It’s been a few days since we put something up for you. Since you’ve been so wonderful and patient, we’re going to reward you with two recipes today!

This is a dish that my wife nicknamed “chicken grenades”. They’re chicken thighs stuffed with Italian sausage and they’re delicious!

I’ll also be showing you an easy method for making a lovely wild mushroom risotto

So, get the chicken prepared and cooking and then you can do the risotto while it cooks!

Italian Sausage Stuffed Chicken

Here’s all you’ll need:

• 6 chicken thighs (skin on)
• 3 Italian sausage (hot or mild, your choice!)
• 1 cup breadcrumbs
• 1 tbsp seasoned salt

First thing we need to do is remove the bone from the chicken. I like using a small paring knife for this just because I find  it’s much better to handle the delicate job.

No special trick here, just cut along the bone and separate it from the chicken without cutting through the chicken … or your fingers

Six boneless chicken thighs, five fingers … yea, I’m good

Take a sausage and slice open the casing

Now remove from the casing

Cut the sausage into a piece about the size of the chicken thigh. Place on a piece of chicken, skin side down, and then roll the chicken around the sausage

Repeat until all the thighs are stuffed

For the coating, pour breadcrumbs into a bowl.  Next, add the seasoned salt and mix it all together

Take a stuffed chicken thigh and roll it in the breadcrumb mixture. Place it in an oven safe pan. I like to use a loaf pan because I can pack the chicken in tightly enough that it won’t unravel while cooking!

Repeat until they’re all done

Place them in a 400F oven for approximately 40 minutes. When packed together like this, the chicken in the centre takes a bit longer to cook.

While this is cooking, let’s make that risotto!

Wild Mushroom Risotto

For this, you’ll need:

• 1 cup arborio rice
• 1L (approximately) of chicken stock
• 1 cup of wild mushroom (I am using dehydrated mushrooms)
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

If using dehydrated mushrooms, you’ll need to re-hydrate them for 30 mintues, so this should be done before ANYTHING else is started

Add warm water to the mushrooms. I’m using dehydrated mushrooms as I didn’t have a good source for fresh wild mushrooms at this time of year. Dehydrated will also give you a wonderful mushroom broth to add (as you’ll see)

Let this stand for 30 minutes

Add the rice to a hot skillet. Only the rice, no oil … we’re gonna toast the grains a bit

Stir over a medium heat

Keep going for 4-5 minutes, or until the rice is starting to get a bit golden

Add about half a cup of the chicken stock. We’ll be adding it slowly and mixing it in.

Stir through that steam!

Now add the mushrooms and stir. Pour in that wonderful mushroom broth too!

You want to continue a process of stirring and adding broth every time the broth you have added is absorbed.

Your risotto should start to get a creamy texture. You want to keep going until the rice is cooked but not quite fully soft. (It’s okay to have a spoon to keep tasting!)

Just as it’s almost ready, add the cheese

Mix this in and remove it from the heat … it’s done!

Okay, better go check on that chicken

Perfect!

Take a piece of chicken and place it on a cutting board. Slice into bite-sized rounds

Yea, this is SO good …

Place it on a plate with some of the risotto and a nice green salad

Looks fancy!

 

So there you have it, Italian Sausage Stuffed Chicken with Wild Mushroom Risotto

Bon Apetit!