Melt the butter in a pan and add the chopped onion. Sauté until transparent.
50 g butter, 150 g onion
Add the finely grated garlic
1 clove garlic
Add the rice and stir around until that too is translucent. This gives the rice a nice toasty flavour.
160 g rice
Add the white wine vinegar and allow to evaporate.
30 ml white wine vinegar
Add the chopped red pepper and chopped celery.
200 g red pepper, 1 celery stalk
Meanwhile, boil the kettle. Now, add the stock cube and a ladleful of hot water. Or heat the chicken stock in a separate saucepan and add to the rice a ladleful at a time. Stir every minute or so until the water is more or less absorbed. The stirring helps to release the starch from the rice and give it that lovely creamy texture, and keeping it hot helps to stop the rice cooling down too much each time you add a ladleful
½ litre stock
Keep adding the hot water and stirring until the rice is almost cooked. Risotto needs to be very moist, not dry like a rice accompaniment. So leave enough moisture in there.
½ litre hot water
When the rice is almost cooked, add the chopped pak choi and cook for a minute or two until it is tender.
1 pak choi
Add the chopped chicken now. If you are using leftover chicken, just heat it through. If you are using fresh chicken, cook it until white all the way through.
140 g chicken
Stir in half the cheese. Serve immediately with the remaining cheese and the chives (if using) sprinkled over the top
50 g parmesan, 20 g chives
Notes
Use any vegetables you like.
diced carrot, parsnip, swede or turnip
a lump of frozen spinach, finely shredded red, white or green cabbage
a fresh tomato or so, or half a tin of chopped tomatoes
finely sliced fennel, kohl rabi or celeriac
swap the chicken for pork or prawns
The recipes in the how to stretch a chicken series
Roast chicken, 400g chicken, gravy, with stuffing, 4 portions
Risotto, 140g chicken, onion, half the the stock, some vegetables, butter and parmesan, 4 portions - this recipe
Pizza, 117g chicken, tomato sauce, maybe some stuffing, 4 portions
Pasta, white sauce, 120g chicken, peas or green beans, onion, pepper, sweetcorn, maybe some stuffing, 4 portions
Tart, 100g chicken, peas, carrots, onions, couple of eggs, no cheese, maybe some stuffing, 4 portions
Pie, 100g chicken, some of the gravy, onion, maybe some sweetcorn or mushrooms, maybe some stuffing, 4 portions
Soup with the remaining half of the stock, 4 portions
this comes out at a total of 28 portions, which I think is pretty good!This means that 1 medium chicken can be used to make 7 different budget stretching chicken recipes and feed your family for a week – bargaintastic!