Baked pesto chicken with risotto

Nice and easy! We really enjoy pasta tossed with some chicken (optional), chilli flakes, thinly sliced broccolli, cream, pepper and blue cheese - really simple & tasty after a day at work but our son has gone off pasta for some unknown reason. Rice is currently ok (& so is Thomas the Tank Engine spaghetti in tomato sauce - grrr), so this is an adaptation, which went down very well!

Chicken breast per person

pesto

foil

risotto / arborio rice

garlic clove

celery stick finely chopped

half onion finely chopped

teaspoon of chilli flakes

100ml white wine/sherry or cap full of  Chinese rice wine (optional)

handful of veg (mushrooms, peppers, broccoli thinly sliced)

500ml approx. chicken or veg stock 

cheese (we enjoyed stilton in it this time)

knob of butter

pepper

100g parmesan grated

Prepare the chicken: place each breast on a sheet of foil, score breast & smear a teaspoon of pesto over each one. Wrap, place on baking tray & put in oven (Gas mark 5) for about half hour - in this case, the time it takes to make the risotto.

Fry off the onion & celery. Once it has turned an opaque colour, add the risotto rice, stir for 1 min, add the wine/sherry (if using), chilli flakes & garlic. Once the liquid has absorbed add a ladle of stock & the chopped veg (needs to be bite-sized chunks for even cooking). Keep adding the stock a ladle at a time until the rice is cooked, which takes about 20-25 mins. Once it has cooked add a knob of butter, pepper & the grated parmesan. Cover with a lid & leave to rest whilst you get the chicken out of the oven & plate up. Serve with some chopped up blue cheese on top if desired.