Risotto (Rizoto)
Ingredients: 1.5 cups rice, cooked chicken, marjoram, ground black pepper, onion, salt, oil
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Risotto (rizoto) is another Italian dish like spaghetti carbonara that is tremendously popular in Slovakia. This dish is best prepared with cooked meat, so it’s best made after making soup. We used the chicken used in preparing the chicken noodle soup. But other types of meat work as well. And if you don’t have cooked meat to begin with, simply start off by browning fresh meat with the onions, and then cooking it along with the rice. Follow the easy recipe below to make risotto at home.
Dice two small onions (cibuľa) and cook on oil until the onion starts getting brown. In the mean time, wash about 1.5 cups of rice (ryža).
Add the rice and fry for about a minute. Then add about twice the amount (3 cups) of water (voda). This ratio may vary depending on the rice you use, so check your bag for the correct rice-to-water ratio.
Add about tablespoon of marjoram (majorán) and the same amount of ground black pepper (mleté čierne korenie).
Also add salt (soľ). Cook covered until most of the water is absorbed and the rice is done.
In the mean time, take the cooked chicken (kura), and cut it into pieces some half-inch thick. Mix into the rice, and cook covered for about 5 more minutes.
Scoop out onto a plate and enjoy. To prevent the rice from sticking to the ladle, grease the ladle lightly with oil or water. Sometimes this dish is also served with baked or mashed potatoes.
Ahoj Lubos, tak sa vrece roztrhlo odkedy si na Slovensku. Good job documenting your family and friends’ goodies. Oh, what a treat!! Vdaka! Thank you for your time and generosity!
add some pees and cooked carot taste great 😉
In the ingredients, you list 1.5 cups of flour when I think you mean rice. 🙂
Is this how Slovaks make their rice, too? How would they make it as a typical side dish? The rice I’ve had is sticky (served in a cup shape like you have above) with nice flavor.
Oops, thanks for catching the typo! The stickiness likely has to do with all the grease used in the process. Then for serving, take a soup ladle and grease it (low-fat traditional Slovak food? No such thing!) and use it to scoop out the rice. And yeah, this is also how rice is generally served with main dishes, such as the baked chicken (I didn’t serve it like that since I didn’t have a nice spherical ladle.
When it comes to the taste, I am not really sure what people put in the rice. I guess this is one of those “chef’s secret ingredients”. When I cook rice, I put in bit of oil, and salt of course. I guess if you were serving it with chicken, and had some chicken broth, you could mix that in too.
My Slovak husband (and some other Slovaks I’ve seen) fry an onion first then fry the rice and boil it or use vegeta to flavor their rice. There is also a “natur” variety without msg.
when making rizoto i use chicken broth (water it down a little for filling) and milk for more taste and texture
-“hail to the king baby”
It’s very interesting, that I’m in Slovakia, searching for Rizoto recepie. I find site in English that have been made by someone from slovakia. 🙂
Heh, thanks!
I have been making risotto with a recipe from The Complete Robuchon. It calls for using “Arborio” which is Italian rice. It is supposed to absorb water better than regular rice. There are many things you can add: shredded parmesan, mushrooms, basil leaves, etc. Thanks again for keeping Slovak cooking updated.
George, you are right about real risotto rice (aka Arborio, or some others)
It absorbs liquids much better than regular rice and ends up with rather better “structure” than a regular rice.
The trick is in adding water gradually, so risotto rice can absorb it (different from cooking a standard rice) … add some water and when it’s absorbed add some more water or liquid, etc. repeat it again and it takes some 30 minutes but the result is totally different from regular rice.
Risotto has some meaning in cooking, though I admit that in old days in Slovakia we did not have “risotto rice” and thus a regular rice had to do, and cooking and results were a bit different.
Now when I can buy the real “risotto rice”, I use it and I like the way it comes out.
Are you sure it is a tablespoon of marjoram and pepper???