Chicken Sausage and Broccoli Risotto

(This post brought to you by Jen)

I was feeling the need to shake things up a bit from my normal risotto recipes.  This is what I came up with.  This has the "bones" of my basic risotto recipe (look back a few posts to reference), but with a twist! 

Hardware Needed:
Saute Pan
Sauce Pan
Saucier Pan

Ingredients:
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 Shallot, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
2 cups Arborio rice
4 cups chicken stock
2 cups tomato juice (as in V8)
2-3 cups broccoli florets, cut into small pieces
1 lb. Italian chicken sausage, casings removed.
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
Salt and Pepper

In a large saute pan over medium high heat, brown sausage.  While the sausage is browning, add stock to a sauce pan over medium heat with the broccoli florets.  After the sausage has browned, remove from heat, drain from excess drippings.  Also, remove the broccoli from the stock and put into a bowl for later.  After you remove the broccoli from the stock, add tomato juice to stock and stir to combine

Chicken Stock and Tomato Juice

Over medium high heat, add the butter and olive oil to your saucier. When the butter melts, add in shallot and garlic. Lightly salt and pepper. When translucent (approx. 3-5 minutes), add rice to pan to toast, an additional 3-5 minutes. Stirring constantly. 

Mise en place

From this point, add a few ladles of stock/tomato liquid to the rice, stirring constantly until most of the liquid has absorbed.  Repeat until a desired texture of risotto has been acheived (about 25 minutes or so).  Taste occasionally for salt/pepper levels. 

After a few ladles of liquid

Gently fold in broccoli, 2 cups of sausage and Parmesan.

The broccoli and sausage are in there!

Spoon onto a plate or bowl and top with more sausage and a sprinkling of Parmesan. 

Hope you're hungry!

Try this recipe, or any of the others I've posted and let me know what you think!  Have a suggestion for a recipe I should make or an ingredient I should use?  Leave me a comment and I'll come up with something yummy!

Enjoy!