Jono & Jules do food & wine

This is a fabulous recipe for left-over roast chicken and it’s even worth roasting a bird especially (though we cheated with a shop-bought rotisserie one). You can make a decent chicken stock by pouring water over the carcass and simmering it with a carrot, bay leaf and onion for half an hour.

Creamy Roast Chicken Risotto – to serve 2

• 1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 50g butter
• small bunch of thyme leaves
• 250g arborio rice
• 1 litre hot chicken stock
• 350g leftover roast chicken, torn into bite-size chunks
• 100g crème fraîche
• a handful of chopped parsley
• Parmesan, grated

Melt the butter in a heavy, shallow pan and cook the onion gently until soft but not coloured. Stir in the thyme leaves and the rice and stir until the rice is glistening. Add a little of the hot stock and bring slowly to the boil. Turn the heat down and gradually add the stock, a ladleful at a time, stirring. Stir in the roast chicken as you add the last ladleful of stock.

After about 20 minutes the rice should be tender but with a little bite to it. Stir in the crème fraîche and parsley, then some seasoning. Leave to rest for 5 minutes before serving with a little Parmesan grated over.

Wine Suggestion: A glass of Vintage Champagne if you’re feeling extravagant or  a good Maconnais white, like Pouilly-Fuisse or possibly even something from Roussillon like a Limoux… the choices are endless but don’t go too dry you need a bit of fruitiness here to help with the richness of the dish and a bit of body too otherwise the wine will be overwhelmed.

(Original recipe from Nigel Slater’s Real Food, Fourth Estate, 1998.)