Saturday, October 19, 2013 – This week’s episode of cooking class was about pan sauces. And the pan-roasting technique served me well last week. And is required to make a pan sauce. So I decided it was time to make Chicken With Chicken Sauce.
The chicken was brined with black and white pepper, allspice, and a bay leaf (and saltwater), then pan-roasted in olive oil before being moved to the oven. The chicken drippings and oil and burnt offerings were used to start the pan sauce. I chose a “Port/Madeira pan sauce” recipe because of the sheer simplicity and ease of ingredients.
Butter, booze, balsamic vinegar, and sugar. Especially the sugar. I personally thought the sauce was amazing, but then again I have a legendary sweet tooth. (My sweet tooth is legen–wait for it…) For anyone else, I might want to halve the amount of sugar though.
Lessons learned? Just barely enough oil to cover the pan is probably not enough oil. The chicken stuck to the pan and left burn marks. Maybe a little more oil would help, and I still need to figure out of the pan was too hot or just hot enough. I still need a meat thermometer to make sure the chicken is cooked enough. (Well, it was cooked, but I think it came out overcooked.)
Hmmm… what am I going to do for the “one last awesome photo”? Ooh, I know. How about a simmering pan?
