One-Pan Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto and Chicken Risotto
Prep: 75 minutes
Cook: 60 minutes
Cook: 60 minutes
Hard
Serves 2-3 people
Though lengthy in time, this risotto is truly minimal effort. All our pestos would work so well in this risotto, but the Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto lends itself very well to the chicken and fresh tomatoes.
Ingredients
-
700g chicken thighs, skin on, bone off
-
2 tbsp Crete Gold Olive Oil
-
500g fresh tomatoes
-
2x medium onions, chopped
-
2 cloves garlic, sliced
-
1 jar Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto
-
650g Arborio Risotto Rice
-
60ml white wine
-
25gr parsley, chopped
Method
- Step 1: Salt the chicken thighs all over and place on a tray and leave in the fridge for an hour or up to overnight. This helps speed up the rendering of the fat from the skin. You can also skip this step if in a hurry.
- Step 2: Drizzle the olive oil in a heavy bottomed pan, like a ceramic low sided pan with a lid, and place the chicken thighs into it, skin side down. Place on a medium to low heat. The fat of the chicken should slowly start to render out. Check them every 5 minutes or so to avoid burning for the next 20 minutes or so.
- Step 3: In the meantime, blitz the tomatoes in a food processor, measure their volume in a jug and add enough water to bring the total volume to 1000ml.
- Step 4: When the chicken thighs are nicely browned on the skin side, around 20 minutes later, turn them over and cook on a medium heat for a couple of minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside.
- Step 5: In the same pan and still on a medium heat, add your chopped onions and stir. Cook for around 8-10 minutes on a medium to low heat, stirring often.
- Step 6: Add the sliced garlic and cook for a couple of minutes.
- Step 7: Add the whole jar of Pesto and stir.
- Step 8: Add the Alborio Risotto Rice, stir and cook for 2-3 minutes, closely followed by the white wine. Allow this to cook for 2-3 minutes to reduce the wine.
- Step 9: Add the tomato and water mix, season with salt and pepper, stir and bring to a simmer on a medium heat.
- Step 10: Nestle the chicken thighs amongst the rice, all in one layer, place the lid on top, turn down the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Step 11: When the 15 minutes are up, turn the heat off and let your risotto rest without uncovering it not even to peak, for another 15 minutes.
- Step 12: Serve the risotto and chicken with some chopped parsley.
