Chicken Cauliflower Risotto

Chicken Cauliflower Risotto

Chicken Cauliflower Risotto is a simple recipe that combines lean chicken breast, Arborio rice and cauliflower to make a complete meal that’s completely delicious.  This one pot skillet dish is seasoned with lemons and garlic to bring a bright summer flavor to this lighter dish.  And since it’s cooked on the stovetop you won’t be heating up the kitchen too much.  Finely chopped cauliflower is a great way to add a cruciferous vegetable to the meal.  But don’t worry, that cauliflower almost pulls a disappearing act among the rice so the kids won't be complaining.   

   

Chicken Cauliflower Risotto

Prep time: 10 min

Cook time:  30 min

Ingredients list

•          1 lb of chicken breast, cut into small pieces
•          2 cloves of garlic, minced
•          1 lemon, juice and zest
•          2 tbsp olive oil
•          salt and pepper to taste
•          1 small onion, diced
•          2 tbsp butter & 1 additional tbsp butter to stir in at the end (optional)
•          1 ½ cups Arborio rice
•          ½ head of cauliflower, chopped into small pieces
•          5-6 cups heated chicken broth or stock (gluten free)

Video Tutorial: 

Instructions

1. Stir together the chicken, garlic, lemon zest, 1 tbsp olive oil, and salt and pepper then add this seasoned chicken along with the other tbsp of olive oil to a large shallow pan that’s been heated over a medium high heat. 
2. Sauté the chicken stirring occasionally until it’s no longer pink and you just start to see a golden color developing.  This will take roughly 5 minutes. Then remove the chicken from the pan and set it aside.
3. Add the onion, rice and butter to the pan and sauté until the onions and rice begin to get translucent this will take roughly 3-4 minutes. 
4. Ladle in about 1 ½ cups of the broth and allow the rice to gently simmer as you stir periodically until most of the liquid is absorbed.  Then add another ladle or two of stock so that the rice is just covered and continue with the same method of stirring until the liquid is almost absorbed before adding more stock.
5. After about 10 minutes add the cauliflower and continue the process of adding a ladle of stock and simmering until it is almost absorbed
6. After another 10 minutes or roughly 5 minutes before the whole dish is done add the chicken back to the pan with the juice of the lemon and continue stirring for 5 minutes until everything is heated through and the rice is tender then turn off the heat.
7. Optionally you can stir in 1 tbsp of butter right before serving to add more luxury to the dish then garnish with parsley and lemon zest if you want.