risotto-style chicken and rice

This is adapted from my Bride & Groom's First and Forever Cookbook. It's more or less a risotto, but the first time I made it, Taylor said he didn't like risotto. So we're not calling that anymore. To change it this time, I used more water, in mixture with the broth to make it less crazy-creamy, and we put our grilled fajita chicken meat in it. I also substituted the mushrooms it originally called for, for peas. . . as suggested by a recipe on the back of the brown rice box. For the wine, I used a cute little mini bottle of Pinot Grigio. The little bottles you buy in fours. I included the mushrooms in the recipe here, since I really liked it with the mushrooms. This I would say serves 2 or 3 as a main dish, more than that, sans-chicken, as a side. I think it is SOOO good, and is totally worth the patience required by constant stirring.
The Best Risotto Ever (with chicken)
INGREDIENTS
1 -1/2 c. cooked chicken, chopped
3 T. EVOO
1/4 c. chopped yellow onion
2 T. diced garlic
1 c. brown rice (I used quick rice)
2 c. low-sodium chicken broth
1 c. water
3/4 c. dry white wine
1/2 c. chopped mushrooms
1/2 c. frozen peas
1 T. fresh thyme
1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese
1 T. butter
cracked pepper
DIRECTIONS:
Combine broth and water in small pot and bring to a simmer then keep warm.
Add olive oil to large pan and heat on medium. ( I used a sauce pan, that almost looks like a wok) Add onions and heat till translucent, about 2 min, add mushrooms and cook, about 8 min, add garlic and stir. Cook about 2 min. Add rice and stir til moistened, about 30 seconds, add wine and simmer, stirring until liquid is absorbed. Add heated broth 3/4 c. at a time, stirring until each addition is absorbed. On the last broth addition, add the peas. Should take about 20-30 min. Once all broth is added and rice is tender and creamy, add butter, cheese and thyme and pepper to taste. Combine with cooked chicken.
To make it more of a real risotto, do all broth, no water. But, I think that since I'm using quick rice, it cooks and then gets creamier faster. So you could even do half water and half broth. Also. The ladies who authored my cookbook claim, "the key is to keep stirring the whole time." I found that if I let each addition build to a simmer before stirring, it went faster and was still good. It sounds like more onerous than it is especially if you cut up and prep all the ingredients while waiting for the broth and water to start bubbling. Also, if you've cooked your chicken beforehand it's even easier. The recipe on the back of the rice called for chopping the chicken and cooking in the oil first. Perhaps that will be my next experiment. Anyway, I think this is SO good. It's like macaroni and cheese for adults. And that's the pic of Taylor's plate...