A jus gras, at its heart, is a sauce made from the drippings from the roasting tray. It’s a deep, flavourful and, importantly, very simple sauce to make. Fat is the important ingredient here; this sauce will elevate a simple chicken to a restaurant-quality dish.
Ingredients
Chicken: 1 whole, large
Chicken wings: 8
Chicken stock: 5 litres, brown
Carrots: 2, large, diced
Onion: 2, large, diced with skin on
Garlic: 2 cloves
Butter: 50 g
Tomato paste: 1 tbsp
White wine vinegar: 300 ml
Tarragon: 1 sprig
Chef Mark Moriarty shows us how to make a pan jus gras sauce as part of Fine Dining Lovers' series: The Secrets of Sauces.
To Prepare
01.
Break down the chicken ‘for sauté’, retain a breast for roasting, and dice the other.
02.
Chop the carcass up into small chunks, place these chunks onto a roasting rack with the additional wings, over a tray. Cook in the oven at 200°C until dark golden brown all over, retain the fat from the tray.
03.
In a large pot, add some oil, roast the carrots, onion, garlic until golden brown all over (add a knob of butter to help this process), then strain away any excess fat.
04.
Now add the browned chicken, diced breast meat, tomato paste and white wine. Allow the wine to reduce by half.
05.
Add the brown chicken stock and begin to reduce the sauce. Once half the liquid has reduced, pass it through a sieve to remove all the ingredients.
06.
Continue reducing the liquid by itself until a sauce consistency is achieved. Adjust the seasoning with some lemon juice, and split it with the reserved chicken fat.
07.
Place on a white plate and top with a roasted chicken breast.
