Chicken with mushroom "risotto"

If you're looking for a recipe for Mushroom Risotto, this is not the place! (Well, certainly not for the purist). My dish includes rice cooked using the risotto method, but it does not claim to be a perfect example of the genre.

Well, now that we've cleared that up, let me tell you about this dish I made yesterday. It consisted of rice and mushrooms cooked like a risotto, along with chicken breasts fried in butter, and served with broccoli and carrots.

Does that look nice, or what?  Here's the recipe:-

"Pan-fried Chicken breasts with Mushroom Risotto"

Ingredients (serves 2)

2 chicken breasts, preferably with skin left on

180g risotto rice (I used Arborio)

200g mushrooms, sliced (I used Chestnut mushrooms, but use whatever you like / have)

1 onion, peeled and finely diced

1 large clove garlic, peeled and crushed

Approx 1 litre chicken or vegetable stock

Approx 1 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves

Juice of half a lemon

25g butter

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Vegetables to accompany - according to preference (I used carrots and broccoli - mainly to add lots of colour to what would otherwise be a very brown-coloured dish!)

Method

Heat the stock in a small saucepan, until nearly boiling

Using 1 Tbsp oil, fry the onion gently in a large heavy pan

When the onion is translucent but not brown, add the crushed garlic and cook for 1 more minute, stirring to avoid burning

Add the rice and stir thoroughly into the oily onions to ensure it is well coated

Fry for a minute or so, being careful not to let the rice go brown

Add a ladleful of hot stock and stir until the rice has absorbed it

Add another ladleful of hot stock - ditto

Keep adding stock a little at a time, and stirring frequently

To cook the risotto will probably take about 45 minutes all told, so after about 20 / 25 minutes, start frying your chicken. The chicken breasts I used were very big and thick so I wanted to give them time to cook all the way through. In restrospect it might have been better to halve them.

Frying chicken probably doesn't need much explanation, but for what it's worth, I fried mine in butter with some oil added to stop it burning. I browned the meat (skin side first) over a high heat and then turned the heat down to cook the meat through. When you thik the chicken is cooked, test by piercing with a sharp knife. If the juices run clear you are OK, but if they are pink, cook for a bit longer.

Meanwhile...

Using the other 1 Tbsp oil in a frying-pan, fry the mushrooms

When they are cooked, add them to the rice pan, which by now will be starting to fill up with slowly swelling rice.

Add the Thyme leaves and salt and pepper to taste

Keep adding the stock until the rice has gone soft and creamy. Not too soft though - it needs to have some texture still. (Think "al dente" )

When you judge that the rice is done, squeeze the juice of half a lemon over it, turn off the heat, cover the pan and let it rest for about 5 minutes before serving. I placed the chicken on top of the risotto purely for presentational purposes.

When plated-up, add the vegatables...

Did you notice that I used our new cast-iron pan? We are using it so much that it barely ever gets put away!