Roast Chicken Risotto

Roast Chicken Risotto

March 17, 2011

All day Monday I was tossing around different ideas for how to create the second half of my Stretch It post based on roast chicken. We had a lot of chicken in the fridge from the night before. Chicken Quesadillas? A little boring maybe. Tortilla soup? I didn’t have time to think through something I’ve never made before. I even thought of cheating and running the Chicken Noodle Soup post we created for The 20 Minute Supper Club (we’re doing a month’s worth of weekly posts for them) but we’re saving that one for now. On my way to pick up Esme I popped into my favourite bookstore: Type on Queen West. I could spend hours there poking around, chatting to the lovely staff but on Monday I had a mission. Straight to the cook books, on the hunt for inspiration. And like so many great ideas, when I came across it it seemed so obvious. In a Nigel Slater cookbook – I think it was Real Cooking, sorry I’m not completely sure – I found Roast Chicken Risotto. Ding, ding, ding!

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Roast Chicken Risotto

Ingredients

  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 onion, chopped finely
  • 2 celery stalks, chopped finely
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 3 or 4 thyme branches, leaves pulled off by sliding a pinched thumb and index finger the wrong way
  • 1 cup arborio rice
  • 1 cup white wine (I didn't have any so used - sacrilege! - half a cup of Lillet and half a cup of water)
  • 4 cups chicken stock (I made my own by simmering the carcass with a chopped onion, a chopped carrot and two bay leaves for 30 minutes)
  • 2 cups roasted chicken, cubed
  • 1 cup Parmesan, grated
  • a good squeeze of lemon juice
  • salt and pepper to taste

Method

In a big, heavy bottomed pan, warm up the olive oil.

Add onion, garlic, celery and thyme and allow to soften, about five minutes.

Add the rice and allow it to absorb the oil and cook for a minute or two.

Add the wine and allow it to sizzle and absorb into the rice.

Slowly, half cup by half cup, add the stock, allow the rice to drink up each small batch before adding the next.

Stir frequently so the rice doesn't stick to the bottom of your pot.

Once all the liquid has been added, stir in your chicken pieces and cheese. Add the squeeze of lemon. Taste before adding salt and pepper.

 

The result is so creamy and satisfying – it’s like the risotto version of a chicken pot pie. Everybody loved it. Sadly, there were no leftovers!

Tags RisottoDinnerleftoversroast chicken
Category By IngredientBy Meal TypeDinnerGrains & RicePoultry

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