Chicken and Mushroom Arancini

This is a recipe that requires a bit of effort and a little bit of a ‘faff’ as like to say, but worth every single minute of faffing because it is absolute food heaven.

If I’m making Arancini, I will always have Risotto for dinner the night before, rather than attempting to make Risotto and then make it into Arancini all in one day because lets face it, no one has time for that.

So this recipe includes a simplified Risotto recipe which we had for dinner then the second stage of turning it into some lovely crispy balls, this recipe is slightly different to my others as it doesn’t include exact amounts but I made enough Risotto for 4 people so that there would be leftovers after me and K had had ours, then the leftovers made 5 Arancini.

You will need:

• 4 Chicken Breasts

• Seasoning, Oregano, Lemon, Garlic Cloves

• 6 Shallots, finely diced

• 1 tsp Garlic, chopped

• 1 tsp Thyme

• 1/2 punnet Mushrooms, diced

• 4 handfuls of Arborio Rice

• 1 ltr Chicken Stock

• Butter

• 60g Parmesan

• 2 slices stale Wholemeal, blitzed into Breadcrumbs

• 2 Eggs

• 50g Plain Flour

Roast the Chicken Breasts with the seasoning, Oregano, Lemon and Garlic… I pop it all onto a tray and tin foil it then pop into the oven on 180′ for 25 minutes… I usually do this first then start prepping any Veg for the Risotto. Once the Chicken is cooked I let it rest for 10 minutes then shred it up with 2 forks.

Fry the Shallots with the chopped Garlic and Thyme for a couple of minutes.

Add the Risotto Rice and the Mushrooms and fry for a couple more minutes.

Add the Chicken Stock gradually, bit by bit, stirring often for around 20-25 minutes until cooked.

Add the Chicken, Parmesan and a little Butter and stir through, adding more stock if it needs it.

Pop in the Fridge, once cold, roll into balls then put onto a plate lined with greaseproof paper and put into the Freezer for a couple of hours, this will make them solid and a lot easier to coat with Breadcrumbs.

Set up the Flour, Egg and Breadcrumbs to coat the Arancini. Flour first, then Egg, then Breadcrumb. I use one hand to Flour and Egg and the other to Breadcrumb to save me getting in too much of a mess.

I cooked mine in my air fryer for 25 minutes on 170′, but you can cook in the oven for the same time and temperature.

To serve, I reduced down some Passatta and added Oregano, Salt and a little Sugar then had some Rocket on the side.

One of my favourite, favourite meals… just wish I’d made more and had some stocked up in the Freezer!!

Hope you enjoy.

L x