Chicken and Asparagus Risotto with Sauteed Mushrooms

50g/2oz butter

1 tablespoon of olive oil

4 chicken breasts cut into 1” pieces

1 onion chopped

450g/1lb, 2oz asparagus cut into 1” lengths

250g/ 10oz chestnut mushrooms

120m/4 fl ozl white wine

500g/1lb,4oz risotto rice

800 ml/ 1 ½ pints chicken stock ( kept hot in a saucepan on the stove)

60g/2 ½ oz grated parmesan cheese

 Heat the olive oil in  a frying pan and sauté the mushrooms until they are brown and a lot of the juice from the mushrooms has evaporated. Remove the mushrooms from the pan and fry the chicken pieces until they are browned adding a little more oil if necessary. Set these aside. Keep the mushrooms warm.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan and fry the onion for about 5 minutes until soft and translucent. Add the risotto rice to the onions in the pan and stir around so that the rice becomes coated in all the buttery onions. Add the white wine and cook stirring continuously until the wine has been absorbed.

Add a ladleful of the chicken stock and keep stirring your rice so that the stock slowly becomes absorbed into the rice as the rice cooks. Continue adding a ladleful of stock to the rice and stirring for about 15 minutes until the rice is just tender. Season with some salt.

When the rice is  a few minutes from being cooked add the asparagus spears and cook for  2 more minutes. Add the chicken and stir through the rice to warm through for about a minute. Add the parmesan cheese.

To serve ladle the risotto into bowls and top with the sautéed mushrooms and more parmesan cheese as required. The risotto should be “sloppy” and have a soupy consistency.