Chicken risotto with broad beans and kale

Name: Chicken risotto with broad beans and kale
Total time: 1 h
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 2 tbsp butter; 1 tbsp rapeseed oil; 6 chicken thighs; 2 tbsp plain flour; ½ tsp ground mace; 2 onions, diced; 2 cloves garlic, crushed; 300g pearled barley; 1.2l chicken stock; 350g (double-podded if you like) podded broad beans; 30g kale, roughly chopped; 1 lemons, zested and juiced; 75g + 6 tbsp crème fraîche; a few pinches sweet smoked paprika

Preparation and cooking time
- Total time1 hr
Easy
Serves 6

Ingredients

2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
6 chicken thighs
2 tbsp plain flour
½ tsp ground mace
2 onions, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
300g pearled barley
1.2l chicken stock
350g (double-podded if you like) podded broad beans
30g kale, roughly chopped
1 lemons, zested and juiced
75g + 6 tbsp crème fraîche
a few pinches sweet smoked paprika

Method

STEP 1
Heat half the butter and the oil in a casserole or deep frying pan. Toss the chicken thighs in the flour and ground mace to coat, then fry over a medium heat until golden brown and crisp on both sides. Lift onto a plate, and tip the onions, garlic and the last tbsp of butter into the pan, and fry until soft.
STEP 2
When the onion is really soft, return the chicken thighs with any juices, the barley and stock. Gently simmer for about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the barley is almost tender and most of the stock absorbed. If it gets at all dry during cooking, add a splash more stock. Stir the broad beans, kale, lemon juice and zest and seasoning into the barley, lower the heat and cover with a lid or baking sheet. Meanwhile, skin the chicken thighs and shred the meat from the bones using a couple of forks. Stir the chicken back into the barley with 75g of the crème fraîche and check the beans and barley are both tender.
STEP 3
Spoon the barley into 6 shallow serving bowls. Top each with a spoon more of crème fraîche speckled with a pinch of paprika and scattered with the lemon zest.