Everyone makes New Year’s resolutions (okay, not exactly 100% of people). So, here we go: Me (Nels), my wife, and Skratchy and her husband are going Raw to start the new year. The whole raw thing is not something I’m even going to pretend to try to maintain as a lifestyle change, so we’ve committed to a month. Yeah, we’ll see how that goes.

Anyway, here was a recipe we tried this morning for breakfast, which at first, was kind of a shock to my senses, but then it started tasting more and more like apple juice and I was okay with it. I think I’m just not used to that many fruits and vegetables, especially not so early in the morning.

Ingredients:
1 cup carrot juice
1/2 cup acai berry juice
1 apple
a chunk of skinned ginger

Instructions:
Blend that ish.
Drank.

Cubes, powders, cans and cartons – the four basic ways that the food industry has given us to purchase the flavor of boiled chicken. But none of these products taste very good (this one too salty; that one too bland), and they often contain some really weird chemically stuff. Besides, there are few instances when it seems okay to eat meat that came off of a room-temperature shelf.

The thing is, making chicken stock is so ridiculously easy. IT’S BOILING CHICKEN. It is like performing a Benny Hill skit but without all the comical sexual harassment. You basically just throw a naked chicken with some other stuff in a pot, put some water on top of it, and heat it up. Ta-dah! You just made something that people have been making for hundreds of years without the help of some flavor factory in New Jersey.

In full disclosure, there is one thing about making chicken stock that can be unpleasant -the entire interaction with a raw chicken. Some people have a special love for raw chicken. (See, e.g., Ina Garten, who while handling a raw chicken says things like ?stand it up on its little butt.? She seems to find them adorable.) But you have to just work through the issue, because you really do have to use a raw chicken with the skin and bones on it to get chicken stock, otherwise it is just mildly flavored broth.

Below is the most simple recipe to start you on your way. Once you have tasted it and used it in your recipes, you can change it up any way you like with different vegetables and spices.

Chicken Stock

4 lbs chicken, cut into pieces with bones and skin still on

3-4 carrots, unpeeled and cut into half

3-4 stalks celery, cut into half

1 medium onion, cut into half

2-3 cloves garlic

1 T sea salt

1/2 teaspoon whole black peppercorns

1 small handful of fresh parsley

pinch of rosemary (optional)

12 cups water

Place all the ingredients in a large stock pot and simmer over medium-low heat for about 3 hours, until the chicken is completely cooked, the carrots are very soft, and the broth is flavorful. Remove the stock from the heat. Take out the chicken and refrigerate it for another use. Remove and discard the remaining vegetables and herbs. Line a strainer with cheese cloth and place it over a large bowl. Pour the stock into the strainer, and put the bowl of clear stock into the refrigerator for a few hours until the fat rises to the top. Remove the fat from the bowl and discard. Divide the stock into separate smaller containers and freeze.