Homemade demi-glace
- Preparation 15 min
- Cooking 1 h 20 min
- Servings 6 cups
- Freezing Absolutely
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🥩 A weekend sauce
My homemade demi-glace, I’ll tell you right away: this is not a weeknight sauce. It takes a while. You make it on the weekend, when you’re home anyway, and you get to enjoy it all week. Because it freezes beautifully.
🍗 Bones, wings, and patience
Everything starts with what browns at the bottom of the pot: soup bones, chicken wings or thighs, then the vegetables. Well browned, well caramelized, never burnt. Store-bought veal stock does the rest.
No shortcuts at this stage.
🍽️ On just about anything that deserves a sauce
A steak, a poutine, pork tenderloin, shepherd’s pie, turkey. I created the beer version for my duck confit poutine with beer cheese.
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🍗 Wings or thighs
Both work. Thighs, once boiled in the sauce, are good to eat afterward. Wings have nothing left on them: straight to the compost.
🔥 Brown in batches
You can’t brown everything at once in the pot. Count about 10 to 12 minutes per batch, and about 20 minutes in all. What you’re after: well browned and caramelized. Never burnt. If it burns, you deglaze burnt bits instead of good ones, and you’ll taste it in the sauce.
🍷 Red wine, beer, broth
Red wine instead of white, yes. The flavor profile changes, that’s all. For the beer version, amber beer in place of the same amount of water, or beef broth if you’d rather skip the alcohol.
🌽 Cornstarch, at the end
It keeps the flavors and the amount of sauce, and it thickens it. A longer reduction would cost you some. If the sauce is too thick, loosen it with a little beef broth.
And taste before you serve. A sauce that’s too salty, or a base that burned, ruins everything.
❄️ Freeze it in portions
It makes about 6 cups (1.5 L). I measure portions of 1/2 cup or 1 cup, freeze them in yogurt containers, then pop them out and keep them in a freezer bag. One bag per size: that one is all 1/2 cups. In the fridge, it keeps 3 to 5 days.
✅ What to serve with my homemade demi-glace
Over a steak like my beef sirloin with homemade Montreal steak spices, over a red beer braised beef shepherd’s pie, over a poutine like my poutine with wild mushrooms and beer brown sauce, or on pork tenderloin and turkey. For a dipping sauce for chicken, look at my homemade BBQ gravy instead.
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Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) canola oil
- 3 beef soup bones
- 3 whole chicken wings or 2 bone-in chicken thighs
- 1 1/2 cups (375 ml) white mushrooms, coarsely chopped
- 1 large carrot, coarsely chopped
- 1 garlic clove, chopped
- 1/2 tablespoon (7.5 ml) tomato paste
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 fresh thyme sprig
- 1 1/4 cups (310 ml) dry white wine
- 2 1/2 cups (625 ml) water
- Optional: 1/2 cup (125 ml) amber beer (or beef broth), in place of the same amount of water
- 6 cups (1.5 L) store-bought veal stock
- 1 heaping tablespoon cornstarch, mixed in a little cold water
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Preparation
- In a large pot over medium heat, heat the canola oil. Add the soup bones and chicken wings and brown them on each side, in batches: about 10 to 12 minutes per batch, about 20 minutes in all. Stir often.
- Add the mushrooms, carrot and garlic then cook, stirring, for 10 minutes to caramelize it all!
- Add the tomato paste, thyme and bay leaf then cook for 3 minutes.
- Add the wine and the water (or the beer, if you’re making that version) then bring to a boil. Scrape the bottom well to release all the flavor! Simmer for 20 minutes so the liquid reduces by two thirds.
- Now add the veal stock and simmer for another 25 minutes or until the sauce reduces by half. Skim off the fat that rises to the surface!
- Add the cornstarch and cook a few more minutes to thicken the sauce slightly. It should be thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.
- Remove from the heat and strain through a fine-mesh strainer.
Yes, it freezes beautifully, and that’s the whole idea: make it on the weekend and enjoy it all week. Measure portions of 1/2 cup or 1 cup, freeze them in yogurt containers, pop them out and keep them in a freezer bag, one bag per size.
Yes. The flavor profile changes, but it works.
Loosen it with a little beef broth, stirring.
Yes, both work. Boiled thighs are good to eat afterward. The wings have nothing left on them, so they go to the compost.
With a steak, a poutine, pork tenderloin, shepherd’s pie or turkey.
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