Parmesan Chicken Risotto Recipe

Parmesan Chicken Risotto Recipe – Elevated Comfort Food

As everyone attempts to sharpen their kitchen skills with the extra free time we have these days, how do you decide between learning a more involved impressive recipe or sticking to comfort food? The perfect in-between recipe is Risotto: a cheesy, creamy, tender-as-pasta rice dish that’s fancy enough to impress your toughest critics (whether that be a picky eater or a culinary expert.) It isn’t too difficult, but it does take a bit of time, so it’s perfect for weekends with nowhere to go (like the many no-where-to-go weekends we’ve all had lately.)

This recipe is a conglomeration of a few recipes I’ve used over the years, namely this and this.

Here it is!

Chicken Parmesan Risotto (serves 4)

Ingredients

1 lb Chicken
Salt and Pepper
6-8 cups chicken stock
5 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped shallots (about 2)
1 cup Arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
4-6 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 cup parmesan cheese (but really just measure with your heart)
1/4 cup fresh parsley

Directions

Bring chicken broth to a simmer in a medium saucepan.
Cut chicken into 1” cubes. Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil over medium heat. Add the chicken and season with salt and pepper. Cook until the chicken is just done, 3-4 minutes. Set aside.
Heat remaining olive oil in a deep saucepan over medium heat. Add shallots to oil, and cook, stirring, until translucent.
Add rice, and cook, stirring until rice begins to make a clicking sound like glass beads, 3-4 minutes.
Add wine to rice mixture. Cook, stirring until wine is absorbed by rice.
Using a ladle, add 3/4 cup hot stock to rice. Using a wooden spoon, stir rice constantly, at a moderate speed.
When rice mixture is just thick enough to leave a clear wake behind the spoon, add another 3/4 cup stock.
Continue adding stock 3/4 cup at a time and stirring constantly until rice is mostly translucent but still opaque in the center. Rice should be al dente but not crunchy. The final mixture should be thick enough that grains of rice are suspended in liquid the consistency of heavy cream.
Remove from heat. Stir in butter, parmesan cheese, and parsley; season with salt and pepper. Stir in chicken. Serve immediately, with extra parmesan and parsley for topping.

If you’re looking for side dishes to pair with this Risotto, here are a couple of dishes I love to make with Risotto, with a schedule of how to time all of these dishes to be ready at the right time.

Bacon-Wrapped Asparagus

https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/a52754/bacon-asparagus-dippers-recipe/

Garlic Mozzarella Bombs

https://rasamalaysia.com/garlic-herb-cheese-bombs/

Tip: If you’re feeling fancy, use fresh mozzarella inside. If you’re feeling thrifty, use cut up mozzarella sticks!

Cooking Schedule

6:05 Start cooking chicken

6:10 Start simmer stock – Preheat oven

6:10 Start oil

6:20 Start adding stock

6:25-30 Put in Asparagus

6:45 Put in Rolls

6:50 Stir in Butter, Parsley, Salt, Pepper. Pull out some for Mia. Stir in Parmesan

6:55 Pull out Asparagus and Rolls

February 5, 2021February 5, 2021

Carbonara For One: More Than a Recipe

Why Carbonara?

Carbonara is my love language. It is not only my favorite food, but also my preferred way to offer care and comfort to myself and my loved ones. I prepare carbonara at least once per week, sometimes more if I am feeling particularly tender, hungry, or cozy. I often make single servings for myself after long days, or even for a late breakfast, and I have continued to hone my process over several years. At this point it feels more like a dance than a recipe, requiring fluidity, attention, and flexibility.

It goes without saying that I did not create any part of this dish, and that I’m sure there are many Italians that could cook circles around me. What I bring to this recipe is a pure reverence and devotion to the dish, and an utter delight each time I make it. If you take anything from this post, I hope it is not a perfect bowl of pasta, but a desire to find your own sacred foods and cultivate a deep appreciation for the ritual of making them.

Bon Appetit!

Ingredients:

3 eggs, separated (fresh, free range ideally – the quality of the eggs really matter in this recipe, low quality yields flavorless pasta)
3-4 oz. of guanciale/uncured bacon/pancetta
Generous handful of spaghetti or bucatini
Hunk of good Parmesan (you can use Pecorino Romano if you like, not pre-shredded)
Heaps of freshly ground black pepper
Kosher salt
Optional: scallions/chives/parsley for garnish

Method:

Chop or cut pork into small bits.
Sauté pork in a non-stick pan over low-medium heat.
Start to boil pasta water in a separate saucepan.
When pork is starting to crisp, about 5 minutes into cooking, reduce heat to low and allow it to fully cook over low heat in the rendered fat.
Once water boils generously salt pasta water and add pasta, cooking 2 minutes short of al dente
While the pork and pasta are cooking you will prepare the sauce. In a bowl (I use the bowl I am going to eat out of) separate three eggs. You do not need egg whites for this recipe, but I will add a teaspoon of the whites to the yolks to give the sauce a little more fluidity. Mix egg yolks until very well blended.
Grate parmesan into the egg mixture. I use at least ½ cup, it should form a texture like a paste. Add pinch of salt and generous amount of cracked pepper to the egg and cheese mixture.
When pasta is close to al dente scoop a splash of pasta water into the egg mixture. This tempers the eggs and begins to melt the shredded cheese. The texture should thin a bit, but not be watery. Be careful not to overdo it!
Increase heat on pork to med-high to bring the pan temperature back up.
Using tongs transfer pasta directly from the pasta water to the pan with the pork with ¼ cup of pasta water, moving quickly. DO NOT DRAIN OR RINSE YOUR PASTA. Reserve the rest of the pasta water.
Continually stir the pasta and pork as the liquid cooks off and pasta water reduces some. The pasta should be lubricated, not dry, with the fat and pasta water beginning to stick to the pasta. Add more pasta water if you need to during this step as it cooks off.
Pull off heat and allow pasta to cool slightly.
Slowly start to pour egg and cheese mixture into the pan with the pasta, stirring continually as you pour. If the sauce seems too thick after adding the egg mixture you can add more pasta water, one tablespoon at a time. The sauce should be glossy and cling to the noodles, not goopy or thin.
Finish in the bowl with fresh Parmesan, more cracked black pepper, and garnish if you choose to.
Eat immediately! Carbonara is best served hot and eaten quickly after.

Notes:

This recipe requires you to multitask. Time is of the essence when you make carbonara! It is crucial that you do not overcook the pasta, and it all comes together quite quickly. It helps to prep your mise en place before you begin and have everything close to the stove where you are cooking for easy access.

Tongs are a huge help with this recipe. You can use them to cook the pork and the pasta, and they make it easy to transfer the pasta without draining.

If you’re not a pork eater, you can substitute mushrooms or another hearty vegetable in place of the meat. Add a tiny bit of soy sauce or another umami flavor to the vegetables for the salty, meaty flavor you would be skipping.

Salt at each stage. You need to add it to the pasta water and a pinch to the egg mixture or the dish will lack complex flavor, but it is easy to over salt so be mindful of that!

Do not put cream or milk in this dish. Pasta water works magic here, it’s just not necessary, and it will result in a pasta that is too rich and heavy. Or peas, because frozen peas do not add anything to the flavor or texture of this dish.

September 20, 2020

The Ideal Autumn Meal: Tamales With a Side of Grey Goo

Ah, it’s that time of the year. The leaves are turning red, the air is starting to cool, the sun is starting to set earlier. Autumn fast approaches, and with it, season specific food. Thats right, it’s tamale time!

Now, if your’e anything like me, then you love tamales. And who doesn’t love a variety of meats and spices wrapped in maze, covered in a corn husk and steamed to perfection? I know a lot about tamales, how to eat them, how to serve them, how to enjoy them, but not how to make them. Fortunately, I’m on the internet.

-10 hours later-

Alright, now I know more about tamales then I’ll ever need to know, and now I am going to make that YOUR problem. Earlier I said “if your’e anything like me, then you love tamales”, but don’t fool yourself. You are nothing like me. For you see, I really love tamales.

Between my tamale obsession and my laziness, I simply can’t make enough tamales by hand to keep me satisfied. So I think it’s time I get a helping hand. Or a lot of helping hands. Like, hundreds of tiny helping hands. And before you ask, I’m not talking about using child labor in a sweatshop next to my storage unit, I’m talking about nanobots! The sweatshop is unrelated, just forget I brought it up.

If you clicked on this thinking it would be a tutorial on how to make tamales, but after seeing that last paragraph are starting to second guess yourself, don’t worry, this is a tamale tutorial. But not your run of the mill tamale tutorial, no, I’m going to teach you how to make tamales like the Demiurge you were always meant to be.

Step 1: making the nanobots

Making nanobots is one of those fun activities you do in an afternoon, ideally with your father or son, depending on what roll you are. Go into the garage and pull out your Kirkland Signature matter fabricator. Program it to make a robot that will make a smaller robot that will make a smaller robot and have this continue until a small robot, approximately the size of a needle, produces a nanobot half the size of a blood cell. Now that that is done, we have just completed the toughest step.

Step 2: from 1 to 2 to goo!

Program that nanobot with 3 instructions. 1, make 4 copies of yourself using any non-tamale matter. 2, download the 3 preprogrammed instructions into the newly fabricated nanobots. 3, convert all non-nanobot matter into tamales. Now you just sit back, relax, and wait as those piles of corn and meat and whatever else magically assembles into tamales before your eyes.

Step 3: realize you made a mistake.

So… we forgot to program the nanobots not to turn ourselves into tamales. And I guess that ought to extend to our friends and family too. But not the neighbor’s dog. By this point, poor snuffles has already had his matter converted into tamale ingredients. Assuming that the nanobots are still on the tamales, lets just avoid eating that batch for now. Besides, we have more important things to do…

Step 4: get out of town!

Because you were so eager to consume delicious tamales, you set the duplication to 4, so we have very little time left. At this point, just go to NASA or SpaceX and steal yourself a rocket. That’s right, we’re leaving Earth. Assuming the nanobots won’t be able to leave Earth on their own, and we know we didn’t program them to be aware enough to realize the entire universe is made out of matter, we should be able to safely establish the first Mars tamale colony! You did follow the instructions, right?

Step 5: take one last look.

Step 6: enough looking, get on the rocket!

Step 7: lift off

By this point, you should be asking yourself, was it worth it? The answer is, yes. Of course it was worth it. But this is also your fault and you should be ashamed. I mean, look at what you did! This, this is Earth right now! This is all your fault. What were you thinking? What, that you would just look up an article online about making tamales, following along without first reading through the entire article? THERE WEREN’T EVEN INGREDIENTS LISTED!

Step 8: remorse

You forgot to grab cattle. Meat doesn’t grow in the ground, corn does. This is your fault, not mine. And you didn’t grab corn seeds. No, Mars dirt can’t be used to make tamales. You don’t even have water to steam your non-tamale dirt tamales. This is why we can’t have nice things, because of people like you.

I hope you found this tamale tutorial useful! Next week, throwing your cat in a nuclear reactor. Federal authorities call it a serious offense and a radiological hazard, but you kids will absolutely love having a glow-in-the-dark kitty cat!

February 14, 2020

Best Burritos in Missoula

There are quite a few Mexican restaurants in Missoula, but which one has the best burritos in town? I am basing the choosing of the restaurants on that they must be local restaurants, I have burritos, they are not fast-food or a national chain, and I have been there. As of early February, 2020, there are 4 restaurants in Missoula that fall into all of those categories, so in no particular order they are: El Diablo, Fiesta En Jalisco, Taco Sano, and Taco Del Sol. All of these will be referenced as to the last time I was there and what I ordered. So, let’s just go in order as how they are above.

El Diablo – Last time I was there was about a month ago and I had ordered a carne asada burrito with white rice, black beans, hot salsa, lettuce, and some other vegetables on it. I remember the burrito its self being really good with being about 10 inches in size but the only caveat I had with it was the tortilla the burrito was wrapped in. The tortilla was warm but not necessarily cooked as in it was chewy and it really took away from the rest of the burrito. Overall it was really good but when the shell it’s surrounded in is bad, it really takes away from it all, 6/10.

Fiesta En Jalisco – I went to the restaurant on reserve around December and I remember getting there thinking it would be another Montana “Mexican” restaurant but in reality, it was far better than that. I had ordered an al pastor burrito (as finding those in Missoula are a rare find) and when it arrived, I was very excited. The burrito was the size of the plate length wise and served with rice and beans on the side (which were excellent and traditional in the sense that the beans were made with lard) but the burrito its self was very tasty and reminded me of a burrito you would get from a taco truck parked outside of Dodger Stadium. Definitely one of the better spots in Missoula for sure 9/10.

Taco Sano – Taco Sano is in a cool spot being on the hip strip across the way from the Roxy movie theater. I only bring up the location for Taco Sano because it is one of the big reasons as to why I go there so often in comparison to the other restaurants however, that’s all it really has going for it. The burrito I got when I was last there was their carnitas burrito with white rice, black beans, lettuce, jalapeños, onion, cheese, with sour cream, and their hot sauce ‘Glacial Melt’. They also serve tater tots which is cool and odd for a Mexican restaurant, but non-the-less the burrito while the first few bites were filled with wonderful carnitas, lettuce and beans the rest of the burrito was painful. The rice was cooked well but must have been older and left out (as in not heated properly) because when I made my way deeper into the burrito every bite made me scared as to whether or not I’d crack a tooth on the rice or not. So, for this reason they get a 4/10, because it was still a solid burrito.

Taco Del Sol – Taco Del Sol is another local spot that evoked another memory of being back home one that reminded me of being on the beach in San Diego. I walked into the store and there were surf boards hanging all over the ceiling and walls, the atmosphere in there was that of a bonfire in Moonlight bay, a fun environment with a chill vibe. This time however, instead of getting a custom burrito I got their shrimp burrito which had: shrimp, black beans, salsa, shredded cabbage, white sauce, their hottest salsa and jalapenos. I got it looking forward to a shrimp burrito because they’re like lizards, often found in the warmer regions and harder to find the more north you go. This shrimp burrito was by the far best I had with no complaints other than it being a longer drive across town than it should be, 8.5/10

In conclusion, my rankings for best burrito in Missoula goes as follows:

4. Taco Sano, 3. El Diablo, 2. Taco Del Sol, 1. Fiesta En Jalisco.

Now this is just my opinion and if you want to see which one truly is better, well there’s no better way than to try them out for yourself.

February 9, 2020February 11, 2020

Healthy Recipe Recommendations

Have you ever struggled to find healthy and tasty recipes? Lots of people mistake healthy food for meals that are unenjoyable but with these awesome sites, you can eat delicious meals and love what you’re eating too!

1. Pinterest

Pinterest is a website and app that uses visuals to help people find ideas like recipes, home and style inspiration, wedding ideas, and more. There’s billions of things to search that can spark an idea or help motivate you. Pinterest is well-known for having awesome recipes from every site you can think of. Just type in some key words you’re looking to make and boom, you have hundreds of recipes. If you like what you find it’s super easy to organize your findings by “pinning” it.

2. Food Network

The food network is a unique lifestyle network that connects viewers to the power and joy of food. It launched in 2009 and has helped billions of homes create beautiful and tasty meals. The food network has its own section for healthy recipes called “healthy eating”. They include quick video tutorials and give directions to a t. These videos range from the best of the best chefs or from families at home. Both of these are reliable ways to believe it is doable. Their main page gives lots of suggestions but if you have something in mind you’re wanting to discover, the search box is easy to locate.

3. Delish

Delish is another website that invites home cookers to seek tested recipes, menus, cooking shortcuts, family meals, and so much more. When you click on the website they give you ideas that have been most popular. The current headline is “11 dishes inspired by the 2020 Oscar nominees”. Delish also gives you the opportunity to subscribe to their website to stay up to date on all the fun, new ideas they get. They also include other amenities like food trends, kitchen tips and tools, food news, entertaining and parties, and more. This website makes it super easy to navigate through and find your next delish meal.

4. Healthy cook book

There are tons of healthy cook books to choose from and with how often we use the internet and how popular it is, we can easily find online books. Amazon will give lots of suggestions where you can find cook books but if you just google it, lots pop up to read through technology! E-books are in people!! There are even audible sites to listen to your recipes to stay away from making too much of a mess and allows you to not worry about messing anything up.