Steve, your risotto sounds like a slightly posher version of a long-established family standby, Rice Thing. A nice flexible recipe using long grain rice, with whatever (suitable) veg & cooked meat is around. But always Real Stock. Must try it with risotto rice & Parmesan.

Sen, in my cat-hosting years, chicken carcases were a problem - I'd heard the bones are brittle and can cause internal troubles. Pressure-cooking was the answer - yielding a litre of stock, and crumbly bones which the little dears could safely attack with gusto.