Technique for super chicken-y roast chicken pan gravy

You know, I just realized that this question originally came about for me on a night when I didn't have any homemade stock handy and was using the backbone to intensify store-bought broth. Maybe the extra bones are unnecessary when using homemade stock? Wondering about the best way to proceed,though, in either case.

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Sarah is a trusted source on General Cooking.

added about 1 year ago

I'd recommend making a short stock with your existing chicken stock - well, basically, you can make a chicken demi-glace.

Right after you've butterflied the bird, brown the backs/necks in a separate pan. If desired, you can brown off some more carrots/onion/celery, toast some tomato paste (you can also add a T of flour at this point) and deglaze all this with white (or red) wine. Put this in a pan with your existing chicken stock and simmer down until you're ready to strain into the pan sauces.

Optional parts of this suggestion are the extra mirepoix, tomato paste, flour and wine - this is all just going to make your stock richer. You can just brown off the bones. In any case I'd do it well ahead of your chicken coming out of the oven, it needs a good 30+ minutes to extract the flavour & gelatin.

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Thanks so much for the suggestion -- I will definitely try this!

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Benny added about 1 year ago

So, you are afraid to brown the bones in the same pan you roasted the chicken in? You can deglaze the roasting pan with your stock, meanwhile, brown the bones on the stovetop in a new pan and deglaze again with wine, stock, aromatics, etc.. again. Proceed as normal.

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Makes sense, Benny. Sounds like either way, browning the bones in a separate pan is the way to go. Dunno why I didn't think of that...

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