If you’ve ever made risotto before, you know just how time-consuming it is, the slow increments of adding broth and all of the stirring! It’s a dish that seems fancy and difficult, but it’s actually fairly easy to do, but it does require time and patience. Of course, all of that work is worth the effort because it creates a tender, rich and creamy risotto. We love risotto but sometimes we just don’t have the energy to make it, so that’s when we call on our slow cooker to do all of the hard work.

A little prep work goes into making the risotto before we can transfer it to the slow cooker. So we start with a little sauté of the mushrooms with onion, garlic, and dried herbs. The mushrooms add a wonderful earthiness to the risotto, a real depth of flavor that makes this dish feel a little more elegant. Then the rice, arborio rice specifically, is added to the pan and sautéed along with the mushroom and herb mixture. Once all of the ingredients have had a little time to soak up some wonderful flavor, the rice and mushrooms go into the slow cooker and now we add the chicken stock all at once. Typically, it is the stock that is slowly added and stirred in with the rice until it’s absorbed. We add in four cups here and then let the slow cooker do the work that we’d normally have to do by hand.

After a couple of hours, the risotto is ready to be served, and the aroma is truly something special. Our handy little short cut cooking method means we’re not stuck standing over a hot stove. All we have to do now is enjoy this beautiful mushroom risotto, with perfectly cooked rice and woodsy mushrooms that add a wonderful richness to the whole flavor experience. It’s so nice to have a few cooking tricks up our sleeve to help us make good food that isn’t fussy or time-consuming. Our mushroom risotto is perfect for a dinner party or just a weeknight meal with the family.