Chicken Risotto

Italian cuisine is distinguished by the generous use of vegetables, rice and pasta, fish, seafood and poultry meat. Beef residents of Italy eat infrequently, pork - and even less. Therefore, this traditional dish of Italian cuisine, as risotto, is most often prepared with vegetables, mushrooms, seafood and chicken fillets. Chicken risotto is a hearty dish made from rice using a unique recipe, according to which, at the first stage, rice is fried in butter. The uniqueness of the technology is not limited to this, so before you start cooking chicken risotto, you need to get acquainted with the features of technology.

Cooking Features

In the north of Italy, hostess risottos are cooked at least once a week, and they see nothing complicated in this process. So if we study the features of cooking this dish and just put it into practice, our compatriots will not have any difficulties with this.

The main secret is to use the right rice. It needs to be a high starch variety. These include Italian varieties of arborio, carnaroli, vialone nano. If you cannot get one of these varieties of rice, you can replace it with another variety of round grain rice, which also contains quite a lot of starch.
An important feature of risotto cooking technology is, as already mentioned, its roasting at the first stage of cooking. In the north of Italy, for this purpose, butter is most often used; in other regions, it is sometimes mixed with olive oil or replaced with olive oil. Of course, you can use another vegetable oil, but the taste will not be the same.
At the second stage of cooking risotto with chicken or other ingredients, rice is stewed in dry white wine until alcohol is partially absorbed into rice and partially evaporated.
In the next step, rice is cooked in water or broth. It is desirable that the liquid was warm. Chicken broth is most suitable for cooking chicken risotto. It will be tastier if you cook it yourself from poultry, but not in cubes.
It is not necessary to add all the broth at once, as in this case, the rice will cook, and in risotto it should be slightly undercooked inside. Therefore, the broth is added in portions and rice is cooked in it, stirring constantly until the broth is completely absorbed. Only after this, the next part is introduced. And so do until the broth is over.
It is easy to calculate the required amount of broth for risotto: 0, 5 l of broth is required per 100 g of dry rice cereal.
If risotto is made with chicken or other foods, then usually these foods are fried in another pan and combined with rice only when the last portion of broth is added.
Onions and other vegetables, as well as cheese, are often added to risotto. It is preferable to cut the onion finely, since its large pieces do not decorate the dish. Cheese is rubbed as small as possible and added at the very end of cooking. Preference is given to hard varieties of cheese, in particular parmesan.
To add a nice creamy taste to the risotto, butter or fat cream may be added to it at the last stage of cooking.

There are a lot of recipes for risotto with chicken, and they may differ significantly from each other. Therefore, when cooking this dish, you should not ignore the recommendations that accompany each particular recipe.

Classic chicken risotto recipe

Composition:

rice - 0, 2 kg;
chicken breast fillet - 0, 4 kg;
chicken broth - 1 l;
dry white wine - 0, 2 l;
saffron - at the tip of a knife;
onions - 0, 3 kg;
garlic - 2 cloves;
bay leaf - 2 pcs .;
Parmesan cheese - 150 g;
olive oil - 150 ml;
butter - 50 g;
salt, seasonings - to taste.

Method of preparation:

Rinse chicken breast fillet, fill with water in the amount of 1, 2 liters. Put on the fire. When the water boils, remove the foam, put two small bulbs in the pan, after cleansing them. If desired, you can add parsley root and celery, carrots, which are not listed in the recipe. After 10 minutes, add salt, pepper, bay leaf. Cook for another 10 minutes and remove the chicken fillet from the pan, strain the broth.
Cool the fillet and cut into small pieces. Brown them in a frying pan with a little olive oil.
Peel the remaining onion and cut it into very small pieces.
In a deep frying pan, best of all, cast iron, heat the remaining olive oil. Put the onion in it and fry over low heat until it becomes soft and almost completely transparent.
Finely chop the garlic, add to the onion. After 2-3 minutes, put the rice in the pan.
Fry rice, stirring all the time, for 5 minutes.
Pour the wine in to the rice and boil it in it.
When the smell of alcohol ceases to be felt, add a glass of broth. When it is absorbed into the rice, enter a new batch of broth and continue until the broth is complete. The rice at this time must be constantly stirred.
Put the chicken pieces together with the last portion of the broth in the pan with rice. In the same batch of broth, you must add saffron, which will give the dish a characteristic yellow tint.
When the risotto is ready, sprinkle it with grated chopped cheese, put thin slices of butter on it and mix well immediately.

Chicken risotto, cooked according to the classic recipe of Italian cuisine, is unlikely to leave anyone indifferent.

Chicken risotto in a slow cooker

Composition:

chicken fillet - 0, 4 kg;
rice - 0, 2 kg;
chicken broth - 0, 5 l;
cream - 100 ml;
carrots - 150 g;
onions - 100 g;
garlic - 2 cloves;
Parmesan or other hard cheese - 100 g;
olive oil - 100 ml;
salt, spices - to taste.

Method of preparation:

Wash, dry, and cut chicken fillets in small strips.
Peel and chop the onion.
Carrots, peeled, chopped on a grater with narrow holes.
Cut the garlic into thin slices.
Pour oil into the multicooker bowl. Turn on the unit by selecting the “Frying” program. If there is no such program in your device, you can use the Baking program.
Put garlic plates in butter, fry them for 5 minutes. Remove the garlic from the oil.
Without turning off the slow cooker and without changing the cooking mode, put onions and carrots in it. Fry them until the vegetables are soft. It takes about 5 minutes.
Add chicken fillet pieces. Cook them for 5 minutes. During this time, the chicken pieces need a couple of times to mix.
Turn off the multicooker temporarily. Put the washed rice in it. Pour in the cream, add salt and spices to taste, mix. Do not forget that the broth is already salty, so you don’t need much salt, perhaps you can do without it.
Pour in broth, lower lid. Activate the “Rice” or similar program (“Pilaf”, “Porridge”). Set the timer for 30 minutes.
Add grated cheese, mix, leave in heating mode for 10 minutes.

Cooking a chicken risotto in a slow cooker is not at all difficult, it will require a minimum of effort from the hostess, and she will not need to stand at the stove for a long time while stirring rice.

Chicken and vegetables risotto

Composition:

chicken legs - 0, 4 kg;
rice - 0, 3 kg;
Bulgarian pepper - 0, 25 kg;
onions - 0, 2 kg;
tomatoes - 0, 3 kg;
lemon - 0, 25 pcs .;
chicken broth - 1 l;
carrots - 150 g;
garlic - 3 cloves;
olive oil - 100 ml;
salt, spices - to taste.

Method of preparation:

Boil broth from chicken legs using one onion and carrot, salt and spices. Broth strain. Cool the chicken legs, remove the meat from them, cut into small pieces and fry in a little oil.
Cut the remaining onion into small pieces.
Pepper wash, cut the stalk, remove the seeds, cut the flesh into small squares of about 0.5 cm.
Boil in tomatoes, peel, cut into cubes.
Finely chop the garlic.
Heat the oil in a deep frying pan. Put the onion with garlic in it and fry them on a quiet fire for 3-4 minutes.
Add pepper, fry as much again.
Put the tomatoes, add salt, pepper, put thinly sliced lemon on top. Cover the pan with the lid and stew the vegetables for 5 minutes.
Put chicken on vegetables, put rice on it. Pour all the broth. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the stock evaporates.

According to this recipe, chicken risotto is cooked a little differently than traditional technology requires, but it turns out to be no less tasty.

Chicken risotto is a hearty and very tasty dish of Italian cuisine that can be prepared by every hostess. Its taste and aroma can hardly leave anyone indifferent.