Lemon Chicken with Mushroom Risotto

I recently came across this recipe on Chaos in the Kitchen's blog.  I love risotto but I have always been a little apprehensive to try making my own.  On Top Chef someone always goes home for messing up their risotto so it has to be hard right? Wrong!  This recipe was quick and easy and tastes like something you would get at a restaurant.  Plus the food looks very impressive so it's a great dish to serve company. 

Lemon Sauced Chicken
** adapted from Chaos in the Kitchen
(printable recipe)

Serves 2
Prep Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 15 min

2 medium boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 tsp butter, such as Smart Balance
1 tsp oil
salt and pepper
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp dry white wine
1/2 cup chicken broth

Preheat oven to 350. Heat a large frying pan over medium heat, then when hot, add the butter and oil. You may want to spray the pan with a little nonstick spray as well.  Once butter is melted, season chicken with salt and pepper then place in the pan. Cook undisturbed for 4 minutes. Flip chicken with tongs and cook about 4 more minutes on the other side.  Place skillet in the oven and cook an additional 8-10 minutes or until no longer pink. Remove skillet using an oven mitt, skillet handle will be very hot.  Move chicken to a serving plate and keep warm under foil.

Add lemon juice and white wine to the skillet, scraping up all of the browned bits. Add chicken broth and boil until reduced by about half and sauce is slightly thick. Serve chicken drizzled with about 1 to 2 tbsp of sauce.

Basic Mushroom Risotto
Serves 2 - 4
Prep Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 20 min

5 cups chicken broth
1 tsp oil
1 tsp butter
8 oz fresh mushrooms, thinly sliced or chopped
1 cup arborio or long grain rice
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
truffle oil or truffle salt (optional)

Boil chicken broth then turn down to a simmer. Heat a pan to medium and add oil and butter. Once butter is melted add mushrooms and saute until beginning to brown. When mushrooms are starting to turn golden, add rice and stir. Toast rice, stirring, until it turns golden. Ladle one cup of hot broth into rice and mushrooms and stir to combine. You do not have to stir constantly but just give it a good stir every now and then.

When most of the liquid is absorbed and the pan is beginning to get dry, stir in another cup of liquid. Continue stirring in hot liquid as it is absorbed until rice is tender and creamy. When rice is done, remove from the heat and stir in parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle individual servings with a small amount of truffle oil of a pinch of truffle salt if desired (we omitted this step and it still tasted great). 

** To time the preparation of the chicken and the risotto correctly I would suggest starting the risotto first. Once you get the mushrooms browned and rice added to the pan you can start cooking the chicken.  The chicken doesn't require much attention so you will be able to concentrate on adding the broth at the appropriate times and stirring occasionally to keep the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pan.