Bacon & Cream Cheese Arancini

By á-3443

buns in my oven

Ingredients

• Bacon and Cream Cheese Arancini
• 6 slices bacon
• 2 cups Arborio rice
• 6 cups chicken stock
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 ounces PHILADELPHIA brand Cream Cheese
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 cup flour
• 1 egg
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs
• oil, for frying

Preparation

Step 1

In a large stockpot, bring the chicken stock to a simmer.

In a deep frying pan, fry the bacon slices until crisp. Set bacon aside and chop into bite size pieces. Discard all but three tablespoons of drippings.

Saute garlic in the bacon drippings for one minute or until fragrant. Add the rice and stir until it is coated in the grease and starting to toast. Stir in 2 cups of the hot chicken stock, stirring constantly, until the rice has absorbed the liquid and turns creamy. Repeat this twice more, stirring nonstop, until the rice has absorbed most of the liquid and is soft and creamy. This process should take between 15 and 20 minutes.

Remove the risotto from the heat, stir in the PHILADELPHIA brand Cream Cheese and chopped bacon. Add salt and pepper to taste.

(You can serve this now as a side dish, thinning it out a bit if he needed with more chicken stock as the cream cheese thickens things up quite a bit.)

Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or until fully chilled and firm.

When ready to fry your Arancini, pour oil to a dept of 2 inches in a deep frying pan. Heat oil to 350 degrees.

Scoop out rice into equal sizes to roll into balls. If you are serving these as an appetizer, I would make them smaller than the ones pictures, but as a side dish, the larger golf-ball sized balls are perfect.

Pour your flour, egg, and panko into three separate shallow dishes. Roll your rice balls in first the flour, then the egg, then the panko.

Place the coated balls in the oil (careful not to crowd the pan) and fry until golden brown on all sides, turning as needed. These keep wonderfully in a warm oven for up to 1 hour.