Chicken and mushroom brown rice and lentil risotto + a giveaway

Brown rice and lentil risotto

Product and giveaway provided by SunRice and F4 Consulting.

Brown rice and lentils.

I know, for most people it doesn’t bring up images of deliciousness.

But but but… what if I told you that it is possible to cook something really tasty from brown rice and lentils – something so good you could serve to guests?


Brown rice and lentil risotto

Recently I was sent some of SunRice’s new product Naturally Rice & Lentils to try.

It’s made up of 85% whole grain brown rice and 15% whole lentils, and I wanted to use it to cook something both easy and delicious.

Brown rice and lentil risotto

My idea was a chicken and mushroom risotto – an ever so slightly healthier version, if you ignore all that parmesan.

Yes, I am aware that risotto is typically made with high starch white rice, the starch giving the dish a creaminess that can’t really be replicated with brown rice – but! I’m not totally nuts, I promise! The reason I’ve used this product in a risotto is because of the lentils.

SunRice

Uh huh. The lentils. Because when they cook enough, they add a creaminess to the rice, which is a good substitute for the starch.

Brown rice and lentil risotto

My risotto started with onion and plenty of garlic, and then I amped up the flavour with dried porcini as well as fresh mushrooms, and chicken stock instead of water.

All the ingredients went into the super awesome amazing rice cooker (read on to win one) on brown rice setting and the result was… well…

Excuse me while I toot my own horn. It was delicious. Really delicious. Wow I’m so amazing I did such a good job delicious. πŸ˜€

Brown rice and lentil risotto

And yes, I did actually serve it to friends who came for lunch and it was a great success.

(However, full disclosure: our friends’ 7 and 4 year olds weren’t big fans. The kids had peanut butter on toast instead. Children.)

Rice cooker

Competition

Want to try SunRice brown rice and lentils AND win an awesome rice cooker?

Yes you do! It is one awesome rice cooker (it PLAYS A TUNE :D) and if you don’t already own one – you NEED one in your life.

Thanks to SunRice and F4 Consulting, two people will win lots of SunRice to try plus an awesome rice cooker (that plays a tune).

All you need to do is comment below and tell me what you’d cook. Abbey from F4 will draw the winners randomly.

Make sure you include a valid email address when you comment – it won’t be published, but I’ll use it to contact you if you win. This competition will close at midnight on Monday 3 November and is valid for Australian residents only. Good luck!

UPDATE: Competition has now closed. Congratulations to Lizzy and Lorna M – please check your emails. πŸ™‚

Chicken and mushroom brown rice and lentil risotto

Rating: 41

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes

Yield: Serves 4

Chicken and mushroom brown rice and lentil risotto

Ingredients

  • 5g dried porcini
  • 1 medium onion (approximately 200g), peeled and finely chopped
  • 4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
  • 350 fresh portobello / brown mushrooms, cut into 1cm chunks
  • 1.5 cups SunRice Naturally rice and lentils
  • 3 cups chicken stock
  • 400g chicken thighs, cut into 2cm cubes
  • Β½ teaspoon salt
  • 60g parmesan cheese
  • Pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Rinse the porcini and soak in just enough hot water to cover for 15 minutes.
  2. In a frying pan, heat a dash of olive oil over a medium-low heat for a minute and then add the diced onions. Cook gently for about 5 minutes until the onions are soft but not browned.
  3. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or two.
  4. Add half of the chopped mushrooms, setting the other half aside for later, and fry on medium-low heat for a couple of minutes. Take the pan off the heat and set aside.
  5. In a sieve/colander, rinse the SunRice brown rice and lentils under cold running water.
  6. Squeeze out the liquid from your porcini and chop them roughly, reserving the soaking liquid..
  7. Place the rice and mushroom mixture into the bowl of your rice cooker. Add the chicken stock, the diced chicken meat, the chopped porcini, the porcini soaking liquid, and Β½ teaspoon salt. Stir to combine.
  8. Set the rice cooker on to brown rice mode. Set yourself a timer so you can return to the rice cooker when it has 25 minutes left of cooking time.
  9. At the 25 minute countdown, add the rest of the mushrooms to the mixture and stir. Close the lid and let the rice cooker finish cooking.
  10. Once it has finished, let it sit for another 5-10 minutes in the rice cooker. Once that time has elapsed, open the lid and grate in the parmesan cheese and season with fresh pepper. Stir to combine. Serve with extra parmesan on top if desired.

Notes

Take a note of how long your rice cooker takes to cook brown rice before you start. My rice cooker takes 1.5 hours on brown rice mode, so the first time I used it, it was a very late dinner.

This recipe can also be done in the pressure cooker. The ratio of liquid to rice is 1.5 cups of liquid per 1 cup of rice. Add all the ingredients (except for the cheese) and the reduced amount of liquid to your pressure cooker, and cook under high pressure for 20 minutes. Once it has finished, release the pressure and open the lid. Let the risotto sit for 5-10 minutes with the lid off before adding the parmesan cheese.

https://www.offthespork.com/2014/10/chicken-and-mushroom-brown-rice-and-lentil-risotto-a-giveaway/