Seasoned Chicken Breast with Mushroom Risotto - Serves 2 for like 5 dollars jesus christ
For best results, you're going to want cast iron for this. Obviously, chicken might require adaptation with a different pan. This is some fancy shit and takes a while, but if you have a lady over you are going to get laid. If you are a lady you can probably make him watch a chick flick with you or something.
Ingredients
Chicken
1-2 chicken breasts (you can get these for very cheap frozen, one bag will have about six for 4-5 dollars) (costs about 50 cents-1 dollar)
Paprika, Salt, Pepper (to taste. Should already be in your cabinet.)
Cooking oil - Olive preferable, but you can use canola or peanut or vegetable oil if it's what you have/what you prefer
Risotto
2 cups chicken stock. (1-2 dollars. STOCK. Not broth. This is important!)
1/2 cup Arborio Rice (about 25-50 cents at most)
1/4 cup white wine (cooking wine works, it's about 2 dollars for a whole bottle. You're using like 10 cents worth)
1-2 tbsp of either butter, margarine or olive oil
1 Shallot or small onion (50 cents at most)
1 large portabello mushroom (Costs me 75 cents at albertsons)
1/2 container of shittake mushrooms (most expensive thing on here, about a buck fifty. You can substitute but these are delicious)
2 tbsp red wine (you can use white if you don't have both)
OPTIONAL
Fresh, dried, or paste basil. Whatever you've got. You can skip this if you don't have it, but basil is cheap. Add this in with the mushrooms at the end.
Garlic - If you really like garlic (I do) you can use it at every phase in the cooking. A clove with the mushrooms and a clove with the rice should be good.
Cube mushrooms so they're uniform, relatively small pieces, cut the onion/shallot into very small pieces, and cook in a pan with a small amount of preferred cooking oil. Note that it's going to look like you have ten times the amount of mushrooms and onions that you actually need - this is normal. The onions and mushroom will cook down very fast. Put a pinch of salt and pepper on - not a lot, mind you, as the risotto will also have salt and pepper in it. Just a pinch will do. After the mushrooms start to darken and the onions have gone slightly translucent add 2 tbsp red (or white) wine and cook it all in until the mushrooms have absorbed the liquid. Dump the mushrooms into a bowl and put it someplace warm and relatively safe from being knocked over.
Give the pan a quick cleaning and put 1-2tbsp of either butter or olive oil in the pan, and let the pan coat completely. Now add the arborio rice. (as a contrast to the mushrooms, this is going to look like WAY less than you need. Don't worry about it.) Stir the rice with the butter until the rice takes on a slight golden color, and add 1/4 cup of white wine. Stir with the rice until the rice has absorbed all the liquid. It will do this almost instantly. Now start adding the chicken stock 1/3 cup at a time. Let the rice absorb the stock almost completely, and add the next 1/3 cup. Keep this up, on low/medium heat, until all liquid has been absorbed. This takes an eternity. 30 minutes of stirring at least. It's worth the work, but don't walk away or you're going to end up ruining it.
Once you're half-way done with the last third cup of stock, dump in the mushrooms and stir until all liquid has been absorbed. Now, salt and pepper to taste. Set this aside on a fresh plate/bowl in the microwave. Clean your pan real quick and then take the chicken breasts. Rub some paprika, salt, and black pepper on. I like a lot of paprika, and relatively little salt - the chicken breasts usually look birght red before I throw them in the pan, but that's my preference. Heat up some cooking oil of some kind (olive oil is my favorite for this but canola/vegetable/whatever will do) and when the oil starts to shimmer, place the breasts into the pan. They should sizzle. (Does it fizzle? It muft!) Once you've done this, set your oven to Broil. Sear the chicken breast for about a minute on each side so the seasoning has created a very thin crust, then place the entire pan into the oven, top rack, directly under the broiler. Leave the door open, go mix a drink for you and your lady or whatever and then come back after 3-4 minutes, flip the chicken. Wait another 3-4 minutes, remove, and slice into strips. (this is for presentation purposes, really, but also helps you check to make sure the chicken is done if you don't have a thermometer.) Serve on top of/alongside the risotto.
The end result should be a beautiful and moist chicken breast alongside what looks like sickly rice a roni, but tastes like a ninja cookoff in your mouth. No, seriously though it's fucking awesome. This takes a damn long time to make but as far as meals for two go, it's cheap and incredibly satisfying. If you and your meal partner are on the heavier side (like I admittedly am) you'll probably want to double the recipe, but for two normal people this should be plenty filling.
