Roasted chicken sauce
===================== 2023-04-03


4 servings

Comment: We use here as a base, a chicken stock. The quality and tastes of commercial stocks vary widely between Europe and the North American continent. It will therefore be necessary to use circumspection (it will be necessary to taste and to know what one tastes). In North America, there are chicken and beef bouillons in cartons or cansthat normally should be reduced somewhat. Try to find the best (it is difficult). In Europe, we find products that are rather concentrated, but not always good enough. It is important to read the list of ingredients. Better yet make your own chocken stock!

To thicken the sauce, we use here a roux (as much flour as butter). Normally for this amount of sauce (~650 ml), we would be satisfied with 25 g of flour and butter for roux, but here we want a thick sauce, we increase the amounts to 40 g each. The rule is to use 40 g per liter of sauce to bind a normal sauce, and 70 g of each to obtain the consistency of a béchamel.

You can also replace the vegetables and spices with a good vegetable broth (marked *), decrease the chicken stock accordingly.


Ingredients:
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40 g flour, 40 g butter for the roux

1 carrot, thinly sliced (*)
1- stalk of celery, sliced (*)
1 medium to large onion, sliced into strips (*)
2 cloves (*)
2 crushed garlic cloves
2+ sprigs of thyme or a good pinch of dried thyme (*)
2 bay leaves (*)
2- dl dry white wine
80 cl chicken stock
1 pinch of cayenne pepper
salt
pepper
EVOO


Preparation:
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In a saucepan, heat some EVOO.
Sweat the onions.
Add the carrots and celery, fry for a few more minutes (without burning).

Add wine, stock and all other ingredients (spices)
Add crushed garlic cloves.
Bring to the boil briefly, then leave to simmer, half-covered, for 30 to 40 minutes and reduce of ~1/3 (cover after that). Add salt if necessary (depending on whether the bottom is salty or not).

Strain through a large colander, pushing the juice (and some solid) through the colander. Discard the rest. Let cool.

Make a roux with the butter and flour:
- melt the butter over low heat without browning
- off the heat, add all the flour and mix with a whisk
- return to medium heat and cook slowly, stirring constantly, 1 to 2 minutes
- leave to cool a little.

Off the heat, pour the broth all at once over the roux (or little by little if the sauce is still hot while stirring). Mix well, return to the heat and bring to a boil while constantly stirring.

Check the salt if necessary.