Chicken Marinara Risotto

For the first few months of my daughter’s life I barely made the effort to cook. We relied on our friends for meals and when no one was signed up for the night, the slow cooker did all the work. (Side note: after becoming a mom, I am firmly convinced the slow cooker was invented for the sole purpose of bringing sanity back to a busy mom’s life while still providing a meal that had some nutrition and wasn’t received through a window.) However on this particular night we decided to try our hand at a new kind of risotto. 

Why risotto? Don’t most people find making risotto to be one of the more difficult dishes to prepare? I shrugged my shoulders and whipped it together, taking advantage of the scraps left over from our last haphazard grocery run.  

I created this dish on a night I had expected someone to stop by with a post-baby meal, but had fallen through. I realized about mid-day there was no dinner for the night. By the way, for a girl who usually has all her meals planned for the week by Sunday night, this is not a fun feeling. I searched the freezer to find leftover spaghetti sauce and chicken breast. Open the cupboard, there’s my trusty risotto, just enough left in the bag for my husband and I. By the time I was finished cooking this meal I was pretty scared to try it, thinking it would never taste good! I was shocked! This is one of our favorites and a dish Jordan asks for often.  

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Olive oil

2-3 chicken breasts

1 small onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 ½ cups risotto*

3 cups chicken broth 

3 cups milk
14 oz. can stewed tomatoes, drained
8 oz can tomato sauce

Salt and pepper

Parmesan 

In an extra large frying pan or pot, heat up some olive oil over medium heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper and grill on the stove until cooked through. Remove chicken from pan and cut into bite size pieces. Lower heat, add a little bit more olive oil, add onions and garlic and sauté until golden. 

*It’s important to follow your packages instructions for risotto. The brand I use calls for 1 1/2 cups of dry risotto to make a serving enough for four people once cooked.

Village Harvest brand

Add the risotto and coat with olive oil until shiny, about one minute. Add 1-cup chicken broth, stirring occasionally until fully absorbed. Add one cup of milk and do the same. Alternate milk and chicken broth until risotto is tender. [edited: I've found that using 3 cups of each is enough to cook the risotto, but since some brands cook up differently, make sure you taste test to see if yours is fully cooked through! Add more if needed.]

I used unsweetened almond milk since I'm dairy free and it came out great. Risotto is inherently creamy when cooked, but I like to add some milk anyway to elevate the creaminess just a bit. Season with salt and pepper, grate as much Parmesan as you like and add the stewed tomatoes and tomato sauce. Stir to combine, adding the chicken with its juices until all is warmed through. 


Enjoy! 

“Chicken Marinara Risotto” is part of a blog relaunch series entitled 

"31 Days of Responding to Him" Follow along here