Roasted Chicken Pumpkin Risotto

Roasted Chicken Pumpkin Risotto
Originally uploaded by Juju T

It was a cold winter's night, so I had to run over to the grocery store to get food, and I thought, "Dang, it's a good night for risotto"

So here's my recipe,

Ingredients:
1 Chicken Breast (Cut up into strips)
1 kg of pumpkin (seeded and chopped into pieces)
1 Leek (white part only)
Garlic (whole)
Arborio Rice (1.5 cups)
Chicken Stock (1.5 litres)
White Wine (1 cup)
Parmesan Cheese (to taste)
Olive Oil
Butter
Italian Herbs
Parsley

On a small pot, bring chicken stock up to a simmer....

Put chicken, garlic and pumpkin in a roasting pan and drizzle with olive oil and italian herbs (or fresh herbs if you have some, rosemary is good). Put in a 180 degree celcius oven for about 40 minutes while you make the risotto.

Put the butter (1 tsp) and olive oil (1 tbsp) in a pot on medium heat. (The oil prevents the butter from burning, thanks Nigella) Then put in the leek and cook down to a pale green colour. Then put the rice in and let it get slicked with the vegetable butter.

Then put a cup of white wine into the rice and stir. (You have to wait till the rice has absorbed the wine before adding the next ladle of liquid). After that add another ladle of stock and keep stirring until the rice absorbs most of the liquid. Repeat and stir for about 4 ladles. Then you can add more stock without stirring too much. (Just make sure the rice doesn't catch at the bottom of the pan)

After about 20 minutes and most of the stock is used, taste to see if it's "al dente" (as the italians like it., it's a matter of taste actually). Once the rice is ready, get the roasting tin out. Fish out the garlic from their skins, and mash them in a seperate bowl.

Finally, mix the garlic mash (add as little or as much as you want), roasted chicken and pumpkin into the rice. Top with parmesan, seasoning and parsley. And serve!

Makes about 4 portions. or 2 GREEDY Portions!