I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: leftovers are always delicious and often better than the original meal. A risotto is a great way to use up leftover meats, especially with roast chicken, when you can make a delicious home-made stock with the bones. Risottos are usually finished with the mantecara, the butter and parmesan added at the end that makes them so creamy. This one uses a whole jug of gravy instead. Ashamed as I am to not be completely authentic and Italian, the dish was just too lovely to not share.
I think the best part of a roast chicken Sunday dinner is making the stock. You can use bought stock, of course, but if you haven’t made your own stock, please consider giving it a go. Just take your chicken carcass and strip all the useable meat off that you can find and set aside. Put all the bones in a large pan with some roughly chopped onion, celery and carrot. Add a generous pinch of salt and around 10 whole black peppercorns and bring to the boil. Simmer for around 2 hours and then drain. The resulting stock will give such an amazing flavour to any soup, sauce or risotto.
Leftover chicken gravy is pretty essential to this particular dish and I can’t really think of a substitute. Or just use good old parmesan and butter to have a roast chicken risotto, which will still be very nice indeed. If you do have that gravy kicking around however, don’t be afraid to throw it all in there, you won’t regret it!
Enjoy!
(3 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)
Loading...Ingredients
- 250ml chicken gravy
- 200-300g leftover roast chicken meat, cut or shredded into small pieces
- 600ml chicken stock (see above)
- 1 onion
- 250g arborio or carnaroli risotto rice
- 100ml vermouth or white wine
Instructions
Finely chop the onion and cook gently in an olive oil and butter mix until soft but without browning.
Heat the stock in a saucepan and keep on the simmer throughout.
Add the rice and coat thoroughly for 1 minute.
Turn up the heat and add the vermouth, stirring well.
Reduce the heat and add the stock one ladleful at a time, stirring constantly to release the starch from the rice.
Keep adding stock and stirring until the rice is cooked through, around 15 minutes.
Add the gravy and mix well.
Add parmesan, salt and pepper to taste and ensure the consistency is quite loose, more like a porridge and certainly not set solidly. Add more stock or hot water if needed.
Notes
Good quality, shop-bought chicken stock will work well if you don't make your own. A few springs of thyme or some Worcestershire Sauce in the stock will add flavour. You can add any leftover veg too, like cooked carrots or parsnips.
