Chicken Demi-glace

[ironchef]

I love making sauces. I think sauce making is a skill that really seperates certain cooks from others. One of the dishes on our menu is Roasted Shelton Farms Free-Range Chicken. We debone the chicken, make a roulade out of the meat, then sear, baste, and roast it. The sauce is a chicken demi made from the bones and carcasses of the chicken. I usually have the task of making the sauce so here's how it goes. The bones are roasted in the oven until a dark golden brown, then the roasting pan gets deglazed with water. Meanwhile, onion, leeks, carrots, and celery and sauteed until golden brown. Tomato paste is added and cooked for a few minutes to deepen the flavor and to remove the acid. Cognac and water is added to deglaze the mire poix. The bones and the deglazing liquid from the roasting pan are then added to the pot, along with thyme, bay leaves, garlic, peppercorns, and mushroom scraps. More water is added to just below the level of the bones:



After simmering for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, the sauce is strained, skimmed, then strained again, then seasoned. What's left is a beautiful, rich demi glace with a deep chicken flavor, and the base for our sauce:

[Uncle Bob]

IC....I like this idea. Usually how many birds are you working with, and what is your yield of demi glace?.....I guess what I'm trying to figure is... Can I do this at home with say a couple of birds, or maybe several thighs deboned... and what kind of yield could I expect?

[luvs]

sounds beautiful!

[AllenOK]

I do something very similar for our "Chicken Jus" sauce on one menu item. I'll go and get some chicken wings before we marinate chicken for frying. I cut them into sections, and caramelize them in a saucepan with a little clarified butter. Once the wings have caramelized, and a layer of fond is developing in the pan, I'll add some rough-cut celery, quartered onions, leeks, whole garlic cloves, a sprig of fresh sage, a sprig of fresh rosemary, and several sprigs of fresh thyme. I leave the carrots out, as I'm not thrilled about the taste of carrots in a chicken-flavored broth. I saute this mixture for awhile, until the fond in the pan has deepened and darkened. I deglaze with a shot of white wine, then add water and/or chicken stock. I let them mixture gently simmer for a couple hours, then strain, tighten, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

I always get comments from waitstaff, my Sous Chef, and sometimes even members that are downwind of the exhaust outlef, about how good this stuff smells when it's cooking.

I usually have to hide it as well, since one of the day-time cooks will use it for a base for chicken soup.

[ironchef]

Originally Posted by Uncle Bob

IC....I like this idea. Usually how many birds are you working with, and what is your yield of demi glace?.....I guess what I'm trying to figure is... Can I do this at home with say a couple of birds, or maybe several thighs deboned... and what kind of yield could I expect?

The yield isn't too high. One batch will usually yield me about two quarts of demi, and this is from about four whole chickens and roughly four quarts of water. By those proportions, it would take one whole chicken to give you two cups of demi once it's reduced. Just using thigh bones won't give you the same flavor. You need the chicken carcass to give you that richness.

[ironchef]

Originally Posted by AllenOK

I do something very similar for our "Chicken Jus" sauce on one menu item. I'll go and get some chicken wings before we marinate chicken for frying. I cut them into sections, and caramelize them in a saucepan with a little clarified butter. Once the wings have caramelized, and a layer of fond is developing in the pan, I'll add some rough-cut celery, quartered onions, leeks, whole garlic cloves, a sprig of fresh sage, a sprig of fresh rosemary, and several sprigs of fresh thyme. I leave the carrots out, as I'm not thrilled about the taste of carrots in a chicken-flavored broth. I saute this mixture for awhile, until the fond in the pan has deepened and darkened. I deglaze with a shot of white wine, then add water and/or chicken stock. I let them mixture gently simmer for a couple hours, then strain, tighten, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

I always get comments from waitstaff, my Sous Chef, and sometimes even members that are downwind of the exhaust outlef, about how good this stuff smells when it's cooking.

I usually have to hide it as well, since one of the day-time cooks will use it for a base for chicken soup.

Yeah, I don't put too much carrots in there, just enough to help balance. My mire poix ratio is usually two parts onion, one and a half parts leeks, one part celery, and half a part of carrots. I think the other chef de partie who also makes the chicken demi puts in too much carrots or maybe too much mire poix because his tastes way too vegetably. I had to fix his a couple of times by roasting a small batch of bones and then re-simmering his base along with it along with some mushroom scraps to balance the flavor.

Not cool about the day cooks using the base you make for soup. The day sous chef used my chicken demi one time for a gnocchi special at lunch and I let him have it. Now after it cools, I stash it in the very, very back of my reach-in.

[Uncle Bob]

Originally Posted by ironchef

The yield isn't too high. One batch will usually yield me about two quarts of demi, and this is from about four whole chickens and roughly four quarts of water. By those proportions, it would take one whole chicken to give you two cups of demi once it's reduced. Just using thigh bones won't give you the same flavor. You need the chicken carcass to give you that richness.

Yo! IC....Check it out!! Thanks!!!...this is on my list to do! Whole Birds...Gotcha!!

[AllenOK]

I just made a new batch Sunday. Man it smelled good. I probably used a ratio of 1 part leek, 1 part onion, 1/2 part celery, no carrots.

[ironchef]

Originally Posted by AllenOK

I just made a new batch Sunday. Man it smelled good. I probably used a ratio of 1 part leek, 1 part onion, 1/2 part celery, no carrots.

What's your starting ratio of water and how much do you reduce the sauce?

[AllenOK]

I add enough water to cover the ingredients, plus a little more, probably about 1 1/2 qt total. I don't really reduce it much, so I don't call it a demi, but more of a Jus Lié, as I tighten it with some cornstarch. I rarely have enough chicken scraps to make a lot of stock that I can reduce down into a proper demi.

I've noticed that I've become my Chef's "go-to" person for making sauces. Any time he needs a sauce made for a party, I'm usually the first one asked.