Gluten-free & can be vegetarian
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cup Arborio Rice
3 Tbsp butter
Small onion
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth/stock
2 or 3 boiled & cubed chicken or ham or leave it out
Frozen peas
1 1/2 cups shredded mixed cheeses
Salt and pepper to taste
Instruction:
Take pre cooked chicken out of freezer and defrost (I precook chicken whenever I buy it because it is cheaper to buy 6-8 chicken breasts than 2-3. I boil it, cube it, divide it into per meal sizes, & freeze it.)
If you don’t have pre cooked chicken feel free to either leave it out or cook some. If you want a vegetarian meal leave out the chicken & use veg broth.
In a large pan melt the 3 tablespoons of butter. Add in the onion and cook until translucent. When butter is melted, & onions are ready, add the rice to the pan. Toast the rice. It will still be hard at this point and that’s as it should be.
Start adding chicken or vegetable broth 1/4 to 1/2 cup at a time. stir constantly until you can part the rice and almost no liquid oozes out. Add until the rice is just about done. Add salt and pepper sometime during this slow adding of broth.
When you are adding the last bit of broth add the chicken and peas so they heat. When the liquid is cooked off and the chicken and peas are hot/warm take it off the heat.
(I use peas because they cook fast and easy. If you don’t want peas feel free to leave out or add a different veggie but if using something else you might need to pre cook them.) (you could add cubes of ham, or some other meat product (nothing to greasy) or leave it out all together).
Add the cheese and stir until melted in. Notice I didn’t specify what kind. That’s because it barely matters. Basically if you can shred it you can use it. Probably not great to use goat cheese or feta but I haven’t tried it maybe it’s awesome. Risotto purists say you can’t use pre shredded cheese but I have done this with pre shredded cheddar and Parmesan cheese and was just as happy as when I hand shredded it.
Enjoy!
Nutrition ish:
4 servings
Calories 690, fat 22.2g, carbs 67g, protein 51.7g