Hello people of YouTube! Welcome to Akis Kitchen! Today, I’m going to show you the proper way
to make a classic recipe that you will love… Chicken risotto! A delicious and creamy risotto, perfectly combined with tender chicken
fillets that will take this dish to the next level! I promise, it’s easier than it looks! So, let’s begin.
We need a pot on medium to high heat... and first, we have to prepare
our chicken. I will use chicken breast bu if you want, you can use the thighs. Whatever you like.
Now take a knife, take the fillets and cut them into small pieces, like this. Don’t put big chunks of meat into the risotto, it’s not so nice because we need for one mouthful
to have a little bit of everything so we want to have more pieces of chicken. Then, we would have to cook the chicken and the risotto in different times. We don’t want to overcook
the chicken but we want to cook it. So first, we will start by sautéing the chicken, then we will remove the chicken
and carry on with the procedure for the risotto. After a little bit, we will add the chicken again
inside the risotto. We need some olive oil, of course Greek. If you want to buy Italian olive oil for this recipe,
it’s not okay with me but you can buy it. We have a free market,
you can buy whatever you want. Italian olive oil is good,
not as the Greek one, but it’s good. You can buy Spanish, Italian, or Greek,
whatever you want. Okay? Now, can you see this pot? I have nothing inside the pot but my pot is “smoking” because it’s very hot. We want that, we want it to be very hot.
So, add the chicken inside the hot pot. We want to sauté the chicken,
we want to make it sexy. Because if you sauté the chicken,
then this lovely crust on the outside of the chicken... also means that the chicken is…what? Tasty! Crust is tastiness. Now, one onion and one clove of garlic. You can use as much onion as you want.
I will go with one small onion. Just simply dice it into small cubes, like this. Bravo! And of course, one clove of garlic. My onion and garlic are ready. Before you take it off the heat,
you have to add all the spices. I have a little bit of curry here. Do you like curry?
Everybody loves curry. So, I will add the curry, I will add the chili flakes, and I will stir everything together. As you can see, my chicken became from white…what? Yellow! Now, we have to carry on. Again, in the same pot, add a little bit of olive oil and when I’m saying a little,
I mean three tablespoons of olive oil. We need oil at this
point because we need to cook the risotto. Onion and garlic go in. Now, it’s time for
herbs. I have some thyme here. Do you like thyme? Everybody loves thyme... because thyme goes with everything. If you are cooking something and you don’t know
what herb to add in your recipe, just add thyme. Thyme is always good with everything. I will also add a little
bit of rosemary… because I like rosemary. Now it’s time to add the risotto rice. I will lower the heat because we have a little bit of a theory here and we have to discuss about that. Why do we have to add the rice at this point and sauté it? It’s very simple, I will tell you. Risotto rice has the ability to melt inside the pot. So, if we don’t sear it, it will completely melt
and become a mash. This is something that we don’t
want, right? Right! So, you have to sauté it to give some body to the rice and so, it will not melt afterwards. Now, we want to sauté and sear the rice. Just for your info,
there are three basic types of rice for risotto. The most common is arborio, the one we are
using today. There is the “carnaroli” and “vialone nano”. Three big categories
of rice. Arborio is the easiest to handle in your kitchen. If you want to use another rice, you can,
but others are more difficult, more professional. Okay? As you can
see, my rice is becoming a little bit yellow. We want that. And this is the point that we
will deglaze the pot. With what? White wine. Good-quality Italian or Greek white wine. Okay? So, add the wine. A little bit of sugar... If you want to add wine, you have to completely
evaporate it. If you don’t, please do not add the wine. Because if you carry on cooking
with the wine inside the pot and add more liquid, then the flavor of the risotto will be acidic and not nice.
We don’t want that. So, wait a minute until you see that the pot
is completely drained from liquid. Can you see that? You have to treat the rice like
a sponge. You have to give it water
and take all the water from the rice. Giving water, taking all the water from the rice.
You got it? You got it? It makes sense? You understand, ok? When the wine
is completely evaporated -can you see that? It’s time to add our stock in batches. You can use any stock you like, I will use chicken stock obviously because
we are making a chicken risotto. If you want to use another stock, you can,
but chicken is the best option you have. Add a little bit of the stock until you cover the rice. Now, you have to cook it slowly.
Do not put it on high heat because if you do, the water will completely evaporate in minutes, so you will need a lot of stock.
We don’t want to add tons of stock inside the pot because the flavor will be very tense
and very powerful. And we don’t want that. So, when there is no more stock,
then we are giving more stock to the risotto. The sponge theory. One more thing
and the most important part of the risotto recipe. You have to add the stock hot!
Because if we stop cooking the risotto all the time, we only cook the outside layer of the rice
and not the inside. So, we will have a risotto that is actually half-cooked because in the middle it will be undercooked
and, on the outside, it will be overcooked. You got it?
Perfect! So, hot stock inside the rice.
We need about 15 to 18 minutes until it’s ready. And when the first batch of stock is gone,
we add a little bit more stock to cover the rice, and carry on the same procedure. At this point, it’s time to add again in the pot…what?
Mr chicken! Mr Chicken goes in… and something good is about to happen. What is that? The most delicious chicken risotto ever! I will carry on the same procedure and after
about 15 minutes, the risotto will be ready and we will serve it. I will show you the
perfect way to serve it. Keep stirring and see you back in 15 minutes! My risotto is ready and the best way to understand
if it’s ready or not, is with a spoon. You have to taste it. The rice is al dente but you have to remember
that after this time, the risotto will carry on cooking for about 5-6 minutes. So, can you see how the consistency
is right now? As you can see, it’s quite runny! There is a lot of starch in the liquid but this is the point that we are actually
going to take the risotto off the heat. Because now, we will take the temperature down
by adding butter. Off the heat, always off the heat. Stir the butter a little bit until it melts completely. When you add butter inside a liquid and you stir,
the liquid always becomes thicker. Can you see that? The same goes when you add parmesan cheese.
The liquid always becomes…what? Thicker. It was so runny before one minute
and the texture now is perfect. If you go to a restaurant and you serve a perfectly
shaped risotto in a cookie cutter, then something wrong is happening. Because the risotto is overcooked.
The risotto has to be runny, has to be like this. At this point, you have to try the salt and pepper,
the seasoning. Because we added the parmesan cheese and parmesan
cheese is quite salty. Probably, you will not need to add any salt and pepper. But if your parmesan cheese is not salty enough,
you have to add a little bit more salt and pepper. I will not add pepper now
because I will add it at the very end. And it’s time to serve.
Before I serve, I will add a little bit of lemon. We need some acidity. Remember to always add
a little bit of acidity in all risottos because we add -at the very end-
the butter and the cheese which are quite buttery, so the acidity always
takes down the fatty flavor of all the fats we have added. Now, the zest of two lemons
and the juice of not even half a lemon. Just a squeeze. Just a squeeze of lemon will give
this boost we want to the risotto. Look at this! Perfection! Again, you have to remember that
-as you can see- the risotto is completely hot right now and it will carry on cooking
during serving this dish to the table or to the customer. So, it has to be runny at this point.
In a few minutes, 1-2 minutes, it will be thicker. Look at this! Everything done to perfection. I think this is a big portion. Now it’s time for freshly
ground pepper. Do not be stingy. Maybe I will add a little bit of lemon, if someone
wants to add a little bit more lemon to his chicken. A little bit of thyme
because we want a nice color to the risotto. Voila! Perfection! What What did I forget? Extra virgin Greek olive oil
to the end because we love the taste of olive oil. And this is it! It’s time for me to
taste. And can you see that?
It’s already thick enough. When the time passes, the risotto becomes
thicker and thicker. You have to remember that. This is the point when you cannot stop
eating. Subscribe, make comments underneath the video and of course, share this lovely
recipe with your friends. Prepare this lovely recipe for your friends. See you next time!
Bye bye! Yia sas!
