What turned these distinct and not particularly interesting ingredients into a satisfying, well rounded dish? A does of that magical ingredient known as demi glace, a.k.a. reduced stock. (Or as Camille has informed me in the comments section, "glace de poulet.")
Much like a serial killer, I've gotten into the habit of hanging on to my carcasses and finding interesting uses for them. For instance, the remains of my roommate's Whole Foods roasted chicken became a stock, which in turned was cooked down to a demi glace, which in turn transformed this dish from dull to, well, super-chickeny.
So instead of having a bunch of ingredients that didn't necessary go together (green beans, sweet potato, leftover lamb shank), I had a well rounded dish unified by the dominant flavor of the d.g. Serve it over pasta, eat it like a stew, call it a ragout or what have you, but there's no better way to turn a handful of random leftovers into a dish that can actually hang.
And it's not at all difficult to make: all you have to do is throw your chicken (or any other meat or even veggie scraps) into a pot of boiling water instead of the garbage. I know French cooking terms can be intimidating, so just think of it as "chicken syrup."
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4 comments:
Nice. I make a ton of stock but have never reduced it to demi glace. It's wasteful to get rid of perfectly good bones, especially when you can make such delicious things out of them. I almost swiped the carcass of my roommate's really nice half chicken when we went out to dinner the other night, but I somehow restrained myself. That and it got taken away really quickly. Sigh.
thats a brilliant thing to do with grilled chicken bones. i should do that more often.
Ok, hate to be super picky, but technically reduced chicken stock is glace de poulet. Demi glace is, according to Escoffier, A combination of brown veal stock and brown sauce (like Espagnol sauce), reduced by half. Modern Demi glace is often just reduced brown veal stock. The drawback to modern sauces thickened only by reduction is that you get a tacky finish in the mouth (and a film on the plate) due to a concentration of gelatin.
Camille,
You're absolutely correct, and I actually love super picky readers keeping me to task, so keep it comin'.
Serves me right for only doing a surface level of internet research pre-post. Next time I'll hit the books. Note the new title of the post.
Debs and Kate: thanks for posting and glad I could inspire you.
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