Deglazing: What to Know About This Simple Cooking Technique
If you’re building your culinary skills, chances are you’re spending as much time researching new vocabulary as you are actually cooking. While cooking jargon might sound complicated, some of the most dish-elevating techniques are easy once you learn how to do them.
One term you’re sure to encounter, whether you’re preparing a steak or chicken pasta, is deglazing. This foundational skill can take your homemade meals from simple to succulent—and it’s deceivingly simple. Here’s what to know about deglazing.
What Is It?
When you sear a steak, chicken, or even vegetables on a pan, small bits of sugar, fat, and protein latch onto your cookware and caramelize. These particles may be tiny, but they boast rich, complex flavors that are far too delicious to be left behind! Deglazing is the process of using a liquid to release and absorb these particles so you can use them to enhance your dish.
While you can use nearly any liquid to deglaze your pan—from stock to wine—the liquid you use will depend on the dish. So, don’t be surprised if one recipe asks you to deglaze the pan with white wine while another calls for stock made from the best pastured chicken you can buy! Now that you know what deglazing accomplishes, here are four tips for doing it properly.
Use Non-Stick Cookware
With so many brands boasting non-stick, easy-to-use cookware, you might be surprised to learn that you actually want your meat or vegetables to stick to the pan, at least for a few minutes. Sticking to the pan allows those small bits of flavorful, caramelized food—known as fond—to form. Since fond is the foundation of a pan sauce, choosing a stainless steel or cast iron pan is essential. As long as you’re heating your pan to the proper temperature, your meat should stop sticking to the surface within a few minutes—no scraping or scratching required.
Choose High-Quality Ingredients
Whether you’re making a rich sauce for your chicken pasta or a savory gravy to serve alongside steak, choosing quality ingredients is the key to achieving incredible, robust flavors. Opting for ethically raised, corn and soy free chicken or grass fed beef is a more reputable choice, and these high-quality ingredients tend to be richer in both nutrients and flavor.
Pat Your Meat Dry
Whether you’re cooking with soy free chicken or pasture raised beef, patting your meat dry ensures you get the most flavor out of your ethically sourced ingredients. Lightly dried meat will stick to the surface of your pan better, allowing more fond to form and helping you create a more flavorful sauce.
Stay Hot
Keeping your pan hot is one of the best ways to ensure that those tasty bits of fond release easily and absorb quickly. To prevent your pan from cooling in the time it takes to remove your meat and add the liquid, measure out all your ingredients ahead of time and keep your cooking space organized. With a clean counter and ready-to-cook ingredients, you’ll be able to deglaze your pan like a professional.
About Primal Pastures
From tender roast chickens to mouthwatering lasagnas, you put plenty of care, attention, and love into every meal. When you take the time to craft delicious and nutritious meals, you deserve clean ingredients that meet your high standards, which is why Primal Pastures offers the cleanest meat in America. By setting a gold standard for ethically raised, nutrient-dense meat, Primal Pastures raises the bar for the American food industry. Since its humble beginnings as a backyard chicken farm, this family-founded company has expanded to offer a vast range of clean meats, from grass fed beef liver to wild tuna. Whether you order grass fed beef online through their sampler box program or visit their regenerative community farm, Primal Pastures can help you enjoy food the way nature intended.
Find ethically-raised, flavorful meats at https://primalpastures.com/
