Chicken and Chorizo Risotto.
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I thought I would try something new and break away from my normal (for the most part) DVD reviews and share with you a recipe (you never know I may even do more of these in the future (based on the success of this one)). Wikipedia hold a little info on Risotto, that can be found here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risotto.

I find risottos are great to cook and surprisingly easy, they take a bit of TLC to get right as you have to give then constant attention in terms of stirring them, but there is no real reason for them to go wrong and the great thing about them is that you can have them as simple or as complicated as you like. There are a couple of rules to making risottos, I have read variations on these but these particular rules served me well on all the risottos that I have made. Note that I have a gas stove and so heat levels used will be based on that.

1: Always use proper risotto rice, Arborio for example, although there are other types of risotto rice such as Carnaroli or Vialone Nano which can be used, it MUST be risotto rice.

2: Always use a ladle to transfer the stock to the pan you are cooking the risotto in.

The recipe below gives 4 generous portions although nothing is set in stone, you can put in less, or more of anything depending on your preference.

Ingredients:
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3 to 4oz (75gr to 100gr) of Risotto rice PER person (I normally use 3oz) (do not wash/rinse the rice)
4 to 5oz (100/150gr) - Chorizo Sausage sliced into rings then halved
2 medium chicken breasts skinned and cubed into bite-sized chunks
1 medium onion (red or normal) chopped
2 pints of stock (Vegetable or Chicken)
Glass of white wine (optional)
Some olive oil
Good pinch of saffron
Tabasco sauce
2oz (57gr) Parmesan cheese (grated from a block not the pre grated tube stuff)
Cup of frozen peas.
Garlic, crushed/finely chopped

Method:
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1. Cook the cubed chicken in a frying pan until cooked through properly and slightly browned on the outside

2. At the same time, use a small pan to put your stock in, make about 2 pints (1 litre) of your choice of stock and leave it simmering on the small burner, every time you need a ladle of stock you will take it from this simmering saucepan. The better your stock the better the flavour of the risotto, you can use anything from oxo cubes up to proper home made stock.

3. At the same time, using a gas stove use one of the medium rings, and have the gas around medium heat (or a tad below). Put about 2 tablespoons of olive oil (or a decent knob of butter) in a large pan, (if using butter allow it to melt, if using oil then let it become hot and put in the chopped onions. Cook the onion until they start to go slightly brown. Then put in the garlic and the rice. (yes the rice goes in dry).

4. You need to be careful here not to have the heat too high or the rice will burn, but you need to stir the onion, rice and garlic allowing all the ingredients to get coated in the oil (add a tad more if needed) until the rice becomes a little translucent, once it has done so, put in two ladles of stock, these two ladles should be absorbed fairly quickly by the rice (or use the glass of white wine if you want).

5. From this point it is a matter of putting in one ladle of stock at a time, once the rice has absorbed the liquid then put in another ladle and so on, you may not use ALL of the stock, or you may need to make a little more, you also need to be almost constantly stirring, ie stir everything around, leave for 5/15 seconds, stir again and so on. The risotto will take approx 20 minutes to cook this way and it will get quite thick and creamy looking, this is the starch from the rice, the various other ingredients you just add to the mixture at various points along the way, I will go into that now.

6. After about 5 or 6 ladles worth of stock has gone into the Risotto you need to add the Saffron and the Tabasco. The Saffron will give the plain Risotto a great flavour and also colour the rice, the Tabasco gives it a little kick, you will need about 3 hits of Tabasco.

7. 12/13 minutes in from starting the Risotto add the cooked Chicken and Chorizo and continue cooking and stirring. You continue doing this until almost the end. The Risotto will be thick and creamy and you will need to begin to taste it, the rice will still be a bit "gritty" at this point but you will sense that it is "getting there", at this point add the peas.

8. Continue doing the ladle thing and stirring, resting and tasting until the point that the rice is al dente. The rice will still be slightly firm but not gritty as it was before. At this point, turn off the heat, add the parmesan and stir that in well, then put a lid on the pot and leave for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes serve immediately.

variations
3 hits of Tabasco give the risotto a little kick, if you like hot food (as in spicy) then add more Tabasco, if you hate spice then maybe 1 hit of Tabasco).

To make it a creamier, put in a knob of butter at the end when you add the parmesan.

The cost of this can vary depending on the ingredients used, I only tend to use wine in this if there is any available, so assuming that you are NOT buying wine I would say that this would work out around £3 to £4 per person, this is on the assumption that you would need to buy a block of parmesan, a bag of peas etc, so if you have those ingredients already it will cost less.

please note
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All words are my own, I have cross posted this recipe to my LiveJournal account too