Easy Chicken Risotto with Zucchini is an elegant and easy weeknight meal for family and friends! Try one of our variations on this dish to use up whatever veggies you’ve got in your fridge.
I feel like risotto gets a bad rap as being something difficult to cook and really….it’s not. Does it take some time? Oh sure, but it’s not hard work or technically difficult. So making this Easy Chicken Risotto with Zucchini is truly easy.
How to Make Risotto Creamy
So, risotto is unique in that all of the starch in the rice grains makes it’s own creamy sauce. The best way to achieve the creamy consistency that risotto is famous for is by SLOWLY adding in your cooking liquid (in this case, chicken broth).
When I say “add it slowly”, what I mean is to add in a ladle of hot stock, then stir stir stir until the liquid is mostly absorbed and then adding your next ladle full.
You don’t want to add all of the stock at once because you will miss out on the creaminess of risotto and it will take longer for all of the rice to cook.
Chicken Risotto Variations
This recipe is really a starting point for your risotto. There are lots of different variations to this recipe that you could tailor to what ever is rolling around in your fridge. For example:
- Pre-cooked chicken and leftover roasted vegetables
- Shrimp and asparagus with a little white wine (1/2 cup) in place of stock
- Fresh wild mushrooms
- Spring pea and lemon
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons butter
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil separated
- 1 1/2 cups Risotto
- 5-6 cups chicken broth hot
- 1 small onion chopped
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 1 large zucchini quartered and sliced
- 1 large red pepper diced
- 2 cups chopped cooked chicken
- salt and pepper
- 1 cup grated parmesan
Instructions
- In a large skillet, heat 1 T oil over medium-high heat. Add zucchini and peppers and season with salt and pepper. Cook veggies until they have softened. Add chicken to the pan and cook until heated through. Turn heat to low until risotto is ready.
- In a large saucepan, melt butter and oil over medium-high heat, saute onions and garlic until onion is translucent. Add in rice and cook for 1 minute until the rice has absorbed some of the liquid and has turned opaque.
- Gradually add in chicken stock, 1 ladle at a time. Stirring until the liquid has been absorbed before adding another ladle.
- Continue ladling stock and stirring until all of the broth has been incorporated and the rice is tender. Add chicken mixture and Parmesan into the pot.
Jodie! CONGRATULATIONS on your baby! She is looking good! I did click on the old blogger URL and it show I was being directed.. but then, it got stuck! I may not be you, but me (I’m accessing from work, so you know the network is picky!). I will try it from home later on tonight and see if the problem continues. Regarless, I’m really like it, love the colors and the simplicity of it. You did good chica!
Thanks Monica! It’s still a work in progress, but I’m happy with it so far!
Great job Jodie! Love the new website… it just needs your picture on it!! I’ll ask John what he knows about html.
Hahahaha. I’m not sure quite what you’ve been through in making the transition, but I can tell right away that whatever hell you’ve endured, it was worth it. The site looks wonderful. Great work!
this looks so delicious and easy! do you think canned chicken would work for it? also, how many servings did you get?
I think canned chicken would work great for this! I got about 6 good size portions out of this recipe. Plenty to go around! Thanks!
That looks delicious…and congrats on the new look and domain 🙂
Looking good!
congrats on the new website and good luck with tweaking it! delicious looking recipe to celebrate!
Congratulations on a great looking site! Your recipe looks and sounds awesome! I certainly love one bowl meals like this :o)
Eatin’ on the cheap while tasting good. Nice looking site!
Thanks Belinda!
very nice – both site and recipe … so how hard is it to get your own domain?
Domain is the easy part. You can actually buy one through Blogger and not have to lift more than one finger. Changing from Blogger to WordPress is the hardest part. It requires two fingers, primarily the middle one, and quite a bit of cursing and alcohol. Unless of course, you can afford the several hundred bucks for someone else to do it for you.
Looks really great!