Sometimes I’ll start cooking, and then out of nowhere will come some emergency that absolutely requires my full attention. Usually this is the GFCF Boy’s mischief, but occasionally the GFCF Girl gets in on the act too. This time, for example, she fell and busted her lip open, having inherited a mouth full of dangerous jagged edges in the form of her mother’s hopelessly crooked teeth (how can she have crooked teeth before she even has all her teeth?!) Anyway, when this sort of thing happens, I have no choice but to turn the heat way down on the stove and walk away from it for as long as necessary.
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All of which is to say, your onions need not be quite so thoroughly sauteed as mine are here. If you’ve got the luxury of leaving your diced onion on the lowest heat setting for upwards of 20 minutes (or if you, too, have bleeding offspring to attend to,) then have at it. But normally, you’d just want to sautee this onion in a little olive oil until it’s just starting to turn translucent, nothing major.
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Meanwhile, warm up 3 1/4 cups of gluten-free chicken broth in a small pot. Pacific Foods is one safe brand. Just keep it at a simmer until we’re ready to use it. [As always, the brands I use were GFCF at the time of posting, but manufacturers can change ingredients without warning. Always check your labels!]
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After your onions get to somewhere between translucent and sauteed-to-death, add 1 teaspoon each of basil, parsley, and minced garlic. (That’s roughly two cloves for those of you who do your garlic the real way.)
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Also, dump in an 8-ounce container of sliced mushrooms…
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…And 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt.
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While the mushrooms start to soften, measure out 1 1/2 cups of arborio rice. As you can see, my funny little measuring cup indicates this is approximately 16,000 grains of rice. The other side is even funnier, with things like “volume of the brain of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.” I don’t get to use it as often as I’d like because it has a hairline crack in the bottom and is no good for liquids, but I love it just the same.
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Now, add 3 Tablespoons of oil to the pot. Because we’re putting in so much, I’m actually using grapeseed oil here, because it’s got a milder flavor than olive oil. Any oil will do, really, but a healthier oil is always preferable to basic cooking oil.
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Now pour in your arborio rice, and stir everything thoroughly. This species of rice is what makes a risotto a risotto, by the way. Could you make this recipe with another kind of rice? Yes, but then it would be a rice casserole instead of a risotto, and that doesn’t sound nearly as impressive. If you do substitute, you’ll definitely want to use a short-grain, stickier rice rather than a long-grain dry rice.
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Now, there is a type of chef out there who will tell you that in fact, to properly make risotto, you have to add the boiling liquid a tiny bit at a time, and stir quickly and constantly for as much as 45 minutes straight to get it all absorbed. But I firmly believe that this type of chef has only fooled himself into believing that his food tastes better just because he worked harder for it. Me, I can tell that it tastes just as good this way.
The reason they say you have to do all that stirring is that arborio rice is so soft, if you throw it in a rice cooker it will just congeal into one large mass. What we’re doing here with the oil is similar to what we do with Mexican Rice: we’re sealing each grain of rice by cooking it in hot oil before boiling it. With regular rice, this makes each grain dry and distinct. With arborio rice, this gets it to a sticky-but-separable consistency, without all the stirring.
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After the oil in the pan has been mosty absorbed, pour in your chicken broth, which should still be happily simmering away in your side pot.
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You can also toss in about one cup of frozen peas if you want. I love peas, so I always want to add them to things.
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Put on the lid, and place the whole thing in a 350-degree oven for 30 minutes. If you don’t have any ovensafe cookware, you can also do everything up to this point in a normal pot, and then pour the whole mixture into a 9×13 glass baking dish and cover it with foil.
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Doesn’t that just look so warm and inviting? If you can’t convince your family that a meatless item counts a main dish, you can also place some boneless chicken pieces right on top of the whole thing before putting it in the oven, and it becomes that great family classic, chicken and rice casserole. But you and I will know it’s really a risotto.
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Happy Eating!
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Easy Mushroom Risotto (aka Chicken and Rice Casserole)
3 1/4 cups GF chicken broth
1 medium onion
1 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp basil
2 cloves minced garlic
8 oz. sliced mushrooms
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbs grapeseed oil
1 1/2 cups arborio rice
1 cup frozen peas
boneless chicken pieces (optional)
Yes it does look warm and inviting, but looking at it, I was stuck with the notion it might be good cooled, also. You know, like potato salad at a picnic. Would it be to sticky to use like that?
Hmm.. it gets pretty gummy after you put it in the fridge. Still heats up again okay, but I wouldn’t eat it cold, myself. If you made it with regular rice, that might be more likely, since the grains would be more separated. But still, not many cold rice dishes out there.
I LOVE risotto and used to make it quite often. Thanks for bring this winner to my attention. Risotto is actually the technique you’re using to cook your rice and most people do use Arborio, but any medium-grain rice will do. I, like you, have found a baking-after- sauteing-method that works well. I also use the constantly stirring method (after sauteing) while adding small amounts of warm broth. This produces the creamy comfort food version.
Buon Appetito!
uh . . . bringing . . . spelling counts!