Seafood Risotto

Creamy rice and perfectly cooked seafood make a delicious pair. This Seafood Risotto comes together easily, as long as you have time for stirring. It’s flavored with seasoned seafood stock and the seafood medley gets gently cooked right into the risotto just before it’s finished cooking. Serve it with side salad and it’s the perfect meal.

Frozen Seafood Medley

In the seafood section of most grocery stores you can find a bag of seafood medley. The one I use has a mix of shrimp, bay scallops, mussels, and calamari! I love to keep a bag on hand when I want something more exciting than just shrimp for dinner, but wont break the bank either. My loving soulmate gifted me my first Dutch Oven last Christmas, and let me tell you I will find any excuse to use it! So a few days later I wanted to try my hand at making Seafood Risotto. It came out good, but I definitely learned a few things. Now, that I’ve perfected the recipe it’s honestly one of my personal favorites! Perfectly creamy, and well seasoned. This risotto definitely makes all that stirring worth it!

Seafood Stock

So you have a few options as far as seafood stock for this recipe. You can always make your own. It easy and really only takes about 1 hour to make a flavorful seafood stock from scratch. Only problem is you need to have a stash of shrimp shells, fish bones, etc. ready in the freezer to do this.

Store bought seafood or fish stock is another great option. These days I think you can find some really well made stocks at the store. I used this seafood stock if I’m reaching for store bought. Although it has a nice seafood flavor it lacks seasoning, so I salt it to my liking. They’re plenty of options out there, so use what you feel is best.

The last option is you can’t find a fish or seafood stock, would be clam juice. Clam juice is usually by the canned fish items, not the broth and soup section. All of these options are good options. Hopefully you can find one to your liking.

Season The Seafood Stock

Risotto can be bland if you’re not careful. My favorite way to avoid this is to use a salty cooking liquid. With anything starchy, such a pasta, or potatoes, salted cooking water is key in making sure it’s seasoned. They same goes for risotto. The creaminess comes from the rice releasing it’s starches and absorbing the liquid. Therefore you want to make sure the liquid you’re using is well seasoned, maybe even a touch over seasoned. This recipe calls for you to taste the warm stock and then salt it as you see fit. Please do not skip this step. Should your cooking liquid be as salty as pasta water? No, absolutely not! You should however be able to tell the liquid is at least lightly salted. My advice is add a teaspoon. That should be enough. Still taste it and see. You can always add more salt as it cooks. I will say for 6 cups of liquid I probably add 2 teaspoons personally. I do eyeball it and the salt changes based on what kind of stock I’m using. So just use your best judgement! Just please don’t forget to salt the liquid if it needs it!

Don’t Stop Stirring

The most challenging part of making risotto is the constant stirring. Everyone has their methods on stirring risotto. For example, some people say you should stir in a figure-8. To me, it doesn’t matter as long as you don’t stop stirring until it is done! Constantly keeping the rice moving is key here. I love standing over a hot stove stirring in the winter, so it doesn’t bother me at all. I’ll typically put on some music or a podcast to help pass the time. Plus it’s worth it in the end once you taste the finished risotto. Finished risotto should be thick, but not solid. Risotto should be fluid and the rice should be al dente, not mushy! Cooked enough so it’s not chalky or gritty, but not all the way soft either. I also found that many risotto recipes don’t call for enough liquid, so I make sure you have at least 1-2 extra cups of liquid incase you need them.

Cook The Seafood In The Risotto

You’ll notice in this recipe that you add in the seafood medley during the last few minutes of cooking. I do it this way for a few reasons. The first one being is I think it gives this dish a little more flavor! I really wanted the seafood to be a part of the dish, not just on top. My second reason is because I hate over cooked seafood! All of the seafood in a seafood medley is small, which means it cooks very quickly! If you read the instructions on the bag it should tell you about 4 minute cooking time on average. They’re not lying. So I add it at the end so it has enough time to cook, but then doesn’t over cook once you add the butter and cheese. If you’re not comfortable adding the seafood at the end, simply cook it before you do the shallots and garlic. Cook the seafood, remove it from the pan, and then continue with the recipe as written.

Use A Risotto Rice

The last thing I want to touch on is you have to use the correct kind of rice for risotto. It should be short grain and starchy. I recommend using either Arborio or Carnaroli! Arborio is easier to find and a cheaper option sometimes. The only downfall is Arborio is less forgiving so you really have to be careful not to overcook. Carnaroli is what is considered the best choice, but I can be harder to find. Although if you can get some, snatch it up! Whatever you do, just don’t use a long grain rice.

I hope you love this Seafood Risotto! If you make this recipe, please don’t forget to leave a comment below and let me know what you think! Enjoy!

Seafood Risotto

Creamy Risotto is bursting with flavor from the seafood stock and perfectly cooked seafood medley. Finished with parmesan, fresh pepper, and chives for a delicious and comforting meal.

5 from 3 votes

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 45 minutes mins

Total Time 55 minutes mins

Course Dinner, Main Course

Cuisine American, Italian

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

  

• 1 lb Seafood Medley thawed, patted dry
• 4 cups Seafood Stock
• 2 cups water
• 1 Large Shallot, finely chopped
• 2 Cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 cup Arborio Rice
• 1/2 cup Dry White Wine
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 cup Freshly Grated Parmesan plus more for garnish
• 2 tbsp Unsalted Butter
• Salt
• Fresh Cracked Pepper
• 1 tbsp Chopped Chives for garnish, optional

Instructions

 

Season & Heat Seafood Stock

• In a large pot, combine seafood stock and water. Stir to combine
• Heat stock over medium heat until warm. Should take anywhere between 5-10 minutes. The stock should be hot, but not boiling or simmering. Once you see steam, then it's hot enough.
• Once stock is warm, reduce heat to low just to keep it warm while cooking.
• Taste stock for salt. The stock should be highly seasoned since it's what's seasoning the entire dish. Add salt to stock if needed. If the broth is too salty you can a little more water to dilute it according to your personal taste.

Make The Risotto

• Pat seafood medley dry and lightly season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
• Heat a large pan or Dutch oven over medium low heat.
• Once pan is hot add olive oil, shallots, garlic and a pinch of salt. Sautee for 2-3 minutes stirring frequently until shallots have soften.
• Turn heat up to medium and add rice to the pan and stir well to make sure each grain is coated with oil.
• Stir rice constantly for about two minutes.
• Add wine to the pan, making sure to scrape up any brown bits. Cook, stirring frequently until wine is absorbed, about two minutes.
• Once wine is absorbed, add 1/2 cup of warm seafood stock to the pan and stir constantly. The liquid should take around 3-4 minutes to be absorbed.
• Once liquid is absorbed, add another 1/2 cup of warm stock and stir constantly. Repeat this step until risotto is al dente, and a thick creamy sauce forms. This can take about 20-30 minutes. You will not use all 6 cups of liquid (see notes.) Taste rice at 15 minutes mark and continue to check rice for doneness after each addition of stock after that.
• During the last 5 minutes of cooking, add the seafood medley with last 1/2 cup of stock. Continue to stir constantly and cook for about 4-5 minutes until seafood is perfectly cooked through. The seafood should be frim and opaque. The risotto should be creamy, but fluid. you can add remaining stock to achieve this consistency if needed. Do not over cook.
• Remove pan from heat and stir in butter and parmesan cheese. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.

Server & Enjoy

• Spoon risotto into serving bowls and top with fresh pepper, chives, and parmesan cheese.
• Serve immediately and enjoy!

Notes

I personally add about a few teaspoons of salt to store bought stock. You want the salt to be present, but not overly salty like pasta water. Adding salt directly to the stock prevents you from having to adjust the seasoning at the end too much and offers a well seasoned dish.

You should not have to use all 6 cups of cooking liquid. I only use4 1/2- 5 cups. The remaining cup I use for reheating any leftovers, or freeze for later use. 

The seafood is gently cooked into the risotto at the end. If this concerns you, feel free to cook the seafood first, and then add it to the dish at the end to warm to through.

Leftover risotto can be reheated over medium low heat with a few splashes of leftover stock. Can keep in the fridge for about 2-3 days.

Keyword creamy, easy, risotto, seafood

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