Serious Eats: Recipes
Meat Lite: Mushroom and Chicken Risotto
Editor's note: Philadelphia food writers Joy Manning and Tara Mataraza Desmond drop by each week with Meat Lite, which celebrates meat in moderation. Meat Lite was inspired by the book coauthored by the two, Almost Meatless, due out in spring 2009.
When Tara and I developed the recipes for Almost Meatless, diversity of ingredients and influences was a goal. We wanted the final assortment of recipes to show how eclectic a meat-lite meal plan can be.
But this weekly column reflects more accurately how I cook at home: I start by scouring the fridge, pantry, and freezer to identify what I already have on hand. This recipe is kind of a sibling to the chicken hand pies I posted about two weeks ago. For those, I started with half of a poached chicken breast from a batch of chicken stock. (I always remove the chicken breast about an hour into the stock's simmering phase and reserve it for meals later in the week.) I saved the other half for this risotto, which gets its meaty flavor as much from the dried porcinis as it does from the chicken. In my next recipe, the dried porcinis (I always have them on hand) will reappear in a meat-lite meat sauce for homemade pasta. Stay tuned.