Radicchio is the absolute king of winter vegetables
ingredients for 4 servings (cost about 5 € pp)
- 320 g radicchio
- 240 g carnaroli rice
- A small glass white wine
- 1,2 litre chicken stock, homemade of course
- EV Olive oil
- 1 medium onion
- Salt
- 60 g butter
- 60 g Parmigiano or Grana cheese
- 4 chicken legs, boned
- Coarse black pepper
Once upon a time we wanted to go to Venice, but a special event there kept all old town hotels occupied. So we found a village called Preganziol, on the road to Treviso and a marvelous and not expensive hotel.
The area there is dominated by the cultivation of radicchio. At the local grocery stores, we found at least 10 varieties of it, yellow, green, red, small, large etc. By the way, the well known round radicchio is that from Chioggia. My favourite is the one from Castelfranco, maybe the most beautiful leaf vegetable in nature.
There, I ate a risotto with radicchio and chicken. When I returned home I tried to reconstruct it, as the risotto I had eaten, it contained chopped pieces of chicken breast, not very juicy and having a “flat” texture. So I decided to replace the breast with leg and also not to incorporate it but to make it crispy outside and juicy inside.
So, the day before I boned 4 chicken legs (you can also tell your butcher to do it) and I pre-salted them underneath the skin). I kept them in the fridge for the night.
The next day I preheated the oven at 180 Celsius degrees.
I washed, pat dried and flattened the chicken legs and then I put them on a COLD non stick pan (SKIN SIDE DOWN) with NO fat at all in order to make the skin crispy using low to medium heat. After some minutes and when the skin was already crispy I turned them upside down (SKIN SIDE UP), I put the pan in the oven and I let the legs be cooked for about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile I prepared the risotto. In a casserole I heated the chicken stock and in a small pan WITH NO FATS AT ALL, I started toasting the rice on its own, until it became so hot that I could not keep it in my handful.
In a large risotto pan I sub-fried the onion in EV olive oil and when it started to get soft I added the radicchio, cut in stripes, the toasted rice and about 30 seconds later, the wine. As soon as it was evaporated I added a ladle of boiling stock. I let the risotto simmer adding every now and then ladles of stock, trying to always keep the risotto humid. While the rice was being prepared, I finely grated the cheese.
By the way, the cheese for pasta and risotto must be grated very finely (to be well incorporated) and the very last moment (to keep its humidity and aromatic compounds). Already grated cheese is garbage, avoid it.
I also want to inform you that, especially for this dish, I raised the butter and cheese quantity (I regularly use 40g of each for the same quantity of rice), as this risotto contains the very tasty chicken legs and I wanted to raise rice’s umami.
When the rice is ready (al dente of course) I check the saltiness, I remove it from the stove and stirring constantly I start adding the pepper, the butter and the cheese. I continue stirring until I obtain a very creamy result, I cover the pan with a lid and I let it stand for 2 minutes.
I put in plates, I arrange a sliced chicken fillet on every plate and I serve.
