Sunday, October 27, 2013 – This week is round two of Chicken With Chicken Sauce. This time, I took the sauce up a notch and made a different sauce, one made with a roux.
So what’s a roux? I won’t give you the whole cooking lesson, but it involves cooking flour in butter. Because butter and flour are awesome. And this was a more involved sauce, since traditional French sauce making also involves mirepoix (onions, celery, and carrots). So I had to break out the cutting board again.
In any case, last time I made a roux (way back in February), I burned it. This time, I was running at lower heat, and had practiced it since, so I was in much better shape this time. Plus, making a roux over mirepoix is much less scary since there’s a buffer that keeps the roux from just burning up. (Or maybe it was because I had more roux.) All in all, I think this was a sauce successfully made.
For those keeping track, I was making a Bechamel sauce, which means the base of the sauce is roux and milk. And I turned it into a Mornay sauce, which means I finished it by melting shredded cheese into it. The wikipedia article says gruyere and parmesan, but I couldn’t find gruyere, so I just used swiss instead. And then, I poured it over the chicken and, because I had parsley, garnished it with parsley.
Hmm, I guess I did give you the cooking lesson. With a lot of French terms.
Anyway, once seasoned, the sauce was amazing. Arguably more amazing than last week’s sauce. After I finished it all, I wanted some more.
So here’s your awesome picture to finish the night. Bechamel sauce simmering.
