Here’s how you can whip it up yourself.
Key Points
- Meryl Streep’s go-to risotto features chicken stock, mushrooms, prosciutto and fresh herbs.
- She also loves Julia Child’s Tarragon Chicken recipe for its simplicity and versatility.
- Streep uses the roasted chicken to make stock, her “treasure,” for soups, risotto and more.
Meryl Streep has played some pretty iconic roles. From the ultra-fashionable Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada 2 to free-spirited Donna in Oh mama!fans of the actor love seeing where she’ll appear next. In 2009, Streep took on the role of beloved chef Julia Child in Julie & Juliabut Streep was quick to admit that in real life, she’s nowhere near the cook Child was.
“I am a terrible cook,” Streep wrote in an essay for Glamour. “… I’m in direct line with my mother on this one: She had a needlepoint pillow that read, ‘I’m making my favorite thing for dinner: reservations.'”
Still, Streep wrote that she does have a favorite Julia Child recipe, and it’s one she loves to make at the start of the week to incorporate into her dinner menu all week long. Julia Child’s Tarragon Chicken recipe—which you can also read in Streep’s Glamour column—is a favorite for the actor, and it’s pretty simple to make. Essentially, it’s a whole roasting chicken prepared in an oven-safe pot or Dutch oven, roasted with lots of fresh tarragon, carrots and onions.
After roasting her chicken, Streep removes the meat from the bones and uses the carcass to make a flavorful chicken stock. “This is my Fort Knox, my treasure, my broth,” she wrote.
The broth isn’t just a treasure because it’s packed with flavor—it also becomes an ingredient in one of the recipes Streep makes throughout the week using the tarragon-roasted bird. In addition to delights like chicken soup and chicken salad, there’s a risotto Streep swears by making from her cherished broth.
Streep’s risotto is pretty simple, flavored with rich, tarragon-laden chicken stock and tender mushrooms. To make it, gather butter, olive oil, wild mushrooms, prosciutto, onions, Arborio rice, chicken stock, fresh lemon juice, rosemary and thyme, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper.
The risotto recipe starts with sauteing the prosciutto and mushrooms in olive oil, then setting the mixture aside. Cook some diced onions in butter and olive oil until translucent, then add the Arborio rice to the pan. Add the tarragon chicken stock one cup at a time, stirring constantly until it’s absorbed by the rice—the process should take 15 to 20 minutes, or until the rice is al dente.
Once the rice is cooked through, the prosciutto and mushrooms get mixed back into the pan, along with the fresh herbs. Add in a final pour of broth, butter and some Parmesan, then stir. Serve the risotto with additional Parmesan cheese for sprinkling.
This dish sounds like the perfect use for any chicken broth you may have in your fridge, whether it’s from a Julia Child recipe or not. Curious about how Streep makes a roasted chicken last through a week of meals? She loves using the meat for chicken salad—sometimes with a little bacon—risotto, curry and soup (with a side of bruschetta). Of course, if you’d rather skip the chicken roasting process and head straight for the leftovers and risotto, you could always snag some chicken stock and a rotisserie chicken on your next trip to the grocery store.
We love using the meat from a rotisserie chicken for a delicious meal—here are just a few of our favorite ways to repurpose those leftovers:
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