This week’s menu has a number of dishes that incorporate a sauce, either as a main part of the meal or as an enhancer.
Tonight’s sauce was a relatively simple pan sauce made from roast chicken drippings, chicken broth and red wine. The receipe for the chicken is Alton Brown’s B & B Chicken. Basically a whole chicken is butterflied and then broiled/roasted on both sides on a bed of vegetables (onions, celery, carrots – i.e. Mirepoix) for about 50 minutes. After the chicken is removed from the roasting pan, the pan itself is set over high heat and 1 cup red wine and 1 cup chicken broth are added and brought to a boil.
The vegetables gave up most of their goodness in the cooking process so they can be discarded once they’ve soured the pan bottom to loosen the fond. The mixture is reduced over high heat until about 1 cup of liquid remains – any drippings from the resting chicken can be returned to the pan. It’s then strained into a fat separator through a mesh strainer to remove the solids. After a rest, the “jus” can be poured off into a small dish for serving. It won’t disappoint!
The roast chicken was served with mashed potatoes and green beans. The potatoes got drenched in the pan sauce (along with the chicken) and the green beans (just 12 oz of the frozen variety) were dressed in a simple amandine sauce as follows:
- 1/4 cup slivered almonds
- 1.5 tbsp butter
- 1 tsp lemon juice (fresh is best!)
