Chicken Soup with Rice and Orzo

Remove the fat from neck and tail cavities of chicken. With a cleaver or heavy chefs knife, break open back bone, chest cavity, and leg bones. You can ask a butcher to do this step.

Place chicken in a stockpot with water and chicken stock. Bring to a boil over high heat. As water begins to boil, skim off the scum that rises to the surface. Continue skimming until scum no longer forms. Add seasoned salt, sage, thyme, peppercorns, bay leaf, celery pieces, carrot pieces, onion, and garlic clove. Simmer, covered, for about 30 minutes. The chicken will be done when you can pull the drumstick out of its socket.

Remove from the heat. Remove chicken from stock and let sit until cool enough to handle. While chicken is cooling, strain stock, discard vegetables, wash the stockpot and return stock to the clean pot. Measure out 1 cup of the stock and set aside.

By this time you should be able to remove the chicken meat from the bones. Discard bones and skin and tear the meat into bite-size pieces. Reserve the meat.

Heat the 2 tablespoons olive oil or butter in a heavy 4-cup flat-bottomed saucepan. Add the rice and saute over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the reserved 1 cup of hot stock and the sherry. Bring mixture to a simmer, cover with a tight-fitting lid, and let rice cook for 35 minutes over lowest heat. After 35 minutes, remove saucepan from heat and let sit an additional 10 minutes, covered.

While rice is cooking, melt the 1/4 cup butter in a large saute pan and cook diced celery and onions over medium heat. When onions are translucent, add minced garlic and saute 1 or 2 minute longer. Stir in basil, oregano, salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, bread crumbs, and parsley. Saute 1 or 2 minutes longer and remove from heat.

When rice has finished cooking, stir it into the vegetable-and-herb mixture and reserve. return stock to a simmer. Add orzo to the simmering stock and let simmer for 10 minutes. Test for doneness.

When orzo is dons, add rice-and-vegetable mixture and the reserved chicken to the stockpot. Taste for seasoning.

Pass around a bowl of freshly grated Parmesan for garnish.