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Chicken, Mushroom and Leek Risotto

Author Danijela Armitage
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Ingredients:  

  • 500 g boneless chicken thigh
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 tsp dried rosemary
  • Olive oil
  • 1 leek
  • 400 g button mushrooms
  • 1 cup arbioio rice
  • 750 ml chicken stock
  • A few big handfuls of baby spinach
  • ½  cup frozen peas
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • A big handful of fresh parsley or basil
  • 1 Tbsp butter
  • ¼  cup parmesan cheese, or more to taste
  • Salt and pepper, to taste

Method:

  • Line a tray with baking paper. Set oven to bake 200 degrees Celsius.
  • Remove chicken thigh from packaging. Wash and pat dry with paper towel. Place on tray and drizzle with oil, sprinkle over salt and pepper (a few good turns or grinds of the shaker), and dried oregano and rosemary. Toss well. Place tray into the oven for 20 minutes, or until cooked. Once cooked, remove from oven and keep aside.
  • Meanwhile, finely slice the white part of leek and some of the green (discard tougher green part near top of leaves). Finely slice mushrooms. Grate garlic, or finely slice.
  • Heat a large deep fry-pan or a soup pot with a good drizzle of olive oil over a medium-low heat. Add mushrooms and cook for about 8-10 minutes or until they’ve shrunk a fair bit. Set aside in a dish.
  • Wipe down fry-pan, add a drizzle of oil and heat. Add leek and garlic. Cook over a medium heat for five minutes, or until the leek has softened.
  • Add rice and sauté over heat for a minute, or until you get a nutty smell coming from the rice - be careful not to burn it!
  • Add ½ cup of stock, stirring almost constantly until the stock absorbs - this will take a bit of time (labour of love!). The heat should be medium with a slight simmer, and you want the mixture to be cooking, but not boiling. Continue to add the stock, ½ cup at a time, until the rice is “al dente” – cooked through but not mushy. If you run out of stock before it’s cooked, or it gets a bit stiff, just add a splash of boiling water instead.
  • Mix through the spinach, peas, cooked mushrooms and finely sliced parsley or basil. Slice chook and add. If you have any chicken juices or liquid in the pan the chook cooked in, tip it not the risotto and mix - this will add lovely flavour! Add butter, parmesan cheese and a few good grinds of the salt and pepper shaker. Taste test and adjust salt until it tastes seasoned to you. Feel free to add more cheese if desired!

Notes:

Vegetarian? Trade out the chook for a tin of drained and rinsed butterbeans.
No leek?Trade for a brown onion.