Poached Chicken and Spinach Risotto

Poached Chicken and Spinach Risotto

The decision of what to make for dinner was won by risotto for two reasons. One, the creaminess of risotto is so comforting it is almost impossible to resist. Second, combining risotto with a poached chicken used up more of my pantry ingredients and made some chicken broth to use in the risotto. Plus it is amazing. You take non-creamy things and it just comes together as creamy goodness. Brilliant.
One thing to note about making risotto is that it is more about the process versus the exact measurement of and including the right ingredients (which is pretty much the opposite of baking).
You really only need two things to make risotto: rice and liquid. And patience. Anything over and above that is for pretty. Here is what I did--
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups arborio rice
1/2 cup white wine
1 cup chopped white onion
1 Tablespoon butter
5-6 cups warm chicken broth
1 pound poached chicken, shredded
1/2 pound frozen cut leaf spinach, thawed and drained
2/3 cup parmesan cheese
Directions: 
First, start out with a high quality arborio rice. I used an organic version I found. You toast the rice with a tablespoon of butter and 1 cup of diced onions over medium heat. Add 1/2 cup of white wine and stir constantly. CONSTANTLY. No joke. If your risotto dries out, game over. Stick with your risotto and watch for the rice to absorb the liquid. As the rice starts to puff up and the liquid becomes less visible, add ladelfuls of warm broth, continuing to stir constantly. Do not drown your rice with liquid; one ladelful at a time is enough.  As Alton says, "Your patience will be rewarded. "

Keep adding liquid and stirring as soon as you start to see the bottom of the pan dry out, like below:

Cooking time will vary, today it took about 45 minutes of stirring. The best way to know if it is done is to simply taste it. It should taste like a creamy rice, not al dente pasta. If it is tough, keep adding liquid and stirring. When your rice is the right consistency, add the shredded chicken, spinach and parmesan cheese. If this causes your rice to dry out, simply add another ladelful of broth.
This is a fun dish to make with another person there and some extra wine to sample, which I did. Drinking on a weeknight is another benefit of summer:-).
Enjoy!