Italian style Risotto is one of the comfort dish to mesmerize and favor for its creamy indulgent grains that surely win over even the most criticized. My version of this risotto is amplified the flavor with fruit scent (from wine) on top of the savory scent of cilantro, saute onion and butter. Of course, chicken and mushroom are there too as the main toppings.
First of course is to saute and sear chicken breast perimeter to seal in all its flavor before boiling with broth of choice. The chicken after boiled, can be cool down and thinly slice to place as topping right before serving. The hot broth is used to cook risotto’s rice.
Next, I would melt butter and saute Arborio rice until they’re golden and fully absorbed the butter flavor. Then I would add some wine in, any kind of wine really, I used Chardoney with hints of apple, nut and fruity scent . At this point, the whole thing just smell so wonderfully that my stomach would start rumbling.
Okay, this is where the instruction diverted, which I included 3 cooking methods: the traditional of constant stirring and adding, a convenient of rice-cooker and a quick version with Instant pot or pressure cooker. So depend on your setting, time constraint, hand-power or what is available, pick one that work best.
Personally, I would recommend the traditional way as it would yield the perfect risotto every single time. It requires lots of stirring, dedicated time and lots of resistant (cause the thing just smell so good). However, occasionally when I got lazy or tired after work out, then a quick set-and-forget method is preferred.
Anyhow, serve your risotto while it’s hot, cover/wrap in case you need to store them for sometimes to avoid moisture loss.
Recipe for Chicken Risotto
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken breast
- 1 cup Arborio rice
- 4 cups broth
- 4 oz mushroom slice
- a small sprig of cilantro finely chop
- 4 Tbsp butter
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan
- ½ cup wine
- 1 shallot finely chop
Instructions
- Heat a pot over medium, add 2 Tbsp butter to melt.
- Add finely chop shallot and saute chicken breast to sear its outer.
- Pour in broth, cover and bring it to boil with chicken breast.
- Wait for chicken breast to cook, when done, transfer chicken breast to plate to cool it off while carefully transfer hot broth to a pourable container. This hot broth will be used a little bit later to cook rice.
- In the same pot, melt remaining butter over medium/high heat. Stir a few times to coat the bottom of pot with butter, if not, add some vegetable/olive oil.
- Stir in Arborio rice, keep stirring the rice with a paddle or similar until rice is golden then add some wine and stir well.
- Next is where you can pick different cooking methods to continue and finish risotto (to save time/manpower ultimately).
Finishing on Stove-top Risotto
- Pour in about ½ cup warm broth while stirring the rice.
- When the broth is boiling, reduce heat to low. Keep stirring until almost all liquid get absorbed.
- Repeat the process by adding broth/stirring to absorb until rice is cooked half-way (about 1 cup of broth left).
- Add half of the remaining cup and sliced mushroom to rice while stirring well. Cover and simmering for around 10-15 minutes to make sure all grains are cook.
- Now add the final half cup and keep on stirring until liquid is reduced, taste test and adjust with salt/pepper if desired or leave that to the serving table time. Add parmesan and cilantro, stir well to fully mix them and remove whole pot from heat.
- Slice some earlier boiled chicken and serve on top of risotto.
Finishing in Rice cooker Risotto
- Add all the butter-sauted rice to rice cooker.
- Pour in hot broth, add mushroom, and stir well before starting the rice cooker.
- When the cooking is done and shift to warm, carefully open cover, add Parmesan and chopped cilantro, stir and cover.
- Let sit for 10 minutes before serving with slices of boiled chicken from earlier.
Finishing with Instant Pot Risotto
- Add warm broth, rice and mushroom to instant pot, stir well.
- Replace cover, switch to rice function and cook till done. If your doesn't have this, cook under pressure cooking for 6 minutes.
- Once done, manually quick release the steam/pressure valve according to instant pot's manual.
- When all pressure released, carefully open the lid, stir a couple time then add chopped cilantro and Parmesan. Stir well to mix.
- Replace cover for 5 minutes before serving.
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