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Author:
Franco Salzillo
The most significant difference between home cooking and what goes on in fine restaurant kitchens are sauces like the demi-glace. Let’s say it out loud; we don’t cook with the stuff.
But you know what? Those delicious meals you enjoy in fine restaurants DO use them! They’re the base of what we now call fine dining!
The demi-glace is a brown sauce made with roasted animal bones. In a way, the demi-glace is a stock that has been reduced to thickness. Imagine all the flavor in a single spoonful of it!
That’s why today we’re making demi-glace, and since we’re all home cooks, we’re making a chicken version of it. After all, you probably don’t have many beef bones at home, do you?
The most crucial ingredient in this classic sauce is the bones. I love making demi-glace the day after I enjoy rotisserie chicken with my family.
Instead of throwing out all those bones, turn them into a sauce! By the way, you can use a pound of chicken wings as well.
After long hours of simmering the bones in water with a few traditional aromatics, including onion, carrots, celery and bay leaf, you get a thick stock.
This one we’ll reduce even more until you get one and a half cups of the original six cups of water. That’s thick, isn’t it?
Making demi-glace at home is neat and all, but what does it do? Here’s what you need to know.
Stir a spoonful of demi-glace into soups and stews to give them depth of flavor and use it the next time you’re making gravy.
It will elevate mushroom sauces and also combine it with heavy cream and drizzle it over a fatty steak. That’s a beauty!
Chop the onion, carrots and celery coarsely. Set aside.
In a pot, place the chicken bones and cover them with cold water. Bring to a boil and let it simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the white wine, onion, carrots, celery and bay leaf. Bring to a boil again. Simmer for 2 hours.
Skim the surface and strain, reserving the stock.
Bring the stock back to a boil and reduce until you get one and a half cups of beautifully brown chicken demi-glace.
Season with salt and pepper and cool down to room temperature before storing in an air-tight container in the fridge.
