Chicken and Parmesan Risotto

My relationship with risotto can only be described as love hate. I would choose it off the menu any day and could eat it by the bucket load, every day of the week. It would definitely make my desert island food top five because there are endless options. 

You can dress it up as something fancy or keep it simple. You can make it hearty and creamy to warm you up in the winter, or make it light, fresh and packed full of seasonal vegetables for a special summer's day feast.  

However before we can enjoy all these wonderful options, we have to master the basics... and that takes time and patience.

Making a delicious risotto is definitely a labour of love. It involves giving what is basically a pot of rice your undivided attention for an hour or so, gently stirring and adding stock until the rice is cooked. This is not a meal to make if you are pressed for time and want a quick food fix. You need to be in the mood to just stand and cook. I always think that risotto cooking is made more bearable by drinking a glass of wine for every glass you have to add to the pot. 

The upside of all the time spent making this dish is the end product. This chicken risotto is wonderfully creamy and packed full of flavour. And once you've made it a few times it will no longer seem like challenge at all.

This recipe is extremely thin on the vegetable front... well, actually, there are no vegetables to be found in it at all ... however peas would work well and bring a little colour to the dish. I would do this, however I not the greatest pea fan so I tend to leave them out. If you do want to add peas, here is what to do.

• Pour the peas into the small stock saucepan when you have a few ladles-worth left (Somewhere between steps 7 and 8!).
• Keep adding the stock one ladle at a time, as before. The peas will either keep cooking in the stock, or continue cooking in the risotto as they are added.

Whilst we're on the topic of vegetables,  I am currently working on a mushroom risotto so a 'healthier' risotto option will hopefully appear soon (it's a little tricky as my boyfriend really dislikes them... but I am hoping to change that!). 

Another quick note on the recipe. The amount of parmesan listed below is not set in stone, it depends on what your personal preference is and also the cheese you are using. So keep tasting and adding as you go.

Also, I am struggling to make it look super appetising in the photos I took... BUT I promise you it is incredible! 

CHICKEN RISOTTO

Difficulty

 Hard

Timing

1 ½ hours

Serves: 4

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion ~ finely chopped
• 1 clove of garlic ~ finely chopped
• 3 chicken breast ~ chopped into bite size chunks
• 400g arborio rice
• 1 glass of dry white wine
• 1 litre of chicken stock (home-made or reduced-salt store-bought!)
• 100g butter
• 50g parmesan cheese ~ finely grated
• 1 ball of mozzarella ~ torn up into little chunks

METHOD

1. Place 25g of butter in a frying pan and fry your chicken pieces until they are just cooked through. *This shouldn't take more than 7-8 minutes.
2. Now your chicken is cooked, set it to one side.
3. Heat your stock in a small saucepan. * The stock needs to be hot when added to the risotto.
4. In a large saucepan, place the oil, chopped onion, garlic and 25g of the butter. Cook on a medium heat until the onions start to soften.
5. Now add your arborio rice and turn up the heat a little. Keep stirring the rice as it lightly fries. Make sure the rice has started to turn translucent before moving onto the next step. *This is an important step, you need to fry the rice off a little so that it absorbs the stock and becomes nice and soft, however, you don't want to cook the rice as then you will 'seal' it and it won't absorb anything! So keep stirring and when the rice starts to turn translucent, move on to step 6.
6. Pour in the white wine and stir until the liquid has been absorbed by the rice. *Leaving the wine to be absorbed means that the harsh alcohol flavour will evaporate.
7. Turn the heat down and start adding the hot stock, one ladle at a time. Each time you add a ladle of stock, keep stirring and mixing everything together, and only add another ladle when all the liquid has been absorbed. 
8. Keep adding stock until the rice is cooked properly. *As you are adding the stock, keep tasting the rice. When cooked, it should still have a bit of 'bite' to it.
9. Turn off the heat. Add the parmesan, mozzarella and the last 50g butter to the risotto. Mix together.
10. Place a lid on the saucepan and leave for a couple of minutes.
11. Serve with some fresh baguette.

So there you go, one Chicken Risotto recipe. This dish is another that you can pour leftovers into. For example, if you have any left over roast chicken, just use that rather than buying fresh, or you could use some nice roasted ham instead. 

I have just eaten way too much of this for dinner and have now collapsed on the sofa to recover. It was super delicious though, well worth it....and weirdly enough, didn't take as long as usual which is a big YAY! Maybe my french oven has finally given in and realised that I am going to keep on using it, everyday, no matter how terrible it is! I guess next week will be the test as I have to cook lots of Victoria Sponge Cakes for my boyfriend's lessons on English food. Lucky students, I don't remember my teachers ever bringing in food for me. 

Good luck and have fun! 

x