Instant Pot Preserved Lemon, Mushrooms and Peas Risotto with Chicken Tenders

The other day I was looking in my pantry when I saw Arborio rice. I also was thinking about other dishes for using my preserved lemons. Between them, they sparked an idea and I came up with the following recipe. It has a lovely lemony flavor that goes well with the peas. It makes a great one pot meal.

Bruce loved it!

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 8 chicken tenders
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 oz sliced mushrooms
• 1/2 cup diced onion or shallots
• 1/2 preserved lemon rind, flesh removed and thinly sliced
• 3 cloves of minced garlic (I used a garlic press.)
• 1 cup Arborio rice
• 1/4 cup white wine or water
• 2 cups chicken stock (I use Better than Bouillon.)
• 1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese or Parmesan cheese (If finely grated, use 1/4 cup.)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup frozen peas, thawed

Tools:

Instant Pot, cutting board and knife, tongs, 2 plates, wooden spoon

Instructions

1. Turn the Instant Pot to Sauté and add the butter and olive oil.
2. Once the oil starts to shimmer, sauté 4 of chicken tenders until lightly brown on one side then flip over with tongs and lightly brown on the other side. The chicken will not be cooked all the way through. Remove the chicken tenders from the Instant Pot with the tongs and place on a plate. Repeat with the remaining 4 chicken breast.
3. Add the mushrooms and stir with a wooden spoon until lightly browned.
4. Add the onion and sauté until translucent.
5. Add the rice and stir constantly with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes. Stir in the garlic, preserved lemon peel and white wine (or water) and keep stirring until the white wine (or water) has been completely absorbed.
6. Stir in the chicken broth and deglaze the the pot by scraping up the brown bits from the bottom of the pot.
7. Once the pot is deglazed, press Cancel.
8. Using the tongs, place the chicken tenders on top of the rice. Dump any juices on the plate into the pot.
9. Close the Instant Pot lid and make sure the valve is set to Sealing. Select Pressure Cook or Manual and set for 6 minutes. When it beeps done, flip the valve to Venting for quick release. Once the pin drops, remove the lid.
10. With the tongs, remove the chicken breast and place on a clean plate or serving platter.
11. With the wooden spoon, stir in the cheese and stir until it melts. Add the peas and stir them in until evenly distributed.
12. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste.

Notes:

To serve, I plated this by making a mound of risotto in the middle of the plate and leaning 2 chicken tenders on the risotto mound. I served a side salad with this.

It reheats well.

If I had some fresh mint, I would have used some in this recipe. I would start with 1 teaspoon finely chopped mint and taste to see if that was enough.