Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Grilled chicken thighs and mushroom, bacon and spinach risotto

Grilled chicken thighs
Ingredients:
4 skinless, boneless thighs
1/4 cup of chopped fresh basil, rosemary and parsley
2 cloves crushed garlic
a couple of pinches of kosher salt
fresh ground black pepper
1 TB olive oil

Instructions:
This one is easy. Use whatever mixture of the herbs suits you, but I used 50% basil, 40% rosemary and about 10% parsley.
Rinse chicken and pat dry. Place in medium sized bowl and drizzle with olive oil. Toss to coat and mix in all herbs and garlic. Toss some more. I let marinate in the fridge for a couple of hours, but that's up to you how long you can wait! Cook over pre-heated grill on medium heat for 5 minutes (or until it releases from the grill). Turn and cook 5 minutes more (more or less depending on your grill).
Mushroom, bacon and spinach risotto
Ingredients:
10-12 small mushrooms
2-3 strips crumbled or chopped cooked bacon
3 TB olive oil
1 glug of red or white wine
1/4 cup diced onion
1 clove minced garlic
4 or 5 leaves of chopped fresh basil
1 cup arborio rice
1/4 cup dry white wine
5 chicken bouillon cubes
4 cups water
2 handfuls washed and dried baby spinach
1/4 cup grated parmesan
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
Rinse and dry mushrooms and cut in half.

Heat a medium skillet over medium heat and add 1 TB olive oil. Saute mushrooms, stirring frequently. Add a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Cook for about 4 minutes and throw in a glug of wine to de-glaze the pan. Turn heat up to med-high and cook until wine is almost evaporated. Remove from heat.
Now it's time for the risotto. The entire process takes around 20 minutes. In a 2 qt or larger sauce pan, boil the water and throw in the boullion. Mix and mash up the boullion until it is completely dissolved. Reduce heat to low and keep broth simmering.

In a 3 qt. or larger sauce pan, heat 2 TB olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook just until it's translucent (not brown). Add rice and stir constantly to avoid sticking. Once you see white dots in the middle of the rice grains (around 3 minutes), add the wine and stir so that it doesn't stick. Cook until wine is absorbed. Add 1/2 cup of broth and continue cooking and stirring until the liquid is almost absorbed.

Continue adding liquid 1/2 cup at a time, allowing to absorb each time before adding more. Once the final bit of liquid has been cooked down, add the parmesan, mushrooms, bacon, spinach, garlic and basil. Salt and pepper to your liking. I found salt pretty minimal because of the broth and bacon personally. Stir and cook another minute or so until heated through and spinach has wilted.
Remove from heat, plate, and top with a grilled chicken thigh!


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1 comment:

Lara said...

This looks REALLY yummy - I'll try it soon. Thanks for sharing!

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