Pan sauce flavours 30-minute entrée
Now that my kids are on their own and cooking for themselves, both have thanked me for passing on one technique in particular — how to cook a thin piece of protein and make a pan sauce from the drippings.
It is, indeed, a quick, easy and affordable skill with endless variations. It also guarantees a deeply delicious entrée. Consider this recipe — chicken cutlets topped with a tart orange sauce — the template for the technique.
Whenever you use it, you have to start with a thin piece of protein to ensure that it cooks quickly and evenly. I’ve chosen thinly sliced chicken cutlets. If the only breasts available at your supermarket are large and thick, bring them home, pop them in the freezer for 30 to 40 minutes (which firms them up) and then, very carefully, slice them in half length-wise to produce two thinner cutlets. If you’d prefer pork to chicken, buy halfinch-thick boneless pork chops and trim off any excess fat.
Before sautéeing the meat, you’ll need to dredge it in flour. This prevents the meat from drying out by coating and insulating it. (Both chicken breasts and boneless pork chops are very lean.) It also serves to thicken the sauce when the protein is added back to the pan.
After you’ve browned the cutlets in a little oil and moved them onto a plate, there’ll be some concentrated juices on the bottom of the pan. To deglaze the pan and dilute the brown bits, you should add liquid, usually something acidic. Wine is traditional, but a little vinegar and/or citrus can also do the job. Here, I call for sherry vinegar, but balsamic, red, white, or cider vinegar would be fine, too.
Next, you’ll add some chicken broth, then reduce the liquid a bit before returning the cutlets to the pan to finish cooking them gently as the flour coating thickens the sauce. Add some butter to enrich and thicken the sauce a trifle further. That’s it. You’ve landed a delicious entrée on the table in just 30 minutes.
Sautéed Chicken Cutlets With Tart Orange Sauce and Olives
Start to finish: 30 minutes Servings: 4
1/4 cup all-purpose flour 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil 1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast cutlets, preferably thin sliced
• Kosher salt and black pepper 1 orange, peeled and cut into sections plus 1/3 cup orange juice (preferably fresh) 1/3 cup sherry vinegar 1 cup chicken broth 1/3 cup chopped pitted green olives large, nonstick skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat.
Season the cutlets on both sides with salt and pepper and coat them with the flour, shaking off the excess before adding them to the skillet.
Reduce the heat to medium and cook the chicken until lightly golden, about two minutes per side. Transfer the chicken to a plate.
Add the orange juice and sherry vinegar to the skillet and simmer until reduced by half, scraping up the brown bits in the bottom of the pan.
Add the chicken broth and olives and bring the liquid to a boil.
Reduce the heat and simmer for a few minutes. Return the chicken to the pan, along with the orange segments and any juices from the plate and simmer very gently, turning the chicken over several times, for two to three minutes until it is just cooked through. Do not let the liquid boil.
Transfer the chicken to four plates and simmer the sauce until it has thickened.
Add butter to the skillet and swirl the pan just until the butter is incorporated.
Add salt and pepper to taste and spoon the sauce over the chicken.