Mushroom & Chicken Dinner Rice

I struggled with the title for this recipe. I also didn't want the title to sound too pretentious to put you off. I can't call this Risotto because I didn't add hot stock a cup at a time to develop creaminess and I didn't use arborio rice either. But I did use Italian flavorings and ingredients to create this easy, quick, satisfying and most of all, yummy, dish. If you made my Cold Killer Chicken Stock, here's a recipe to use it! If you haven't, well I would humbly request you do so, but you can substitute with a good quality store bought broth. I purchased dried porcini mushrooms from Mainly Mushrooms at the Wrightstown Winter Farmer's Market and immediately became hungry for a rice dish. I didn't have arborio rice but I did just make chicken stock. I always have Goya Medium Grain rice in my pantry and I like it because it can make creamy or sticky rice depending on how you cook it. That particular day I also had a leftover roasted chicken breast and some Italian Kale in the fridge. Voila! This dish was born.

This recipe also qualifies for my new page, "What's for Dinner?". The criteria for the recipes on the What's for Dinner page will be: easy, quick, healthy and flexible. I hope this page will become your go to place when you need a little help and inspiration to get something healthy and yummy on the table - quickly. I made this recipe in my large All-Clad soup pot, fed four people (three of them had seconds) and there weren't any leftovers. That said, I think I would say this recipe feeds 6 people as the main course and 8 as a side dish. You can easily double or increase the recipe to suit the size of your crowd. Just remember the liquid to rice ratio is 2 to 1 generally. I've added an extra cup of stock here to increase the creaminess and sauciness. Be as saucy as you feel ;)

If you don't have dried porcini mushrooms on hand, please feel free to use some PA grown fresh mushrooms instead and saute them with the onion until they are nicely browned. You should use a darker, more robust and therefore flavorful mushroom such as portobella, wood ear etc. I don't use spices or herbs in this dish because I want the full flavor of the porcini mushrooms to be dominant. But if you are using fresh mushrooms or other dried mushrooms, feel free to add some dried or fresh italian herbs.

Mushroom & Chicken Dinner Rice

1 large onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

3 small bunches or 1 1/2 cups chopped or chiffonade of kale or greens of your choice

2 large carrots, unpeeled and diced

salt and pepper to taste

1 cooked chicken breast, torn into bite sized peices

2 cups Goya medium grain rice

5 cups Cold Killer Chicken Stock (Recipe in blog) or good quality chicken broth plus more if more sauciness is desired - to taste

about 1/2 cup dried porcini mushrooms or 1 small box fresh mushrooms as described above

freshly grated Parmesan, Romano or other strong flavored Italian cheese of your choice for garnish and fresh microgreens or pea greens for garnish

Saute onion in oil over high heat until golden brown, add greens and saute for 2 to 3 minutes then add garlic and cook for only one minute more. Add rice and stock, stir to deglaze bottom of the pan then add carrots, mushrooms, salt, pepper (herbs if using) and chicken. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil, stir, reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for 10 minutes without lifting the lid. After 10 minutes taste for doneness and seasoning, adjust as necessary. Garnish with cheese and fresh microgreens. Enjoy!