Spicy Caribbean Risotto with Citrus Chicken

Last night's dinner. I apologise in advance for the absolutely awful photo but I had no charged cameras so had to resort to the iPhone which has a criminally awful camera for such an expensive phone. I realise the picture above looks like a very blurry pile of pigswill but it was nice, I promise you.

This is a Lesley Waters recipe I found a while back on the BBC website. It's really easy and there's not really a lot of preparation so it's a nice low-effort dinner. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, it seemed like quite a few different flavours but it worked really well and was very satisfying. I particularly liked the citrus chicken. Mr M gave it a 10 out of 10 so it's a keeper.

This recipe is to serve 1 but is very easily doubled.

Spicy Caribbean Risotto with Citrus Chicken

Ingredients

For the risotto:
½ red onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
110g risotto rice
25g butter
1 carrot, peeled and grated
½ tsp coriander seeds
¼ tsp ground cardamom
½ tsp dried turmeric
½ tsp chilli flakes
100ml/4fl oz white wine
1 vegetable stock cube, crumbled
1 garlic clove, crushed and finely chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper
hot water

For the chicken:
1 skinless chicken breast, flattened with a rolling pin
zest of 1 lime
zest of 1 orange
lime wedges, to garnish

Method

For the risotto, heat the oil in a deep frying pan. Fry the onion with the rice and the butter until coated.

Grind the coriander seeds in a pestle and mortar and add the other dry spices and chilli flakes. Add to the rice.

Add the wine and stir well to deglaze the pan. Add the stock cube and garlic and stir well.

Begin adding the hot water gradually, a ladleful at a time until the rice is cooked through. (I used about 5 or 6 ladles of hot water).

Meanwhile, heat a griddle pan for the chicken. Toss the chicken breast in the lime and orange zest. Place on the griddle and grill for three minutes on each side or until cooked through. Remove from the heat and leave to stand for two minutes.

Slice the breast and serve on top of the risotto with the lime wedge to garnish.

I just realised reading this recipe back that I never used carrots last night. Doh. I certainly didn't miss them but will perhaps try it with them next time!

love & kisses
Mrs M x