Chicken Tikka Masala with Cauliflower Rice

Inspiration: I’ve been wanting to try cooking more curry dishes at home for a while, now, and I stumbled across this recipe last week while I was looking for just that. Perfect!

What we Loved: This is the best meal that I’ve made in a while. B and I loved absolutely everything about this dish, and I wouldn’t change a thing. The chicken was incredibly moist, and the sauce was so spicy and creamy. It had all of the complex flavors of cinnamon, paprika, tomato, cumin, and garlic, and it had that perfect amount of heat that I expect Indian food to have. B said that this tasted just like what you would get in a restaurant. And on top of that, the cauliflower rice that I tried was amazing! I cooked cauliflower and then shredded it into rice using my food processor, and I can’t even believe how much it looked and tasted like regular white rice. I tried mashed cauliflower recently and couldn’t believe how well it worked, but this rice exceeded my expectations even more. Amazing and healthy.

Helpful Hints: I reduced the cayenne pepper in the original recipe by quite a bit (from two teaspoons to 1/2 teaspoon) and was perfectly happy with the amount of spice. With a jalapeno in the sauce, too, I really don’t think that the dish needed any more heat. But add more if you’d like.  And definitely give the cauliflower rice a try, even if you’re skeptical like I was. It’s amazing.

Chicken Tikka Masala with Cauliflower Rice
Source: Blogchef.net (for the chicken tikka masala)

I made a few changes to the recipe, mostly to adapt to cooking inside instead of grilling. Here’s the recipe as I made it.

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (cut into bite sized pieces)
¼ cup fresh cilantro (chopped, for garnish)

For the marinade
6 oz yogurt (I used Fage 0%)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon fresh ginger (minced)
Good pinch of black pepper and Kosher salt

For the sauce
Extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeño pepper, finely diced
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoon paprika
Good pinch of Kosher salt
8 oz tomato sauce
3/4 cup heavy cream

For the cauliflower rice
1 head cauliflower, broken into florets

1. In a large bowl, mix the yogurt, cumin, cinnamon, cayenne, ginger, salt, and pepper. Add the chicken pieices, and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for one hour.

2. In a large saute pan, melt a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and jalapeno, and saute for one minute. Add the cumin, paprika, and salt, and stir to combine. Mix in the tomato sauce and cream. Bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes.

3. While the sauce is simmering, heat a second saute pan over medium heat. Add the chicken, and saute until cooked through, approximately ten minutes.

4. Meanwhile, add the cauliflower florets to a sauce pan. Cover with water, and cook for 6-8 minutes, until cooked through. Using the shredding attachment of a food processor, rice the cauliflower.

5. Add the chicken to the sauce, stirring to coat the chicken. Serve with the cauliflower rice and cilantro.

Chicken Cutlets with Portabella Bleu Cheese Sauce

Inspiration: I really tried bleu cheese for the first time within the past year, and let’s just say that I couldn’t understand why anyone would eat it. To me, it was so ridiculously strong that I couldn’t even enjoy the taste. I wanted to like it, though, so I kept sampling it here and there, tried out some milder kinds, and before I knew it, I loved it. Now, bleu cheese is one of those random foods that I really crave all of the time, like peanut butter or avocados. Anyway, I get excited when we have some extra bleu cheese that needs used up, because I love finding ways to use it in our suppers.

What we Loved: We loved this sauce because it really tasted like bleu cheese. I’ve tried other bleu cheese sauces before that were too muted, but this one is really strongly flavored, because it doesn’t have many ingredients other than the cheese. If you don’t like bleu cheese, I wouldn’t try this one! On the other hand, if you love bleu cheese, then this is really great. The sauce has a nice, creamy texture, and the mushrooms really compliment the flavor of the cheese.

Helpful Hints: Make sure to let this sauce lightly boil for a bit to thicken up. It will be very thin at first. The sauce works great with chicken, but it would really work well over any protein of your choice. Beef or pork would be great!

Chicken Cutlets with Portabella Bleu Cheese Sauce
Source: Original Recipe

1 chicken breast, butterflied and then cut in half to create two cutlets
Extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary, or other herbs as preferred
1 package baby portabella mushrooms
4-5 oz bleu cheese (I used gorgonzola. Roquefort would also be good)
Splash of milk

1. Season each side of the chicken cutlets with salt and pepper, and sprinkle them with rosemary.

2. Heat a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil in a saute pan. When it is hot, add the chicken, and saute until the chicken is cooked through and browned on the outside, approximately 4-5 minutes per side. Remove the chicken to a plate, and cover with foil to keep warm.

3. Add the mushrooms to the saute pan. When the water starts to release from the mushrooms, stir and scrap the bottom of the pan, stirring any browned bits into the mushrooms.  Cook until the water released from the mushrooms is nearly gone.

4. Crumble the bleu cheese into the pan. Add a splash of milk, and stir until the cheese is melted. Bring the contents of the pan to a low boil, and cook for a few minutes longer until the sauce thickens up.

5. Serve the bleu cheese sauce over the chicken cutlets.

Paprika Chicken

Inspiration: My mom made this dish all the time when I was growing up. It’s a great recipe for fall or winter nights, which is just what we were having when I prepared this for supper. This chicken smells so good as it’s cooking that I can remember hardly being able to wait for it to come out of the oven when my Mom made this when I was a kid. There are a lot of my Mom’s recipes that I love not only for how great they taste, but for the memories, and this is definitely my favorite chicken recipe for both reasons.

What we Loved: I love a lot of things about this recipe, the first probably being that it makes your house smell absolutely amazing while it’s cooking, like I said above. The smell alone takes me back to when I was a kid, and it’s hard to resist opening up the oven while this is cooking just to smell inside :) Secondly, this tastes incredible. The chicken stays very moist and has such a great flavor from the butter, onions, and seasoning. And my favorite aspect of this recipe is that the chicken makes an absolutely awesome gravy. My mom always made the best homemade gravies, and one of them comes from this recipe. It’s a buttery chicken gravy that is really just perfect.

Helpful Hints: When I was a kid, I only liked to eat white meat, so I always ate the chicken breasts when my Mom cooked this. Therefore, it’s what I picked up at the store to make this for myself, too. She tells me, though, that this recipe tastes really great using dark meat chicken. So whatever your preferences, either kind will work! You can make enough to feed a family with all different pieces, or scale it down to serve two, like I did, with whatever cut of meat that you’d like.

Paprika Chicken
Source: Mom

This is the recipe as I made it to serve two.

2 chicken breasts, on the bone and cleaned (or whatever cut you prefer)
Salt and pepper
2-3 slices of onion, separated into rings
1 tablespoon butter, cut into chunks
Paprika
1/3 cup water, plus additional for the gravy
2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1. Place the chicken breasts in a baking dish that’s just big enough for the chicken to fit, and season with salt and pepper.

2. Scatter the onion rings atop the chicken, and dot each chicken piece with butter. Sprinkle with a generous amount of paprika.

3. Pour 1/3 cup of water into the baking dish, just enough so that the chicken is sitting in the water.

4. Cover and bake for approximately 1 hour at 350 degrees, or until the chicken is tender and cooked through. You may need more or less time depending on how many chicken pieces you cook and how big the pieces are. Halfway through, check to make sure that there is still enough water, and if there’s not, add a little more.

5. Remove the cooked chicken from the pan, and place on a plate covered with foil to keep warm.

6. Scrape the cooked bits from the bottom of the pan into the cooking liquid. Pour the liquid into a small sauce pan, and heat over medium high heat.

7. Mix the flour in a mixing cup or bowl with just enough water to create a thick mixture that is pourable. Add a small amount of the flour mixture to the sauce pan, whisking as you pour. Heat until bubbling, and as it heats, the gravy will thicken. If the gravy isn’t thick enough, add a little more of the flour mixture. You want to add the flour mixture slowly to avoid a gravy that is too thick or too floury.

8. Serve the chicken with the gravy and any desired side dishes.

Arroz con Pollo (Rice with Chicken)

Inspiration: Really, when I came across this recipe online, it looked too good to resist. It went onto my menu plan right away. I love when menu planning is easy like that :)

What we Loved: I’ve said many times that one pot rice dishes are some of my favorite meals, and this is another one that I can add to the collection. All of the different flavors (peppers, onions, garlic, bacon, beer, saffron, tomato….) really combine so wonderfully for a complex dish. I’ve found that I really adore the subtle, light taste of saffron, and it works so well in this recipe. The saffron flavor with the rice really reminds me of paella, and the creamy texture is much like a risotto. Combined with all of the other great ingredients, this recipe really makes for a great supper on a chilly day.

Helpful Hints: When making this recipe, I left the chicken breasts whole, and I served the meal as chicken breasts with rice on the side. When serving the leftovers, we mixed some leftover chunks of chicken into the rice for an all-in-one sort of feel (as seen in the photo above). I really enjoyed both ways of serving this dish, and I would think that it really depends on your preferences. It would be great to shred the chicken after it’s cooked through and then mix it into the pot, too. I served this topped with cilantro and with a side of black beans, and it tasted great to mix these ingredients into the rice as well.

Arroz con Pollo

Source: bitchincamero

I only made a few small changes to the recipe. Here’s the recipe as I made it.

3 cups arborio rice
2 cups warm water
big pinch of saffron threads
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
1 large red pepper
2 slices bacon, sliced into pieces
2 teaspoons cumin
1 tablespoon paprika
Kosher salt
8 oz of canned tomato sauce
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 pilsner-style beer, such as Corona
4 cups chicken stock
Juice of 1/2 lime
Cilantro

1. Place the rice in a medium-sized bowl. Stir the saffron threads  into the warm water, then add the water to the bowl and give it a quick stir. Set aside.

2. Set a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the bacon, and cook until the fat begins to render out. Add the garlic, onions, and red pepper, and continue to cook for approximately 5 minutes. Stir in the cumin, paprika, and a pinch of salt, and continue to cook for another 5-10 minutes, or until the onions are translucent and the pepper is soft.

3. Add the tomato sauce and chicken to the pot, stirring to ensure that the chicken is coated, then reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover and cook for 15 minutes, turning the chicken over every few minutes.

4. When the chicken is mostly cooked through, add the beer and chicken stock, and raise the heat to high. When the pot begins to boil, add the entire contents of the bowl with the rice.

5. Bring the liquid back to a boil, then cover and reduce the heat to low. Continue to simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the pot from the heat, and stir in the lime juice and another pinch of salt. Let the pot sit for 5-10 minutes, uncovered.

6. Serve garnished with cilantro.

Baked Shredded Chicken Taquitos

Cuisine: Mexican/Tex-Mex

Inspiration: We have a great place in town that makes fresh tortillas and tortilla chips, and I really like buying their products because they’re local and they taste far better than other tortillas that I’ve bought from the store.  Their white corn tortillas come in pretty big packages, though, so I’ve had some stored away in the freezer for a few weeks now that I wanted to use. I usually make enchiladas as a default use for corn tortillas, but those didn’t fit into my health plans this week. With some extra salsa in the fridge and a chicken breast that needed to be used, these taquitos were perfect.

What we Loved: I’m really pleased with how these came out. The shells got very crispy and crunchy in the oven,  they held together perfectly, and there’s nothing like the taste of a corn tortilla when you’re eating a Mexican meal. The chicken filling was really flavorful, and the salsa that we used as a dipping sauce was our favorite part. We used a roasted garlic chipotle salsa that we bought at Trader Joe’s (highly recommended!), and it was really just the perfect garlicy flavor to compliment the rest of the flavors in the taquitos.  These were crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, spicy and garlicy from the salsa, and just the perfect combination of flavors and textures.

Helpful Hints: Make sure that you heat up the tortillas in the microwave between moist paper towels before attempting to make the taquitos. I heated three tortillas at a time for one minute, so the tortillas were very hot and pliable. If you don’t do this, your tortillas will crumble, they won’t roll, and they won’t hold together. I also thought that these would be great with some guacamole as a second dipping sauce.

Other Mexican Recipes: pork stew with smoky tomato sauce, potatoes, and avocados; mahi-mahi tacos

Baked Shredded Chicken Taquitos
Source: Original Recipe, with inspiration from For the Love of Cooking

1 boneless, skinless chicken breast
Chili powder
Cumin
Salt and pepper
1/2 vidalia onion, very finely diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 4 oz can mild green chiles
3-4 tablespoons Greek yogurt, more if necessary
12 white corn tortillas
Extra virgin olive oil
Salsa for dipping

1. Sprinkle each side of the chicken breast with salt and pepper, then generously coat it with chili powder and cumin. Use your figures to rub the spices into the chicken to create a crust.

2. Grill the chicken until cooked through. We used a George Foreman grill and cooked the chicken for 8 minutes. When the chicken is done and has cooled, very finely shred it and place it in a bowl.

3. Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a saute pan, and saute the onions until they are starting to brown. Add the garlic, and saute for an additional 30 seconds.

4. Add the onion mixture to the chicken. Add the green chiles and the Greek yogurt, and stir very well to combine and to further break down the chicken. Depending on the size of your chicken breast, you may need to use more yogurt to get a moist consistency.

5. Heat 3 tortillas at a time in the microwave between moist papertowels for 1 minute. Fill each tortilla with about a tablespoon of the chicken mixture, and roll the tortilla as tightly as you can. Place on a greased baking sheet, seam side down. Continue until all of the taquitos are made.

6. Brush the top of each taquito with olive oil, and bake at 400 degrees for approximately 10 minutes.

7. Serve with salsa and/or guacamole for dipping.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Cuisine: Mexican

Inspiration: Home from Europe with a completely bare pantry, I sat down to make a grocery list and B immediately requested this soup. I absolutely love when he requests anything specific for dinner, so I added it to the menu for our first meal back in the States :)

What we Loved: I’ve made chicken tortilla soup many times over the years. I got my original recipe from allrecipes.com, and it’s been one of those recipes that I’ve made a little bit differently every time because I’ve never been completely satisfied with it. This time, I think that I finally found the recipe that I’m going to keep. This soup is very easy to make, and it has a nice, slightly spicy tomato flavor. It’s very hearty, especially with the addition of avocado cubes, pepperjack cheese cubes, and tortilla chips. My favorite thing about this soup is the creamy contrast of the avocado cubes with the spicy flavor of the soup and the chicken. I photographed this soup before adding the tortilla chips because I didn’t want them to get soggy as I took pictures, but the tortilla chips are of course an essential part of the soup. B particularly loves eating a bunch of chips with his soup, and I really love the added crunch, too.

Helpful Hints: You can certainly cook your chicken any way that you want to for this soup, but I think it adds a great flavor to season the chicken, grill it, and then slice it up before adding it to the pot. In the past, I’ve poached the chicken and shredded it, which is a bit easier, but I’ve really moved away from that method of cooking because I feel like it completely takes away all of the flavor and moisture of the chicken. This time, I seasoned my chicken with just salt and liberal amounts of cracked black pepper before grilling, but next time I’m also going to rub it with cumin and chili powder for a nice crust.

Other Soup Recipes: rosemary tomato soup

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Source: Adapted from Allrecipes

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, seasoned to preference, grilled, and cut into small pieces
1 vidalia onion, diced
2 large cloves garlic, minced
Extra virgin olive oil
2 14.5 oz cans fire roasted diced tomatoes with green chiles
1 4 oz can chopped green chiles
1 14.5 oz can tomato sauce
3 cups chicken broth
1 heaping teaspoon cumin
1 heaping teaspoon chili powder
Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
Avocado, pepperjack cheese, cilantro, and tortilla chips, for garnish

1. In a dutch oven or pot, add a drizzle of olive oil, and heat over medium heat. Add the diced onions, and cook for 2-3 minutes, or until translucent. Add the garlic, and cook for an additional minute.

2. Add the chicken, diced tomatoes, green chiles, tomato sauce, and chicken broth to the pot. Season with the cumin, chili powder, and salt and pepper. Simmer over low heat for 30+ minutes.

3. Ladle the soup into bowls, and top with cubed avocado, cubed pepperjack cheese, chopped cilantro, and a sprinkle of black pepper. Serve with tortilla chips.

Breaded Lemon Pepper Chicken

Cuisine: American

Inspiration: I really don’t use lemon pepper enough. It’s one of B’s favorite seasonings, but I always seem to forget about it. I used to cook tilapia seasoned with some olive oil, lemon juice, and lemon pepper all of the time, but once I started getting more adventurous with cooking, that meal fell by the wayside, and I haven’t used lemon pepper much since. I suddenly remembered it earlier this week when trying to think of a way to cook chicken breasts to serve alongside some fresh vegetables that I needed to use. A breaded, lemon pepper chicken breast sounded great.

What we Loved: This meal is very simple and easy to prepare, which is sometimes a bonus when I have a busy evening. The chicken breasts are simply coated in a mixture of Italian breadcrumbs and lemon pepper, and then they’re sauteed in some olive oil. Even with the simplicity, though, the flavor of the chicken is really great. The chicken has that nice and crispy breaded texture, with a great Italian flavor from the breadcrumb seasoning, some tartness from the lemon, and a really nice kick of spice from the pepper. I served the chicken with some Parmesan garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed vegetables, and the whole meal was simple and satisfying.

Helpful Hints: Use a lot of lemon pepper! It gives the breading a really nice, spicy kick, and the lemon isn’t overpowering. I butterflied my chicken breasts and then cut them in half to give me something more like chicken cutlets for an easier saute, but you can certainly leave the chicken breasts whole if you prefer. I would saute them to brown them, and then pop them in the oven for 20-25 minutes to finish cooking all of the way through.

Other Chicken Recipes: chicken piccata, mushroom and Parmesan stuffed chicken

Breaded Lemon Pepper Chicken
Source: Original recipe to serve 2

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, butterflied and cut in half
Kosher salt and black pepper
1/8 cup whole wheat flour
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs, more if necessary
1 tablespoon lemon pepper (this is an estimate, as I just poured it in. Use more or less to your preference)
Extra virgin olive oil

1. Pour the flour into a shallow bowl. Add the egg into a second shallow bowl. In a third shallow bowl, mix the bread crumbs and the lemon pepper.

2. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Dredge the chicken in the flour, then dip it into the egg, and then coat it in the breadcrumb mixture.

3. Heat a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil in a saute pan. Add the chicken, and saute until browned and cooked through, approximately 5-8 minutes per side.

Chicken Panini with Roasted Red Pepper Spread

Cuisine: American/Italian

Inspiration: One of our favorite places to shop for groceries is Trader Joe’s. They have natural, wholesome food for great prices, and ofen times we find some great products that we wouldn’t find anywhere else. While we were shopping at Trader Joe’s recently, they were sampling bites of a grilled cheese sandwich prepared with their roasted red pepper spread with eggplant and garlic, and it tasted delicious. Though I don’t buy many prepared foods at all, the great thing about picking up a spread, dip, etc. from somewhere like Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods is that it won’t have artificial ingredients. I bought a jar of this spread to experiment with, with one of my intentions being to make a panini.

What we Loved: What’s not to love about a panini? Crunchy bread and gooey cheese will always combine for a great meal. We both particularly loved the incredible flavor that the roasted red pepper spread lent to this sandwich. I used a really liberal amount of the spread, and it melted down into all of the other ingredients for a great combination of textures and a really strong red pepper flavor. If you like the flavor of roasted red peppers, you will love this spread and this sandwich!

Helpful Hints: If you don’t have a Trader Joe’s near you or if you can’t find a roasted red pepper spread in the store, you can always use slices of jarred roasted red peppers instead or roast your own red peppers for the same effect. Just pop the peppers under the broiler until the skin of the peppers is black and charred, then place the peppers in a bowl covered with plastic wrap. Allow the peppers to cool, and the skin should then peel right off, leaving you with great roasted peppers. Slice and add them to your sandwich, or put them in a food processor with some olive oil, salt and pepper, and garlic to make your own spread.

Other Panini Recipes: Turkey Pesto Panini, Herbed Grilled Cheese Panini

Chicken Panini with Roasted Red Pepper Spread
Source: Original Recipe, for two sandwiches

4 thick slices Italian bread
Extra virgin olive oil
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast (sliced into thin cutlets, seasoned with salt and pepper, and grilled or sauteed)
Trader Joe’s Roasted Red Pepper Spread with Eggplant and Garlic, or something similar
Manchego cheese, sliced
Parmesan cheese, grated

1. Brush the outside of each slice of bread with extra virgin olive oil. Cut the cooked chicken cutlets into thin slices.

2. Build the sandwiches in the following manner: bread, red pepper spread, manchego, chicken slices, grated Parmesan, manchego, red pepper spread, bread.

3. Cook the sandwiches in a panini press for 8-10 minutes or on a grill pan until browned on each side.

Chicken Piccata

Cuisine: Italian

Inspiration: Sometimes, B and I just have the sort of night when we want a really healthy meal. We were feeling that way on Saturday, so I ditched my previous dinner plans and came up with this really light chicken piccata instead. Served with some baby portabella mushrooms sauteed with garlic and some sugar snap peas steamed with extra virgin olive oil, this made for a great and healthy meal.

What we Loved: The sauce for this chicken had an incredible flavor. It had a sour, tangy punch from the lemon juice and the capers, and it had a savory, rich flavor from the white wine and just a dab of butter. Sauteeing the chicken breasts really simply in olive oil and coating them in the sauce made for a really moist chicken breast. Another great thing about this meal is that it is incredibly simple and only takes a few minutes from start to finish.

Helpful Hints: Chicken piccata is one of those dishes that can either be really, really unhealthy for you or really healthy for you, depending on how you make it. Nearly every chicken piccata recipe that I’ve run across calls for a lot of butter – anywhere from 3 tablespoons to nearly a stick. As in many, many other recipes that call for butter, I’ve found that it can almost always be eliminated or greatly reduced to make a healthier meal. You sacrifice that rich, buttery flavor, sure, but I really don’t think it’s even necessary in most cases. In my cooking, I’d say that I use butter maybe one time every couple of months (if that), and I never miss it. The absence of butter really allows you to taste so many other great flavorings – herbs, oils, garlic, seasonings, etc. – and after cooking this way for a long time, I really prefer these flavors to that of butter. That being said, chicken piccata is one  of those things that I’ve made several times, and I find that it does need just a little butter to round out the sauce. After making an already flavorful sauce using the pan scrapings from having cooked the chicken, lemon juice, white wine, and capers, I swirled in just a tablespoon of butter, and it was the perfect amount.

Other Italian-style Chicken Recipes: Chicken and Fontina Risotto, Mushroom and Parmesan Stuffed Chicken

Chicken Piccata
Source: Very loosely adapted from Giada de Laurentiis

I used Giada’s recipe as inspiration, but my meal ended up quite differently. Here’s the recipe as I made it.

1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, butterflied and cut in half
Kosher salt and black pepper
1/8 cup whole wheat flour
Extra virgin olive oil
1/8 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup dry white wine (I used Pinot Grigio)
1/8 cup brined capers, rinsed
1 tablespoon butter

1. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Dredge the chicken in the flour, and shake off the excess.

2. Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Add the chicken, and cook until browned and cooked through, approximately five minutes per side.

3. Plate the chicken. In the pan, add the lemon juice, the wine, and the capers. Use a spatula to scrape the brown bits from the pan into the sauce. Season with salt and pepper, and simmer for a few minutes. Turn off the heat, and swirl in 1 tablespoon of butter.

4. Pour the sauce over the chicken and serve.

Chicken and Fontina Risotto

I know that I’ve said this before, but one of my favorite foods in life is risotto. I love it so much. If it weren’t filled with cheese and calories, I would make it much more often than I do. But as it is, I make it once in a long while, and I enjoy it so much every time. This version had a mixture of creamy fontina cheese, Parmesan, and grilled peppered chicken breasts, and it was fabulous. B liked it a lot particularly because it had slices of chicken and tasted more like a meal than other protein-less risottos that I’ve made, and I liked it because, well, it was risotto. I don’t have a lot more to say about this meal other than it was a nice and warm, cheesy, creamy, and delicious supper for a cold, snowy day. The fact that it is still cold and snowy in April….well, I won’t get into that.

Chicken and Fontina Risotto
Source: The Cynical Chef, originally from Food Network Magazine

I cut this recipe in half to serve two (still with quite a bit of leftovers!) and made a few minor changes. Here’s the recipe as I made it.

3 cups chicken broth
Extra virgin olive oil
1/2 Vidalia onion, finely chopped
1 cup arborio rice
2 sprigs fresh thyme, stems removed and finely minced
1/2 cup dry white wine (I used Pinot Grigio)
Kosher salt
1/2 cup Parmesan, finely grated
Black pepper
1/2 cup fontina, grated
1 chicken breast, seasoned with salt and pepper, grilled or sauteed, and sliced

1. Bring the broth and 1 cup of water to a simmer in a saucepan. Cover and keep warm on low heat and at a gentle simmer.

2. Heat a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil in a pot. Add the onion and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add the rice and thyme, and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes, stirring. Add the wine, and cook and stir until the liquid is absorbed. Season with salt.

3. Ladle in the hot broth, about 3/4 cup at a time, stirring constantly until all of the liquid is absorbed before adding more. Continue this process until the rice is tender, appoximately 25 minutes. Give the rice a taste to tell when it is ready.

4. When the rice is ready, turn off the heat and stir in the Parmesan, fontina, and black pepper. Fold in the grilled chicken slices and serve.