So I got a colonoscopy the other day (not the way most food blogs start, I know).

I will spare you the gory details, but the worst part is definitely the stuff you have to drink the night before (and in my case at 3 am!), but the day before the procedure, I wasn’t allowed to eat any solids, or anything red or purple. I don’t think I normally drink anything red or purple, but suddenly being deprived of liquids these colors made me kind of angry. Maybe I have a problem with authority? Anyway, I had black coffee for breakfast, tea for a mid-day snack, chicken broth for lunch, apple juice for a mid-afternoon snack, chicken broth for dinner and lots of sparkling water in between. Fascinating, huh?

The point is, if the only hot sustenance I can have is chicken broth, I’m going to want the best chicken broth I can get. I didn’t want to drink stuff out of a carton, or God forbid, a can. I have the recipe for Neiman Marcus’s Mariposa restaurant’s consommé. It’s a clear, golden nectar that tastes like heaven, but is a little complicated to make; with no solids, I couldn’t muster the strength, so I turned to an easy, one-hour chicken stock.

It comes from a cookbook called Simple to Spectacular by renowned chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Mark Bittman. The premise is “How to take one basic recipe to four levels of sophistication.” I love this idea of taking a simple recipe and turning it more and more gourmet, but frankly I haven’t gotten past this first recipe for one-hour chicken stock. The subsequent recipes are for consommé, Chicken soup with parsley puree and Chicken soup with wontons. All sound good, but I’m a happy camper with my basic one-hour chicken stock. Although it calls for chicken wings, other chicken parts can be used. Chicken wings are one of those foods that used to be inexpensive, but as its popularity grew, became very pricey.

Simple to Spectacular Chicken Stock

Recipe by Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Mark BittmanCourse: SoupCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy

Servings

6

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

60 minutes

15

minutes

Ingredients

• 1/2 large onion

• 4 cloves

• 2 pounds chicken wings, cut into 3 or 4 pieces each

• 1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped

• 1/2 stalk celery

• 1/2 leek, trimmed, well washed and chopped

• 4 cloves garlic

• 1 bay leaf

• 10 peppercorns

• 3 sprigs thyme

Directions

• Stud the onion with the cloves and combine all the ingredients with 6 cups water in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat so that the mixture bubbles steadily but not rapidly. Cook, skimming any foam that accumulates for about 1 hour.
• Cool slightly, then strain. Refrigerate (you can skim off the fat after the stock cools completely) and use within 3 days.

Notes

• If you don’t have leeks, you can substitute green onions.