Week 17: Roast Chicken Risotto

I like to cook.

My roommate likes to cook.

My roommates boyfriend likes to cook.

This leads to some very delicious dinners that we cook together!

I'm the baker. I like measuring things out and knowing exactly how much of something is going into the bowl. That's why my kitchen scale is probably one of my favorite kitchen tools.

My roommate is Sarah. Yes, we're both called Sarah. It only leads to confusion every great once in a while. She'll come home and rummage through the cupboards and the fridge and come up with these amazing concoctions. I can't do that.

Her boyfriend, Elliot, who is practically my roommate too, will start talking about food and zeroes in on exactly what we want.

The day of roommate dinner Sarah and Elliot picked me up from work and we started driving to the grocery store. On our way, Elliot started naming things off. Did we want Mediterranean? Italian? Did we want pasta? Chicken? What veggies? We narrowed it down to risotto (since I'd never had it) and peas and chicken. Elliot whipped out the iPhone and we had a recipe. We used a rotisserie chicken since it was already cooked. We also added a lemon's worth of lemon juice and it made it very delicious.

Roast Chicken Risotto

butter
1 onion finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
350g risotto rice
1 large glass white wine
1½  cups chicken stock , heated to simmering (vegetable stock can be substituted)
a large handful frozen peas , defrosted
cooked chicken, torn into strips, no skin
50g Parmesan, grated
juice of one lemon

Melt a knob of butter in a large pan, add the onion and garlic and cook until soft and translucent. Stir in the rice until coated with butter.

Add the wine and stir until evaporated. Add the stock a ladle at a time until the rice is cooked but still with a little bite (add the peas and chicken in the last 5 minutes of cooking to heat through). 

The rice should be creamy but firm to the bite.

Stir in the Parmesan.

* Note: 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock ARE NOT enough. I think we ended up using an entire box of chicken stock. Just add what you think is necessary.