Chicken & Mushroom Risotto

Chicken and Mushroom Risotto is very popular in Australia. This should take around 30 minutes to make and can be reheated in a microwave the next day, just add a little water before microwaving.

You can omit chicken and have 3 or 4 different variety of mushrooms for a full vegetarian version, (using veg stock of course).

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts, no skin, chopped
• 1 large onion, diced
• ½ leek, washed and sliced
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 10 button mushrooms,
• 1 ½ cups Arborio Rice
• ¾ cup white wine
• 4 cups chicken stock, heated
• 50g Parmesan Cheese, freshly grated
• Cracked Pepper
• 4 cloves garlic
• Handful chopped parsley
• Sliver of butter
• 1 tsp dried oregano

Method

1. Place your stock in a pot and simmer over low heat.
2. In a large pan, heat  1 tbsp olive oil and add chicken.  Cook chicken for 5 mins until you have browned.  Take off and set aside, will further cook in risotto.
3. Back in your pan heat 1 tbsp. olive oil and sauté onion for 5 mins, then add leek and cook a further 3 mins on low heat.  Don’t let this burn as you want them nice and translucent.
4. Now add rice, stirring to incorporate the onion and leek.
5. Now add the white wine, med heat.   Stirring, the rice will absorb the wine, approx. 3 mins.
6. Now add a ladle of the stock, stirring.  The rice will absorb, add another ladle.
7. After this add half the chopped mushrooms.  Stirring with another ladle of stock.
8. When liquid has absorbed, add crushed garlic, stirring with another ladle of stock.
9. Season with S & P to taste, add oregano and stir in another ladle of stock.
10. Add remaining mushrooms, another ladle of stock.
11. At this stage, should have been cooking around 20 mins. Add chicken back to pan and incorporate with parsley.
12.  Bite one of the rice and see how soft or hard, this will determine how much longer to cook.  Keep adding more stock if needs more cooking.
13. Once rice is to your satisfaction, add a sliver of butter and parmesan cheese, mixing all together.
14. Serve immediately.