Play with Your Food
Pan Sauces De-Buttered

Sauces are a quick, fun and creative way to make yet another chicken-vegetable dinner more interesting to eat and to cook.

From dashboard-diner to healthy improvisational cook, Russ seeks to not only provide health food that will BLOW YOUR MIND but also show how gaining confidence in the kitchen is a weight and post-weight secret weapon.

Pan sauces are boon for livening up otherwise tepid healthy eating and provide a skill to focus while navigating all the “Now whats?” of weight maintenance. You’re still eating healthfully — just now, hopefully, with a deeper sense of fun.

A technique firmly grounded in the use of butter requires a fresh twist, which we’ll explain. But it’s more than that — new twists on old techniques requires breaking from the pack of cooking purists who insist they should be prepared a certain way.

And Lord Knows food purists are up there with Sizists for mind-numbing, soul-crushing arrogance. When society expects you to regain your weight — even encourages it on some level — the “break from the pack” muscle is just as important as any crunch or dead lift.

So I think of pan sauces as my personal little revolution on a plate. Take that, health food haters! Take that, weight regain statistics! Take that, cynicism and resignation! Vive la Resistance!

THAT’S HOW IT’S DONE VERSUS WELL WHY NOT THIS?

Historically, sauces were created to both tenderize meat and enhance flavor. They relied skimming the fat from the bottom of a pan to reveal the fond — “stuck bits on the pan”– and after the protein’s finished, pouring wine or chicken stock into the pan and scraping the fond from the bottom of the pan (known as deglazing). Herbs added flavor and butter are lent the sauce some thickness and additional flavor.

That’s How it’s Done, cooking purists would say:

Fond + Stock/Wine + Herbs + Cook time to reduce the liquid + Butter

The key to making pan sauces low in saturated fat is finding alternative methods to give your pan sauce thickness beyond butter. The fond boasts deep flavor that’s “free” (i.e. nutrition labels on meat products don’t distinguish between what’s on the plate and what’s in the pan, and fond is mentioned nowhere on the USDA data) and frankly too useful to abandon.

Let’s try this instead:

Fond + Liquid + Herbs + Thickening agent + Cook time to reduce the liquid

HOW-TO AND USAGE

Here’s what you need and need to know to put pan sauces to use:

EQUIPMENT | To develop a proper fond you need a pan that’s NOT nonstick. For learning purposes, stick with an inexpensive stainless steel saute pan — once you feel more comfortable with sauces, you can always upgrade to more expensive materials like copper or hybrids later.

If you’re not accustomed to using non-nonstick cookware (I wasn’t until I began losing weight), pick a cheap pan and keep the heat lower than you think it should. When you first add the protein, move it around in the pan before letting it settle. You want “fond,” not “half the chicken on the pan and the other half on the plate.”

Other helpful equipment is a wooden spoon with a angled end or a scrapper (with a flat end). A normal wooden spoon works fine, but the flat angles help dislodge fond easier.

LIQUID | Cut the heat on high just before adding a liquid. Chicken Broth or Stock and usually one of the following: Various Flavor Cooking Wine (see our analysis of wines and their uses), Unsweetened Fruit Juice, Tea or Herbal Teas, Coffee.

You just need liquid, and even better if the liquid imparts a flavor on its own without a huge calorie/fat/sugar punch. What combination of liquids you use will help guide choices for the remaining ingredients.

Once the fond is dislodged, cut the heat back down to add remaining ingredients.

HERBS | Here’s where you get creative. Do you want herbs to complement or contrast? Think in pairs and use what you have on hand: sweet/spicy, sweet/earthy, earthy/spicy, sweet and savory. Smell or taste the herbs and try it out (the other beauty of pan sauces is dinner isn’t ruined if you make a choice you don’t like).

Also remember herbs aren’t limited to what’s in that garden or a jar — aromatics such as citrus peel are also useful here.

THICKENING AGENT |  My top two choices are vinegar and pureed roasted garlic, but also finely crushed nuts or any pureed vegetable will provide thickness and body to a sauce. Technically, we’re combining a reduction sauce with a pan sauce; when you heat vinegar or wine over time, it gains a syrup-like consistency that functions as the butter would — thickener.

Vinegar also has less calorie impact than cornstarch and for infinitely more flavor. The same rules apply as the previous liquids: it’s even better if the vinegar itself is flavored. Balsamic Vinegar, White Balsamic Vinegar, Strawberry Balsamic and Fig White Balsamic are my mainstays.

COOKING TIME AND FINAL TIPS | Once you’ve added all ingredients, continue to reduce the liquid over medium-high heat to intensify flavor. Taste in intervals to see if you think the sauce should be sweeter, more earthy, spicier, etc. and add ingredients accordingly.

The cook time will greatly effect the outcome of the dish; judge cook time by what the sauce is served with. If you reduce it slightly, you have a classic pan sauce. If you’re pairing your protein with a whole grain (cous cous, rice, quinoa, pasta, etc.) it’s better to keep a looser sauce so the grains can absorb the flavor.

If you keep reducing the liquid, you’ll have something closer to a glaze because of the vinegar’s presence. I prefer this for grain-less meals, or if I’m eating chicken or vegetables on their own.

One last note — as useful as pan sauces are, know their limits. Generally, the fresher or higher quality the ingredients you cook with, the less they require adornment. As a flavor pick-me-up and a new skill, they’re invaluable. But don’t feel obligated to make sauces for garden-fresh produce or free-range products. Better to reserve the accouterments for Wal-mart green beans or Sam’s Club Chicken.

Russ Lane created Second Helping after going from 350 to 155 pounds while working as a food writer in the Carolinas. Learn more at the Team Second Helping page, and be sure to sign up for our newsletter Under Maintenance.