Chicken Mushroom Risotto

Explore the delicious flavors of mushroom risotto made with chicken and vegetables in a rich broth. A classic Italian dish made easy!

The Chicken Mushroom Risotto recipe I am about to share with you today fits the scenario – using the ingredients I already had in the kitchen to cook a delicious and healthy meal, leaving me feeling accomplished.

Before discussing what ingredients you can use in your risotto, let’s lay the foundation first, shall we?

Traditional Risotto Making

As a classic Italian rice dish, risotto seems to have a reputation for being a time-consuming dish with a demanding cooking process. At least, that’s the vibe I got from studying traditional risotto recipes online. It says that the key to cooking a perfect risotto is that you have to warm up whatever broth you want to use first, add a half cup of the warm broth at a time, stir the rice constantly until the broth is absorbed, then add another half cup of the broth, stir, repeat the process until the risotto is perfectly tender. Hmmm….I wonder if there’s a faster, street-smart way of doing this.

Yes, the rice takes time to tender, but the process doesn’t have to be tedious. That’s why there are so many slow cooker risotto recipes all around the web. No stirring is required at all. Guess I am not the only one who’s lazy and don’t want to religiously follow the traditional process of cooking risotto.

Street-Smart Stovetop Risotto

I haven’t tried any slow cooker risotto recipes yet, but after some experiments on cooking risotto the traditional way and not-so-traditional way, here are some key points I learned about cooking risotto on a stovetop.

1. Toast risotto in fat before any liquid is added. Toast the rice before simmering it in any broth, allowing the starch of the rice to be fully released, resulting in a creamy risotto.
2. Cook risotto with wine. If you are a big fan of cooking with wine like me, this step happens before adding broth to your rice. Let the alcohol evaporate. From this point on, your kitchen is going to smell like heaven. But if you don’t like cooking with wine, replace it with broth.
3. Boil, cover, and simmer. This is going to be a controversial point. If your grandma taught you cooking, you might disagree with me. In that case, by all means, follow what she taught you. Basically, instead of adding a little bit of broth at a time, pour all the broth into your pot and bring to a boil (stir once), then cover the risotto and simmer on low heat for 15 minutes without stirring, just like what you do with regular rice.

That’s how I cook risotto, and it’s been working out quite well for me. At least I am no longer on the fence whenever I think about making risotto for dinner.

Key Ingredients for Rissoto

Besides the rice, broth and parmesan cheese are the two most important ingredients for cooking risotto. As long as you’ve got these two in your fridge, you are good to go. Meat or no meat is totally your choice.

Other ingredient options are onions, mushrooms, carrots, zucchini, peas, and seafood like shrimp, scallops, or even lobsters. See Creamy Seafood Rissoto and Bay Scallops Rissoto with Prosciutto.

Got herbs? It never hurts to add them to your risotto. Parsley works the best. Thyme, dill, or oregano work great too.

This Chicken Mushroom Risotto happened after I made a huge batch of slow-cooker chicken broth. So I had broth, shredded chicken, mushrooms, and other random vegetables on hand. It turned out excellent using my lazy risotto cooking method.

It’s rich in flavor. (Thanks to the homemade broth!) It’s perfectly tender and creamy. It’s a great way to use up some vegetables in your fridge, isn’t it? Here comes the recipe. I hope it brings you some inspiration to make a risotto at home. If you like the idea, you might want to add arborio rice to your pantry for your future spontaneous risotto dinners!

Do you have a go-to risotto recipe? Or, are you a spontaneous cook? If so, what do you usually put in your risotto? Leave a comment and let me know. I’d love to see your creation.

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