Chicken Thigh and Orzo Soup

2 tbls olive oil

1 tbls butter

1 medium yellow onion, diced

2 large carrots cut in ¼ inch rounds

2 stalks celery, diced

3 tbls unbleached all purpose flour

4 cups chicken stock or broth

2 cups cooked chicken, cut into bite size chunks*

1 tbls fresh thyme, stripped from stems and roughly chopped or 1 tsp dried thyme

½ cup Orzo

2 to 4 tbls ½ & ½ or cream, depending on how naughty you're feeling

fresh parsley, minced

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat olive oil and butter in large pot, add onion, carrot, celery, ½ tsp kosher salt and ¼ tsp pepper and cook until onions are soft, about 5 minutes.  Add flour and cook for at least a minute or until the flour begins to smell nutty.  Add the chicken stock and simmer gently, stirring occasionally for 20 minutes.  It should thicken and reduce slightly.  Add cooked chicken and thyme.  Crank up the heat to a boil and add the Orzo.  Boil for 9 minutes or until the pasta is al dente.  Turn off the heat, stir in the cream and add more salt and pepper to suit your tastes.  Sprinkle with a bit of parsley and serve with a giant chunk of freshly baked bread with real butter and a glass of chardonnay. Eat it up, yum.  The bread, by the way, is the Deli-style rye recipe from the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day book.  I make it all the time because it rocks.

*This is great for leftover chicken, but I didn’t have any so I poached some thighs in chicken stock (you could use water) until they were just barely cooked through, removed them from the poaching liquid and cut them up.  This cooks off the fat from the thighs.  You can skim the fat from the poaching liquid and use it in the soup if you want or discard.  You could also just use cut up raw breasts in the soup and just simmer until they’re cooked through.  You know, whatever you have around.