Chicken & Chorizo Risnotto

Chicken & Chorizo Risnotto from Two Chubby Cubs creates those wonderful, creamy risotto flavours without you having to laboriously stand in front of the cooker waiting for the stock to be absorbed. Don’t let my crap photo fool you, this is a banging evening meal which tastes wonderful and will fill you up.

Importantly, you will need a pan with a lid so you can trundle off for 20 mins while this cooks. I didn’t trust myself to leave this unattended on a medium-low heat without occasionally checking that my food hadn’t stuck, so it did take me a bit longer. Also, if you’re making this for any fussy family members, or a teenage boy, in my case, you may want to serve them it without the addition of the cream cheese. It turns out that while my boy loves cheese, he inexplicably doesn’t like cream cheese! For everyone else, just stir the cream cheese through at the very end as per the recipe’s instructions, then dish up and hey presto, we’re all happy.

If you love risotto type meals, check out chicken and mushroom risotto and sea bass and miso risotto which are awesome low-cal recipes. Or, if you’re wondering what to do with any leftover chorizo, I’d recommend all-in-one spicy pork and rice and southern-style jambalaya which are similarly wonderful.

Recipe: Chicken & Chorizo Risnotto

Calories: 482 per serving (without adding Parmesan)

Serves: 4

Book: Two Chubby Cubs – The Cookbook

Prep time: Approx 20 mins

Cooking time: Approx  30 mins

Ingredients:

• 4 large shallots (sliced)
• 100g chorizo (diced)
• 1 clove of garlic (crushed)
• 2 skinless and boneless chicken breasts (cut into 1cm cubes)
• A handful of cherry tomatoes
• A couple of handfuls of frozen peas
• A couple of pre-cooked jarred red peppers (thinly sliced)
• 200g Arborio rice
• 1 litre chicken stock
• 100g low-fat cream cheese
• Black pepper
• 20g grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Cost per portion: Approx £1.58

Method:

Gently cook the shallots with the chorizo over a medium heat (no need to add oil – the chorizo will add its own). Add the garlic just as the onions have softened and cook for another minute.

Add the chicken and gently fry until it is almost cooked through.

Stir in the tomatoes, peas and peppers.

Add the rice and stir only enough to get some of the residual liquid over the rice. Add the stock, stir once, then clamp the lid on the pan, reduce the heat to low-medium for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, check  – most of the liquid should have been absorbed and the rice should be lovely and soft, but if not, let it bubble away for another 5 minutes or so with the lid off.

Once it’s done, stir in the cream cheese and serve with plenty of black pepper and grated Parmesan, if you wish.