Chicken & Asparagus Risotto Skillet

I'm continuing to find new recipes to try and I must say, so far so good. We have a friend in culinary school that came over last winter and made us the most delicious risotto. OMG it was good. Well...I didn't exactly want to compete with that, but I've been dying to have risotto again! So when I stumbled across this quick recipe, I knew I had to try it. I was so determined to make this that even after my asparagus in the fridge went bad and Meijer was out- I made an extra stop at Kroger just to make sure I had all the ingredients! This was the perfect coming home meal for Carl who has been gone all week!

4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 tsp. salt, divided
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. olive oil
1/3 cup onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, pressed
2 oz. fresh Parmesan cheese, grated
1 T lemon zest
2 cups milk
1 can Cream of Chicken soup
1/2 lb. fresh asparagus cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
2 cups instant long-grain rice

Season chicken with 1/4 tsp. salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in skillet and cook chicken 5-7 minutes on each side or until chicken is no longer pink.

Remove chicken from skillet; keep warm. Add milk, soup, asparagus, onion, garlic. cheese, lemon zest and remaining 1/4 tsp. salt to skillet. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 3 minutes.

Stir in rice; top with chicken. Cover pan; remove from heat. Let stand 5 minutes. Serves 4-6.
This is yet another recipe from Pampered Chef (I have a bunch of the cookbooks).

Notes: I actually used 3/4 c of cheese because I just love cheese and an extra clove of garlic...well because I love garlic. You could definitely taste the lemon zest every once in awhile- which was an awesome flavor addition- but if you aren't a fan I think you could easily leave it out. From start to finish, this took me 45 minutes- not bad.

Carl loved it. I'm a fan. It will stay in our regular rotation. (He thought he would be funny and give the wine glass bunny ears...he didn't know he was in the picture :) )