Thai Chicken Risotto

 

This is the simplest way to make a risotto that I have yet found. A few months ago I cooked another version of this dish, which involved standing at the stove stirring the rice for what seemed like hours. Have you been there as well cooking a risotto? With this dish, the work is mostly done by your oven and perfectly. There is some browning of chicken and the fresh ingredients initially on the stove top but then the oven does the rest. The flavours are everything you expect of Thai food, with a perfect mix of sweet, sour and spicy. The coconut cream blends all of these flavours together beautifully.

This recipe is originally from the ABC Delicious magazine, with a few little deviations  along the way. The success of the meal is reliant on the beautiful flavours of coriander, kaffir lime leaves, chilli, fish sauce and red curry. I just love those flavours.

When I created my blog over 10 years ago, the reason I started was to have an online repository for my recipes, that I could refer to when travelling and visiting our children, where I generally found myself in the kitchen cooking, of course.

 I think it's time to thank you, my loyal readers sincerely for your support over the years, reading and commenting on my blog. I really appreciate it and it certainly makes the whole experience meaningful, enjoyable and worthwhile. I have made some lovely local and international foodie friends along the way, such a bonus and whom I hear from on almost a weekly basis now. Some close friends often give me personal comments about my recipes and my blog, even though they don't comment on the  actual blog so that also keeps me feeling enthusiastic and energised. Some weeks there are hardly any online comments to my posts although the statistics which I have access to show that it has been read quite a lot. When that happens I remind myself that whilst it's lovely to hear from my readers, that wasn't my original intention, and it's great that my blog has grown to the extent it has. I've grown with it in many ways, ha ha, and also really enjoy the writing process as well as the cooking. It all takes time though.

We plan to take a road trip North in a while, perhaps driving to Darwin, where there is a great food culture, so the blog posts will be less frequent however I will try to post on Instagram more frequently which is easier. If you would like to follow our adventures and cooking experiences, you can follow me or check up on me on Instagram at @happy_retirees_kitchen. I'll look forward to hearing from you all. I'll try to comment on my favourite blogs that I follow along the way, but sometimes it seems to be difficult to do that from my phone when travelling, but  reassured I won't have forgotten you. Apologies this is all a bit rushed today, there's a lot going on....

Ingredients:

Serves 6

1 tablespoon peanut or vegetable oil

500 g skinless chicken thigh fillets, trimmed, cut into 2 cm pieces

1 onion, finely chopped

1 long red chilli, seeds removed, thinly sliced

2 garlic cloves, crushed

4 kaffir lime leaves, stems removed, finely shredded

1 1/2 cups (330 g) arborio rice 

1/4 cup (75 g) Thai red curry paste

2 cups (500 ml) chicken stock

1 cup (250ml) coconut cream

2 tbs fish sauce

200g green beans, trimmed, chopped

Coriander sprigs, fried Asian shallots, and lime halves (optional), to serve

Let's cook:

Preheat the oven to 180 deg. C.

Heat the oil in a stove proof and ovenproof casserole dish over medium-high heat.

 Add the chicken to the dish in batches and cook, turning for 2-3 minutes until browned.

Remove the chicken as it is cooked from the casserole dish and set aside on a rimmed plate.

Reduce the stovetop heat to medium and add the onion, chilli, garlic and half the kaffir lime leaves.

Cook, stirring constantly for 2-3 minutes until the onion is soft, then add the rice and curry paste and cook, stirring to coat the grains, for a further 1 minute.

Return the chicken to the casserole with the stock, and 1/2 cup (125 ml) water. Bring to a simmer, then cover with a lid and cook in the oven for 25 minutes or until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Remove from the oven and stir in the coconut cream, fish sauce and beans, then cover and stand for 10 minutes.

Top risotto with coriander, fried Asian shallots if you have them, and remaining kaffir lime leaves and serve with lime halves if using.

I also served this with my Sweet Chill Jam.

Kaffir lime leaves and fried Asian shallots are available from the Asian food shops.

We are all reeling here today following the latest news about the school massacre in Texas. Australia doesn't have a gun culture, and we all find this whole situation incomprehensible. Our hearts go out to you all.

Warm wishes

Pauline