Dear Chibi,

Risotto take 2! I had arborio rice left over from my Roasted Pumpkin and Feta Risotto dish so I decided to make it again but with chicken and mushroom!

Despite making Risotto for the second time, it didn’t feel any easier. In fact, it felt more difficult! This time Chibi grabbed bits and pieces from several recipes and mashed them together, following her own recipe. I’m pretty sure there were missing details and parts that didn’t make sense..XD (Heck, even the order might’ve been wrong) It was also challenging because this is the first time I’ve dealt with meat apart from bacon. I underestimated how tricky it was to chop up the chicken! In the end, it took me 2.5 hours to complete. Oh dear, I really thought it would take 1.5 hour max!

Cooking the chicken was very scary. It looks fine in the photo above, but oil was splattering everywhere and making ‘popping’ noises! I was so nervous I even wore arm warmers to protect myself.  (Last time oil got on my neck and I was standing up straight..yes, neck… True story) Every time I turned up the heat, the oil would go nuts but when I turned it down it looked like it wasn’t cooking at all. Chicken end up taking 40 minutes to cook (cooked in 3 batches). I added some chicken powder to give it more flavour :)

ahh..looking nice and golden :D (Ignore the burnt bits!)

The risotto wasn’t behaving itself this time around. I think it’s because I used a tablespoon of oil AND 20g butter to cook the onions o_o Onions got a bit burnt, and when I mixed in the rice and garlic, the overall texture didn’t seem right. Slowly over the next 30-40minutes, I added in the chicken stock. The rice was still a bit hard at places.

Thankfully, cooking mushrooms was relatively easy and straight forward :)

Risotto + Chicken + Oregano leaves + Parmesan cheese! Just waiting for the mushrooms…

Finished :) The chicken and mushroom turned out pretty good. Unfortunately this time around, the rice itself didn’t turn out right. It was a bit dried/burnt, probably overcooked and a little too salty. I added a bit too much salt and pepper in the end. Can’t say I’m too satisfied with this dish because I thought the rice tasted better the first time I made it. But of course, I’m still learning and will only get better with practise and time!

Ganbatte Chibi-san!