I made a thick lemon wine sauce for some chicken tenders to eat over rice pilaf. This way it felt like the sauce had substance, but it used lighter ingredients and flavors to be a little more subtle.
First up, I sauteed my veggies (garlic, onion, mushrooms) in a little olive oil (butter works well too).
Once softened and a little browned, if there is no oil/butter left in the pan, add about a tablespoon more and add some flour (1-4 tbsp depending on how thick and what quantity of sauce you want). This will act as the thickening agent. Stir everything well and you've got yourself a roux.
To the veggies/roux, add your white wine. (Broth is also acceptable, or a combination of the two for a subtler wine flavor). I used a pinot grigio, but chardonnay works well too (just use what you like/have).
As you stir, the sauce will thicken as the wine combines with the roux. At this point you can add about a tablespoon of lemon juice. This is when I added my (still raw) chicken tenders, so that they could cook in the sauce, but if you feel more comfortable using precooked chicken, that is also fine. I put the lid over this to allow the chicken to steam in the sauce and to avoid too much evaporation.
Once cooked through, I plated the rice, added the chicken on top, then continued cooking the sauce over medium heat to get it to the desired consistency. You can add a little more lemon juice here if you want that flavor to pop out, or more wine if you lost a lot of liquid volume while cooking. Fresh herbs (like parsley, tarragon, thyme) would be a great addition here (I added pepper and dried tarragon because I didn't have any fresh). If you want it to be a real cream sauce you can also add maybe a quarter cup of heavy cream or a tablespoon or two of butter. I did not do that this time. But once I poured the sauce over the chicken I did garnish with freshly grated parmesan.
No comments:
Post a Comment