Creamy Sweet Potato Risotto

I leave water cups just... everywhere.

Seriously, if I come to your house, assign me a cup with a specific design, otherwise I will use a cup, completely forget where/what it is, and get a new one.  {Sorry in advance} It's one of my mother's favorite features about me. {HA.}  And afterwards, I feel guilty about the 8 water cups I went through in a three hour period.  But I'm always too confused {ashamed} to clarify where my cup is just to find out that my conscientious host has already put it in the dishwasher.

But for why am I telling you this?  To demonstrate that if I, lazy-water-cup-leaver, will stand in one place {at the stove} focusing on one activity {stirring} for twenty minutes, this risotto MUST be worth it. {And yes, Mr. S&S has assigned me a particular cup so that I stop just leaving them everywhere}

Also, let's just get real for a minute.  Mr. S&S's real name is Nick.  Surprise!  Typing Mr. S&S is awkward, and I'm done with it. He's probably glad to have his real name back, too.

Ok, back to risotto.  Y'ALL.  If you've never made risotto, it can be a pain in the butt.  However, it is probably Nick's number one requested meal, for very good reason.  Rice is slow cooked in shallots, wine, butter, chicken stock, and then made extra creamy with my secret ingredient {cream cheese!}.  It also serves as a beautiful, creamy base for veggies and, ahem, more cheese.

It's totally worth standing in one place for twenty minutes.  Plus you can count vigorous stirring as a bicep workout, which totally negates the calories in this recipe.  Promise.

Creamy Sweet Potato Risotto (with Chicken)
Serves 4 as a main dish, 8 as a side dish

1 1/2 cups arborio rice
3/4 cup white wine
1 shallot, minced
1 clove of garlic, minced
3 tablespoons butter
6 cups chicken stock (good quality, I also use a 1-2 cups of water instead of all stock)
2 sweet potatoes
2 chicken breasts
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1-2 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup parmesan, plus more for topping

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Wrap the sweet potatoes in aluminum foil and allow them to bake for 1 hour.  Slice the chicken breasts into 1 inch thick pieces (our chicken breasts come super thick, but this might not be an issue for you) and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  These will cook for about 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a large pot and warm the chicken stock in a separate pot.  When butter is melted, add in minced shallot and garlic and let saute until very fragrant (about 1 minute).  Then pour in uncooked rice.  Stir around in the butter/shallot/garlic mixture until rice is well coated.  Pour in wine and stir until the wine has evaporated/ been absorbed by the rice.  Then add two ladles of warm stock.  Stir continuously until the rice absorbs the stock.  Add another ladle of stock and repeat.  Make sure to stir and let the rice absorb the stock between each ladle.

After the rice has absorbed almost all the stock, taste to make sure the rice is al dente.  If it needs more stock, keep going, if not you're finished with the stock (I usually end up using somewhere around 5 cups).  After sweet potatoes are cooked, peel off skins, gently mash and add to rice.  Then add about 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and incorporate.  Chop the cooked chicken into bite sized pieces and add to the rice.  Finally, add the cream cheese and parmesan and stir until it's all melted and distributed.  Serve with a squeeze of lemon and some parmesan on top!

And now we wait 3 months for me to remember to make risotto again.  Sorry, Nick.