4 chicken
breasts
3 oz (75 g) butter
salt and pepper
3 oz (75 g) butter
1 onion finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon or so of parsley, finely chopped
10 oz (275 g) Arborio/ Carnaroli risotto rice
1/4 pint (150 ml) of white wine
5 oz (about 150 g) oyster mushrooms, halved
2 pints (1.1 l) chicken stock (at simmering point in pot with handy ladle)
olive oil, parsley and lemon wedges to serve.
what to do:
Rev up your oven to 375°F/190°C: then flop your chicken brests into a roasting tin, brush them with butter, season & stick in the oven (they will take, handily enough, aroiund 20-30 minutes) Melt butter in a pot, and sling in the onion, garlic and parsley and give it all a good stir for 5 minutes - or until the onion has gone see through(ish).
At this point, fling the rice in too, and stir it all about too, making sure it gets a good coating of oniony stuff.
Pour over the wine and add the mushrooms, stirring over a high heat until most of the wine is absorbed.
So now, you need to start taking ladlefuls of your simmering stock and swish it into the rice. Stir this obsessively until the stock is absorbed. Then do it again.
Keep adding ladefuls of stock and stirring in the manner of a fast old black & white film until the rice grains are tender (best to test with one's mouth here). It'll take about 20-30 minutes for all of this - so make sure there's a good programme on the tv or radio, so you can stand and stare like a stirring automaton. All this pesky stirring keeps the rice separate and stops it from becoming gloupy - like porridge. Yumm - it's ready: so squidge some onto pretty plates, decorate with a golden chicken breast and set lemon wedges at the side & finish with flourish of parsley, and some olive oil if you like. if you want to make this more rich, you can add a few blobs of butter and a good grating or parmesan or pecorino at the end of the cooking time. Cream too, if you're after that deep-beating heart sensation.
this can become a lovely vegetarian dish too - obviously, omit the chicken and use vegetable stock
|
