White Wine Risotto, with Chicken and Broccoli

After making salmon and thyme risotto last week, I decided to make another kind of risotto today for lunch: white wine, chicken and broccoli risotto, with loads of parmesan of course! I hadn't made a risotto in years, literally, so I don't know why suddenly I crave for it... I used to make chicken risotto every week when I was a nanny. It is a great way to make the little ones eat veggies: any sort of finely chopped vegetable is good and can be hidden easily :-)
Anyway, today I made it more "grown-up", splashing some white wine in the cooking of the rice and adding extra parmesan for more taste.

Ingredients for 4 servings:
300gr risotto rice
1 large onion
2 chicken breasts
1 brocoli
white wine
parmesan
1 litre chicken / vegetable stock
salt, pepper
Sweetcorn: optional (it adds great texture and colour)

Cook the chicken breasts in the oven until just done. Boil or steam the brocoli. Leave aside.
Cook the diced onion in olive oil until translucent (5-8 min) in a large pan. Then add the risotto rice and stir, to cover the rice in oil and onion. Splash a cup of white wine in the pan, and stir well. The wine will be absorbed by the rice, and evaporate as well. Add the chicken or vegetable stock little by little and stir well, to avoid the rice to stick to the bottom of the pan. Once the rice has absorbed the stock, add more, stir etc until the rice is completed cooked. This normally takes 30min on low-medium heat.
Then cut the chicken and broccoli, and add it in the risotto, gently stir. Sprinkle some parmesan on top, and have a taste of Italy. Buon Apetito!

Basil Chicken Hash

For once, I took some time to cook and have a healthy lunch..I found this basil chicken hash recipe on the foodnetwork website (obviously from my dear friend, the Barefoot Comtessas, who else?) and kept it in my favourites for a very long time..I don't know why I never got the time to do it, because it is simple to make and was delicious..

Ingredients and steps I followed:
2 large chicken breasts
1 onion
4 medium size potatoes
3 spring onions
1 large red bell pepper
1 tbsp tomato paste
thym
salt, pepper, parsley, garlic
basil leaves

Place some basil leaves under the skin of the chicken breasts. Rub olive oil on the chicken, season with salt and pepper and bake in the preheated oven (190°C) for about 30minutes, until the meat is just cooked.
Cook the diced onion and potatoes in a large saucepan, with olive oil and garlic.( I used garlic infused olive oil, to avoid cutting garlic). Leave to cook until the potatoes are cooked through. Season well too.
In a separate pan, cook the diced red pepper, add the tomato paste and sprinkle some thym.
Add the cooked chicken, paprika mix to the cooked potatoes and onion. Stir in the chopped spring onions. Check the seasoning, and sprinkle some parsley. Easy peasy and ready to eat: