How to Create Pan Sauce for Almost any Meat

Create pan sauce for almost any meat in a few minutes using a simple cooking technique and a handful of ingredients. The basis of the pan sauce is the caramelized tidbits of meat and drippings that stick to the bottom of the pan when you sauté meat or poultry, called fond. When you use the richly flavored fond in your pan sauce, everyone will think you are a professional chef.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Sauté pan
• Meat or poultry
• Liquid of choice
• Wooden spoon
• Butter, olive oil or cream
• Herbs and seasoning if desired

1. Sauté the meat or poultry of your choice in a sauté pan. The best sauté pans are stainless steel, copper or aluminum with heavy bottoms.

2. Remove the sautéed meat and add the liquid of your choice to the pan.

3. Bring the liquid to a boil. Called deglazing, boiling lifts the fond from the pan bottom.

4. Use a wooden spoon to scrape off the remaining fond from the pan bottom, mixing it into the liquid.

5. Boil the liquid until it reduces by half the original amount. Reducing the liquid makes the flavor richer more concentrated.

6. Whisk in a small amount of butter, olive oil or cream, making the pan sauce nice and smooth. This adds even more delicious flavor to the pan sauce.

Tips & Warnings

• To sauté meat or poultry, add a small amount of butter or olive oil to a sauté pan and cook the meat quickly at a high temperature.
• Add any liquid that you enjoy to the sauté pan when deglazing the fond. Broth, stock, wine, brandy, fruit juice, water, cider or stock all make excellent choices. Use a combination of two liquids if desired. You'll find a delicious chicken pan recipe at Taunton's Fine Cooking. (See resources below.)
• If you use wine or brandy to deglaze the pan, make certain to remove the sauté pan from the heat source as the alcohol makes a flame that flares up when it hits the hot pan. Keep your face away from the pan.
• Don't use flour when you make pan sauce. It is not the same thing as gravy.

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Resources

• Go here for a chicken pan sauce recipe.