A Great Brown Butter Sauce with Sage Can Elevate ANY Meal
The other night I prepared a pan fried chicken with roasted fall vegetable medley including butternut squash, potatoes and apples and finished it with a sage brown butter sauce. The side dish was incredible and I’ve been serving it with both pork and flounder because it’s that good.
The chicken is easy to prepare. Just season and cook over medium heat with some oil and/or butter for 6 to 7 minutes per side until cooked through. Transfer the chicken to a plate, loosely cover with foil to keep warm while it rests and start your pan sauce.
Sage Brown Butter Sauce Recipe
Servings: 4 servings
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1 bunch sage finely chopped
- 3 tablespoons roasted almonds chopped
- 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Prep the Ingredients
- Pick all the sage leaves off their stems, throw out the stems. Finely chop the sage leaves. Chop the almonds into rough pieces.
Prepare the sauce
- Deglaze the pan you cooked the chicken in with wine or chicken stock. Reduce the liquid to an essence.
- Add the butter to the pan with the released fond (sucs) and stir. If you feel chef-like, give the pan a swirl to keep the butter moving but stirring with a wooden spoon will accomplish the same end result.
- Continue cooking for a couple/few minutes until the butter is golden brown and gives off a wonderful, nutty fragrant smell. Be careful not to overcook the butter. You want it brown, not burn.
- Add the sage, roasted almonds and white wine vinegar being careful not to let the vinegar splatter. Continue cooking for 45 seconds, taking note to keep stirring. At this point, the sauce should be smelling amazing.
- Remove the pan from the heat, taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
- Serve on top of the chicken, fish, or pork for an amazing meal.
Notes
In the same pan you cooked your chicken, you'll find these tiny brown deposits stuck to the bottom of the pan. In French culinary terminology, they are called "sucs" but I call it "fond" because that's what I was taught but I think the better term is sucs. More fun to say sucs, sounds like "soooks" with a soft O sound.
These brown bits look like they're going to be impossible to remove from the pan, but a dash or two of white wine or chicken stock along with a tiny amount of scraping with a wooden spoon will get them to release. We are not using any wine in this recipe but you could. The butter will do the job but next time, try a splash of white wine before adding the butter.
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