Probably the most important technique I can share with you is how to sauté properly.
Once learned and in your repertoire, you will be free to be creative and devise your own recipes with whatever ingredients you have around. As a novice, this technique is easy and allows you to prepare meals in a moment’s notice.
This includes sautéing chicken, fish, vegetables, or meat. That’s the beauty of learning a basic technique. Compare it to learning how to read a financial statement. Once you know how, you can effectively read any company’s report. sautéing
Sautéing is cooking food quickly in the right amount of oil and/or butter over high heat. You can use a skillet or saute pan, but make sure it is big enough to comfortably contain what you are cooking.
Preheat it--you need high heat when sautéing to cook ingredients quickly; otherwise the internal moisture tends to push to the surface and your ingredients won’t brown. Check out my article on How to choose a good saute pan.
Butter or Oil?
Butter will give your food the best taste and a wonderful golden crust but burns more easily. Olive oil produces a nice crust and will not burn as quickly, but also doesn’t leave as rich a flavor or color as butter alone. So, the Reluctant Gourmet uses a combination of the two. What you cook and the amount you’re cooking will determine how butter and oil you use. For example, use about 1 to 1-1/2 tablespoons of each for 2 or more chicken cutlets and 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of each for 2 or more fish fillets.
Preheating the Pan
Have you ever asked yourself why the cookbooks and cooking magazines suggest you preheat a pan before adding butter or oil to it? I did and spent a lot of time looking for the answer until I called my friend Chef Ricco. He said there are two reasons you do this:
- All pans have hot spots. These are places on a pan that heat up faster than the rest of the pan. If you add butter or oil to a cold pan and then heat it up, it can hit one of these hot spots and start burning. If you start with a hot pan that is uniformly heated, there is less chance for the fat to hit a hot spot and burn. When sauteing, you want the butter to foam up before you start and the oil to "almost" start smoking. Now you are ready to start the saute.
- There is an expression, "A watched pot never boils" which means if you stand there and watch a pot of water come to boil, it seems like it is taking forever. Our attention drifts and we get distracted. The same is true when heating up butter and oil in a pan. Have you ever added some cold butter to a cold pan, pushed it around a bit, became distracted and walked away only to have the butter burn? By preheating the pan you are ready to start cooking the moment you add your fat. Your attention is focused.
Hot Tip - How much Heat Should You Use When Sauteing?
How to preheat a saute pan?
All you have to do is put it on your burner on low until it warms up to about 180 degrees F. You don't want to preheat it on high or you will burn the butter or fat as soon as you put it in the pan. I know what you're thinking. " If you put it on low, won't the pan keep getting hotter and hotter?"
That's what I use to think but the answer is no. The pan will only get as hot as the amount of heat (btu's) you apply to it. If you preheated a pan on low, it would get to a maximum temperature and that's it. To get more heat you have to add more btu's.
Remember though, once your pan is preheated, you are ready to cook and you add your butter and/or oil, you must crank up your heat before you start to sauté. The butter or oil will actually bring down the pan temperature and besides, 180 degrees F. is not hot enough to sauté. anything.
Basic Technique
You will know your pan is hot enough and it is time to start when the butter stops foaming and begins to turn a pale brown. Add your ingredients and be careful not to let it start smoking (it happens and it’s a pain to eat your meal in a roomful of smoke). Cooking time will vary, depending on what you are cooking.
For example, I cook chicken cutlets for approximately 3 minutes on one side and then 3 to 4 minutes on the other. For fish filets, 2 to 3 minutes, flip and another minute on the other.
Never use a fork for flipping, it pierces the meat and lets the juices escape. You should serve immediately but if you want to make a pan sauce (and you probably will), transfer components to a plate and keep in a warm oven.
Check out my recipe for Sautéed Chicken Breasts with Shallots and Garlic, it incorporates this technique beautifully.
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How to choose a good saute pan?
