Chicken, Bacon & Roast Pumpkin Risotto – Louise

Chicken, Bacon & Roast Pumpkin Risotto – a family favourite.

I love recipes that involve the least washing up possible- this is one of recipes…and another bonus is it makes great leftovers for freezing.

Ingredients

2 Raw chicken breasts – chopped into 2cm chunks (aprox 500g)

6 Short Cut Bacon pieces – diced (aprox 200g)

450g of peeled and thickly diced pumpkin (aprox 3cm thick)

1 large onion – diced

2 cloves of minced garlic

2 cups Arborio Rice

1 medium Zucchini – grated

1 cup frozen Peas

¼ cup white wine (optional)

2 tbs Olive Oil

4 cups Salt reduced Chicken Stock

½ cup of grated parmesan cheese

Salt and Pepper

Method –

Pre-heat oven to 200c while you prep the ingredients.

Heat a large oven safe pan (I use a stainless steel 40cm deep pan), add the oil and brown the diced chicken fillets. Once the fillets are sealed and browning I push them to one side of the pan and the diced bacon. When the bacon is getting crisp I then add the onion and garlic, stir it all together and cook until onion softens.

I again push the contents to one half of the pan and tilt so the oil and cooking juices are in the empty space, then add the Arborio Rice to this oily juice and stir to coat. Cook the rice until it starts to gain some caramelisedcolour and starts to make a popping sound (should only take a minute).

Reduce heat and add the wine, stir until the alcohol evaporates and the liquid absorbs into the rice.

Add the grated Zucchini and frozen Peas into the mix and stir in all of the chicken stock. Make sure you scrape the bottom of the pan to loosen all the yummy caramelised goodness.

Cover pan with lid or alfoil and place in the oven along with the Pumpkin on a lined roasting tray. After 15mins remove the Risotto to stir and turn the pumpkin. Return Risotto and Pumpkin to the oven for a further 15mins (keep the Risotto covered).

After 30mins total cooking time remove the Risotto from the oven and gently stir in the roasted pumpkin (the pumpkin is soft and will turn to mush if you over mix).

It’s at this stage that I remove some for freezing (I find it’s best to re-heat and then add the parmesan).

Add  the parmesan cheese to the amount you are serving and gently mix, season with salt and pepper according to taste.

We serve it with some yummy garlic bread.

Here are some of our other favourite family meals –

Mini Meatloaf 

Healthy Spaghetti Bolognaise

Chickpea & Mango Chicken Balls

Salmon and Leek Pies

Louise x

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