One Skillet Creamy Chicken & Mushroom Risotto
Take a step away from the stovetop with this simple baked risotto recipe from Twin Cities food blogger greens & chocolate.
Risotto was one of the first “fancy” dishes I ever learned to make. I don’t think I had ever even had risotto,
but when I saw Ina Garten’s recipe for Spring Green Risotto, I knew it was time to step it up in the kitchen.
While at first I was a little horrified at the actual hands-on time that it takes to make risotto, I actually grew to love the process of adding broth, stirring, letting the broth become absorbed, and repeating. Give me a glass of wine and I’ll spend an hour in the kitchen making risotto any day.
Well, except for the days when I’m cooking with my one-and-a-half year-old playing Legos two feet away from me and frequently begging me for a snack or to hold him. So understandably, these days I’m not a huge fan of dishes that require you to stand over the stove for almost an hour stirring and stirring and stirring.
So, goodbye stovetop risotto. Hello, baked risotto!
Are you skeptical? I, too, wasn’t quite sure how this would work. But let me tell you why this does work.
For one, we still toast the risotto in a little butter to get that nice nutty flavor. We also add in some wine for more flavor. No bland risotto around here!
Finally, in the end we add in some milk (or heavy cream if you’re feeling naughty) and Parmesan cheese to get the risotto super creamy.
To make life even easier, I added chicken to this dish. I simply browned the chicken breasts on each side then tucked them all cozy into the risotto and broth, and then baked it all together.
The end result was a super creamy mushroom risotto with perfectly cooked chicken breasts. I topped it off with some fresh thyme before serving and voila! Dinner is served.
4 servings
Preparation time: 1 hour
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 small to medium boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
3 tablespoons butter
3 shallots, finely chopped
8 ounces crimini mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup Arborio rice
4 cups chicken broth
½ cup white wine
¼-½ cup milk or cream
¾ cup Parmesan cheese
Fresh thyme, for topping
Directions
- Heat oven to 350 F.
- Heat olive oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Once hot, add chicken
breasts and sear on each side for 2-3 minutes, until golden brown but not cooked through. Remove from the skillet and set aside. - Add 2 tablespoons of butter to skillet along with remaining olive oil over medium-high heat.
- Add shallots and mushrooms; cook for 8-10 minutes, until the mushrooms are cooked.
- Add garlic and cook for one more minute. Remove from pan.
- Add remaining butter to pan.
- Once melted, add Arborio rice, stirring to mix with the butter, and toast for 1 minute.
- Add wine and cook until it has mostly evaporated.
- Add chicken broth and stir to combine.
- Add mushroom and shallot mixture, stirring until combined, then top with chicken breasts.
- Cover with aluminum foil or lid for the pan; bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove foil/lid and cook another 10-15 minutes, until rice has absorbed the liquid and chicken is cooked through.
- Remove chicken from pan, then add milk. Start with ¼ cup and add more to reach your desired consistency.
- Stir in Parmesan cheese, stirring until well combined.
- Return chicken to skillet and serve sprinkled with fresh thyme. Enjoy!
