Best Risotto Ever

Best risotto ever How can I write a risotto recipe that starts with “Roast 1 flock of chickens? Reserve juices.”??

I recently had to roast a lot of chickens, actually an entire flock of them, and as they cooled, there was all this lovely chicken juice in the bottom of the pans. I put it all in a container, not really sure what I would do with it, but certainly not letting it go to waste.

 
How can I write a risotto recipe that starts with  “Roast 1 flock of chickens? Reserve
juices.”??

 I recently had to roast a lot of chickens, actually an entire flock of
them, and as they cooled, there was all this lovely chicken juice in the bottom
of the pans.  I put it all in a
container, not really sure what I would do with it, but certainly not letting
it go to waste.   As far as
I’m concerned, the best part of the chicken is the burny, toasty brown stuff
that gets left on the roasting pan. It’s pure essence of concentrated chicken.

Lunchtime rolled around the other day, and getting Chinese
food delivered to Montone is clearly not an option so I needed to figure out
something that we could eat. Right about now, I’d kill for some good Chinese dumplings,
but instead, we took a vote and decided on risotto instead of pasta. It’s tough
when there are only 2 people voting, who is the tiebreaker? Yeah, you’re right,
it’s the chef. It’s good to be the chef.

 I decided on a classic risotto Milanese with peas, and then
I remembered my magic chicken juice in the fridge. What good luck!

 Best Risotto Ever Recipe

2-3 cups Magic Chicken Juice (diluted 1 part chicken juice:
2 parts water)

½ cup freshly grated parmigiana

½ cup peas

1 good-sized knob of butter (why do they call a hunk of
butter a knob? Is it more dignified?? Not if you’re British…)

2 cups Arborio rice

½ teaspoon saffron

1 medium sized glug of white wine

1 minced shallot

Your standard risotto technique:

        1)  
Toast the rice in a dry pan

        2)  
Start adding your liquid, bit by bit.  Adding more as it absorbs. I add the
wine near the end.     Add the shallot
near the beginning of the cooking process. Just toss it in the pan.

        3)  
Butter poach the peas. I take frozen peas (pea
season is over, whatcha gonna do?) in a small crockery dish, with that good
sized knob of butter, and over very low heat, I let the butter melt and the
peas poach. This technique is marvelous; use it whenever you want decadent
peas.

        4)  
When the rice is done, combine the saffron,
cheese and peas…in that order.

        5)  
Now eat. Eat it immediately…risotto waits for no man. 

If there is a moral to the story it has to be that if
something looks good enough to keep, keep it. Figure out what to do with it
later. Now I have to wait until the next time there is a flock of chickens
needing to be roasted before I can get more of the Magic Chicken Juice.   If roasting a flock of chickens
is not in your future, use good home made chicken stock from a roast chicken,
and it too will make you happy.