Not sure if there really IS a "recipe" for paella.
There are a few must haves...and they are sausage of some sort and seafood of some sort, rice, peas and saffron.

I would not use a Dutch oven but a huge fry pan, or lacking that the bottom half of a covered roaster.
Start with some oil and add cup up onion, and after a bit tomato cut up...some add tomato puree later and skip this step...then long grain rice...about 1/3 to 1/2 cup per people you want to serve, stif, but don't brown the rice...then add broth...fish, veggie broth, chicken broth or a combo ...about 2 cups per cup of rice...then the seafood af after the rice is partly cooked and peas...maybe chicken, which you have previously browned in a fry pan...or sausage which you have also pre browned. The seafood can be squid, shrimp clams, mussels and all of the above...lastly add a generous pinch of saffron a couple of crab claws, perhaps a bit more broth, and cook just until the rice is done but with a bite.

There are as many ways of making paella as there are fish in the sea....of villages in Spain! And all are good.
Linda C

Here is a recipe posted on the CF a while back by AnnT. I think your son could adjust it to fit his tastes. It will give him an idea what a traditonal paella is. I would use a large shallow fry pan in place of the paella pan.

Chicken and Seafood Paella

6 cups very strong chicken broth, preferably homemade
1/2 teaspoon saffron
1 small onion peeled
2 small chicken or chicken pieces
salt
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 pound Chorizo sauces cut into 1/4 inch slices
1 large pork chop, boned and diced
1/4 pound piece of cured ham, diced
1 medium onion chopped
4 green onions chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 pimientos, homemade or bottled, diced
1 pound small or medium shrimp shelled
2 small lobsters, divided into tail sections and claws
or 4 lobster tails, split lengthwise, or 8 king crab claws or 8 jumbo shrimp in their shells
3 cups short-grain rice
5 tablespoons chopped parsley
2 bay leaves, crumbled
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 pound fresh or frozen peas
18 clams, cleaned
18 mussels, srubbed
Lemon Wedges for garnish
Chopped Parsley for Garnish
. Heat the broth with the saffron and the whole onion. Cover and simmer
15 minutes.

Remove onion from broth - you neeed exactly 5 1/2 cups of broth.

Cut chicken into small serving pieces - whole breasts cut into 4 parts
and each thigh into 2 parts, the bony tip of the leg chopped off, the
wing tip discarded and the rest of the wings separated into two parts.
Dry pieces well and sprinkle with salt. In a metal paella pan, with
about a 15 inch base, heat the oil. Add the chicken pieces and fry over
high heat until golden. Remove to a warm platter. Add the chorizo,
pork and ham to the pan and stir fry about 10 minutes. Add the chopped
oinion, green onions, garlic and pimientos and saute until the onion is
wilted. Add the srimp and teh lobster and saute about 3 mintues more,
or until the shrimp and lobster barely turn pink (the lobsters will
cook more in the oven). Remove the shrimp and the lobster to the
platter with the chicken. Add the rice to the pan and stir to coat it
well with the oil. Sprinkle in the 5 tablespoons chopped parsley and
the crumbled bay leaves. (Make in advance up to this point).

Stir in the chicken broth, boiling hot, the wine, lemon juice and peas.
Salt to taste. Bring to a boil and cook, uncovered and stirring
occasionally, over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes. Bury the
shrimp and the chicken in the rice. Add the clams and the mussels,
pusing them into the rice with the edge that will open facing up.
Decorate the paella with the lobster pieces, then bake at 325F
uncovered for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit on top of
the stove, lightly covered with foil for about 10 minutes. To serve ,
decorate with lemon wedges and chopped parsley.

Source:Penelope Casas: The Foods and Wines of Spain/posted by Ann T.

Here's a recipe which is pretty typical of the paellas served here in Spain. Your son could leave out the squid if he doesn't care for it. Does he like mussels and prawns? Still there are many ways to make a paella, other than the traditional Paella Valenciana which uses plenty of seafood. If you don't have a paella pan then any wide, shallow round heavy bottomed pan will do. A large cast iron frying pan with shallow, sloping sides should be fine.

PAELLA

Ingredients:

1 dozen clams or mussels
1/2 kilo/1 lb prawns
1 small chicken cut up
200 grams / 7 oz boneless pork
75 ml/ 2 1/2 fl oz olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1 bay leaf
1 small onion, minced
2 green peppers
1 squid (about 300 gr/10 oz)
2 large tomatoes, peeled
1/2 kilo/1lb short grain rice
1 1/4 litres/2 1/4 pints hot liquid
1/2 teasp saffron (1/2 gr)
10 peppercorns
1/2 teasp sweet paprika
2 teasp salt
1 small tin red pimento
100 gr/3 1/2 oz cooked peas

1. Scrub the clams or mussels and steam them open. Black mussel shells with their creamy-orange flesh are especially attractive. Remove a half shell and discard, reserving shellfish on one shell. Strain and reserve the liquid.

2. Peel the prawns, saving several, unpeeled, for garnish. Cook the unpeeled ones in a little water and set aside. Prawn shells can be boiled in water for 15 minutes, then strained, and the liquid reserved for cooking the rice.

3. Cut the chicken into very small serving pieces. Typically in Spain it would be hacked into tiny pieces for quick cooking, which unfortunately makes for bone splinters. If desired, wings, back and neck can be cooked separately for stock. Cut the pork into small cubes.

4. In the paella pan heat half the oil and in it toast the garlic and bay-leaf. Remove and set aside.

5. In the same oil, slowly brown the chicken pieces with the pork. The chicken should be half-cooked in the browning process.

6. Now add the minced onion, and green pepper cut in strips to the oil. Sauté a few minutes.

7. Add the pieces of cleaned squid and fry for several minutes.

8. Add the chopped tomatoes and raise the heat to high so that they 'fry' in the oil. Add remaining oil at this point and heat well.

9. Combine the reserved cooking liquids - prawn, mussel and chicken - plus water. You should have approximately double the volume of liquid to rice, i.e., 2 cups rice, 4 cups liquid. Add the liquid to the paella pan and cook on a high heat.

10. In a mortar or teacup crush the saffron, peppercorns, paprika, garlic, bay-leaf and salt. Dilute with a little liquid from the pan, or in a little white wine, and add to the paella. Stir it in well. Cook on a medium heat until chicken is partially cooked. 5 minutes. Add the peeled prawns.

11. Add the rice to the boiling liquid in the pan and stir it to distribute evenly. (Or, add rice to the pan first and then add boiling liquid.)

12. Cook for a few minutes at high heat, then turn the heat down and let the paella continue cooking. Shake the pan occasionally, but do not stir the rice, as this breaks the grains. The rice will crust slightly on the bottom, but should not scorch. Add a little more liquid into the centre as necessary.

13. Decorate the top with the reserved clams and mussels on the half shell, cooked, unpeeled prawns, strips of red pimento and cooked peas.

14. Remove the paella from the heat when all the liquid is absorbed and rice still slightly resistant. Let it sit 5 - 10 minutes before serving. (You may place it in a very low oven for 10 minutes.) Serve the paella with quartered lemons as garnish.

Source: 'The Best of Spanish Cooking'
Janet Mendel
Fuengirola, Spain.

P.S. Your son might enjoy reading about the way these fellows made their paella - at the link below !

SharonCb