Tomato chicken risotto with basil (simple midweek dinner)

This simple mid-week dinner recipe - tomato chicken risotto is a weekly staple in our house. It's quick & easy to make and at hit with the whole family.

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• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Thermomix instructions
• Recipe

Let’s be honest, when I started Claire K Creations way back in 2010 I really didn’t know what I was doing (my first post was about macaroons – they were macarons! Oh the horror!). 

I knew that I loved food and I wasn’t bad at whipping up tasty meals and treats but when it came to blogging, I was totally feeling my way through the dark. 

The writing part was ok but the photos, well, lets just say I don’t think they were making anyone rush to their kitchen to recreate my recipe.

There are a lot of recipes on regular rotation in our house and they seem to be the ones that I shared back in the early days so I thought I’d do a bit of revisiting so I can make them look a bit more appealing.  

I still make a lot of those recipes but over the last year or two I’ve tinkered and tweaked our weeknight staples and have simplified the recipes so much I could make most of them in my sleep.

Tomato chicken risotto was one of the recipes mum made a lot of when I was still at home. 

I’m not sure where she got the original recipe but with mum’s experimental cooking style, I’m pretty sure she made it up. 

In the original recipe there were a few annoying things like one and half tins of crushed tomatoes (which I think was my addition – mum wouldn’t do something so wasteful) so consider this the new and improved version.

It’s easy, super tasty and pretty family-friendly making it a great meal to add to the weekly menu. 

Even when I was a fussy eater I loved this.

Ingredients

To make this risotto recipe you will need:

• Chopped chicken breasts, cooked - you can use chicken thighs here or even leftover roast chicken or rotisserie chicken shredded.
• Frozen peas - or use fresh baby spinach leaves
• Chicken broth (stock) - I like to use homemade but you can use store bought or use stock powder with water. Vegetable stock can also be used. 
• Brown onion - diced
• Garlic - crushed. You can use fresh garlic cloves or jarred minced garlic. 
• Tinned diced tomato 
• Basil - fresh basil leaves are preferable
• Grated parmesan - preferably freshly grated as it has a much stronger flavour. 
• Arborio rice - aka risotto rice. You can make this with other short grain rice but Arborio is the best rice to use. 
• Olive oil - or I like to sometimes use leftover bacon fat for extra flavour.

When I make risotto, it’s nice and firm and not sloppy like you see in most restaurants. 

My version is really quite lean and if you bulked it up with spinach you could call it diet friendly. 

I will advise you not to skimp on the parmesan though. 

I used to buy the grated stuff in the packet. It’s pretty flavourless and I used nearly a whole packet to get the boost I needed.

Now I buy the best chunk I can find and grate it myself as needed. 

It may be more expensive but you need so much less to get the same flavour, I’d say it works out equal in cost.

Instructions

The cooking process for tomato chicken risotto is very similar to any other risotto:

1. Heat the drizzle of olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Cook the onion and garlic until transparent (I like to cook until just golden brown for more flavour) then add the rice and stir until glistening.
2. A little at a time, add the hot stock/water, waiting until each addition has been absorbed before the next is added. Make sure to stir regularly and scrape the bottom so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.
3. Add the tinned tomato and basil. Stir through the cooked chicken then add the frozen peas.
4. When the peas are heated through, add the parmesan and season to taste with salt and black pepper.
5. Serve piping hot with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese or freeze for quick, easy meals. 

I also like to add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice to serve. 

Leftover risotto will freeze well. Pop in an airtight container or ziplock bag.

Thermomix instructions

You can also make this recipe in the Thermomix.

Follow the instructions in this recipe & add the tomatoes where it says to add water.

Throw the chicken in a few minutes before the time is up.

Until it came time to edit the photos I didn’t realise I’d made a little chicken and basil strawberry on top. Isn’t it cute?

I like to make up a big batch of tomato chicken risotto and freeze it for nights when I don’t feel like cooking.

Just a quick zap in the microwave and a sprinkle of parmesan and dinner is served. Enjoy!

What about you? How do you like risotto? 

Do you have weeknight staple recipes you’ve changed over the years?

Recipe