Chicken in Onion Sauce

March 2023 I wrote this post in 2020, fresh to Canada, in an Air BnB. I knew I’d forget what the early days felt like so I kept a journal – about thoughts, feelings and importantly, eats! This is an attempt to write for myself :). So I went into my drafts of 500 odd posts looking for one I liked enough to share. Which is why I don’t have a photo because I haven’t cooked this in ages, but I might soon. So, I call on you and all your visual powers to imagine the looks and taste.

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January 2020 We come home tired (from grocery shopping and school hunting, if I remember right) and I decide to cook meat (chicken for R, Steak for J). R, Miss I hate ketchup, I only love gravy and barbecue sauce asks if I would make “gravy”? I say yes, not because I have flour of any sort to rustle up roux but because I know and she knows that I can make something with “the pan juices”. Pan jus. Defined as Jus (pronounced “ZHOO”) is a word used to refer to the pan-drippings from roasted meat, which is generally enhanced by deglazing the pan with stock and then simmering the liquid with mirepoix before straining and serving. Roasted meats and poultry that are served with their own jus are described as being prepared “au jus.” Examples include roast rib of beef (sometimes called prime rib) au jus. Unlike pan gravy, jus is unthickened, although there is a thickened version of jus, called jus lié (“zhoo-lee-AY”) or fond lié (“fohn-lee-AY”), which is prepared by adding cornstarch or arrowroot to brown stock and then simmering. Poultry, lamb, and veal can also be served au jus. Source, Au Jus on The Spruce Eats I set a pan on the heat  – I forget to turn on the expeller/ extractor – the alarm will go off later but first, pan on the heat. In goes olive oil while I season chicken thighs with sea salt (iodized btw – interesting, no?) and store-bought, already ground black pepper. Don’t worry, there will be time for hand-grinding my spices when our stuff arrives/ when we move into our home. I quarter a large white onion and put that into the pan, then I add the chicken thighs, skin-side down and let them cook until crisp and golden. I separate the onion into individual leaves and spread them around the pan. I let them cook, soften, turn golden as the chicken cooks. I flip the chicken, remove the browned onions into a blender and add another set of quartered leaves, taken apart to cook.  There are no pans with metal handles so sis can’t finish the chicken off in the oven. Sis has to keep turning this chicken, moderating the heat till it is cooked and when pressed doesn’t jelly, slip but bounces back.  I remove batch 2 of the onions – not quite golden but soft and cooked, into the blender. I add some water and blend. The result? A pourable sauce of onions. I turn the chicken again, skin side up and pour the blended sauce in. It comes up to the side. I check for salt, for pepper, for flavour and on goes a lid. I turn the heat down. The onions sauce changes colour – it browns and the true, slow-cook nature of onions shine with flavour, with sweetness, with beauty.  Needless to say that R drenches every sauteed potato in this sauce, plus eats a piece of chicken which is amazing – girl doesn’t do animal protein often! And all it needed was chicken thighs, salt, black pepper, olive oil, white onions. Five (5) ingredients. In conclusion, I enjoy cooking in other kitchens. A contest with myself to see if I can 

1. 1. Cook delicious even with limited comfort

1. 1. Not spend all my money on takeout because the costs of one takeout meal is often the cost of groceries for half the week

Peace and love, from 2020, and 2023.