Take a step away from the stovetop with this simple baked risotto recipe from Twin Cities food blogger greens & chocolate.

Risotto was one of the first “fancy” dishes I ever learned to make.  I don’t think I had ever even had risotto, but when I saw Ina Garten’s recipe for Spring Green Risotto, I knew it was time to step it up in the kitchen

While at first I was a little horrified at the actual hands-on time that it takes to make risotto, I actually grew to love the process of adding broth, stirring, letting the broth become absorbed, and repeating. Give me a glass of wine and I’ll spend an hour in the kitchen making risotto any day.

Well, except for the days when I’m cooking with my one-and-a-half year-old playing Legos two feet away from me and frequently begging me for a snack or to hold him. So understandably, these days I’m not a huge fan of dishes that require you to stand over the stove for almost an hour stirring and stirring and stirring.

So, goodbye stovetop risotto. Hello, baked risotto!

Are you skeptical? I, too, wasn’t quite sure how this would work. But let me tell you why this does work.

For one, we still toast the risotto in a little butter to get that nice nutty flavor. We also add in some wine for more flavor. No bland risotto around here!

Finally, in the end we add in some milk (or heavy cream if you’re feeling naughty) and Parmesan cheese to get the risotto super creamy.

To make life even easier, I added chicken to this dish. I simply browned the chicken breasts on each side then tucked them all cozy into the risotto and broth, and then baked it all together.

The end result was a super creamy mushroom risotto with perfectly cooked chicken breasts. I topped it off with some fresh thyme before serving and voila! Dinner is served.