us walk off whatever field we end up on knowing we did the work." The team said amen.

I gave a short speech. I said, "Boys. Two weeks. One game. The biggest game any of you will ever play in until you become fathers and your kids start playing. Get rested. Get healthy. Get focused. We have one practice tomorrow. Sunday is off. Monday we get back to it. Mile High in two weeks. Win or lose, walk off that field with your head up. I love you boys."

Saturday morning, six in the morning. Coffee. Dog tags. Notebook. The notebook is open. I am writing the things I need to remember for the next two weeks. I wrote: do not look ahead too far. I wrote: take care of Lisa. I wrote: be present for the kids. I wrote: call Mamá Wednesday. I wrote: write Diego a letter on Thursday before the game. I wrote: wear the dog tags. I wrote: pray.

I will smoke a brisket today. The brisket is going to be a small one, just for the family, for a celebration meal at six tonight. We are going to have everyone over — Lisa's sister and her family, my sister Patricia from El Paso who happened to be in town this week visiting Lisa's sister (a coincidence I had not realized until Friday morning), Hayley's parents, Tony Davis and his wife, Mike Reyes and his wife. We are going to eat. We are going to celebrate the win without celebrating it too loud, because the work is not done. The state final is the work. We are going to celebrate one game in advance of the actual final, because you have to mark these moments, and because the boys are not the only ones who needed to take a deep breath last night.

The road bends. Feed your people. The game is won at the table. The game is also won, sometimes, on the third-and-eight shovel pass to the tight end in the fourth quarter of a state semifinal in November, when the line bites on the run fake and the play opens up exactly the way you drew it up on a whiteboard at midnight on a Tuesday three weeks ago.

I said I was going to smoke a brisket, and I still might do that for the final — but when Patricia called me from Lisa’s sister’s house Saturday morning and said she was bringing twelve people by at six, I pivoted to the Couscous Paella because it scales and it feeds and it fills a table the right way. There is something about a paella-style dish that says everyone belongs here — the way the pan is big, the way it sits in the middle of the table, the way people reach. That was the right energy for last night. We marked the moment. We fed our people. The brisket is for Mile High.

Couscous Paella

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 35 min | Total Time: 55 min | Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1/2 lb andouille or Spanish chorizo, sliced into coins
• 1/2 lb large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes, drained
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon saffron threads, crushed (or an extra 1/4 tsp turmeric)
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• 2 cups Israeli (pearl) couscous
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges

Instructions

1. Sear the proteins. Heat olive oil in a large, deep skillet or wide Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Season chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Add chicken and chorizo to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until chicken is browned on the outside, about 5–6 minutes. Remove to a plate and set aside.
2. Build the sofrito base. In the same pan, reduce heat to medium. Add onion and both bell peppers. Cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, smoked paprika, turmeric, saffron, and cumin. Stir and cook 1 minute until fragrant.
3. Add tomatoes and broth. Stir in the drained diced tomatoes. Pour in the chicken broth and bring to a gentle boil, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
4. Add couscous and return proteins. Stir in the pearl couscous. Return the chicken and chorizo to the pan. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook for 12–15 minutes, stirring once halfway through, until couscous is tender and has absorbed most of the liquid.
5. Finish with shrimp and peas. Nestle the shrimp into the top of the couscous mixture. Scatter the frozen peas over everything. Replace the lid and cook an additional 4–5 minutes until shrimp are pink and cooked through and peas are warmed.
6. Rest and serve. Remove from heat and let the pan rest uncovered for 3 minutes. Scatter fresh parsley over the top. Bring the whole pan to the table with lemon wedges on the side for squeezing.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 420 | Protein: 34g | Fat: 14g | Carbs: 38g | Fiber: 3g | Sodium: 780mg