How To Deglaze a Pan

Sometimes the best food is created from technique rather than a recipe; case in point - our dinner tonight -- Blackberry Glazed Chicken breasts.

I seasoned the chicken with a mixture of onion salt, parsley paprika and a little cracked pepper. I cooked it in a hot skillet, with a little olive oil, until it was cooked through. I removed the chicken from the pan and set it aside.

Now it was time to deglaze the pan, which is basically adding cold liquid to the hot pan, to loosen up the cooked bits of meat and seasoning from the pan, into the sauce. (this works best in a pan other than cast iron or non-stick)

There are a number of different things you can use to deglaze your pan:

water
wine or beer
vinegar
stock (beef, chicken or vegetable)
broth
fruit juice

The choice is really up to your imagination. I thought the new blackberry balsamic vinegar I had gotten at a recent Farmer's Market would work well with my chicken, so I used it (about 1/2 cup) along with a drizzle of honey (1 - 2 tbsp) and a 2 tbsp water. I allowed the vinegar to reduce, as it simmered on a low boil, while I scraped up the blackened bits from the chicken off of the bottom while I stirred.

Deglazing (photo: Creative Commons)

Now I stopped at this stage and drizzled the blackberry vinegar reduction over the top of my chicken as I served it, which was wonderful. If you want to step up the process you can add onions, shallots, chopped garlic or other vegetables to the liquid, and reduce, season with other spices and ingredients and thicken (if needed) with a cornstarch or flour slurry to make a pan sauce/gravy to use over the your cooked protein.

Check your vinegar aisle in your favorite grocery store and experiment with flavored vinegars. I bought some pomegranate vinegar at Trader Joe's last week that I am going to try this way as well. They're also great to use in vinaigrette for your salads.

You can also find how-to's on how to make your own flavored vinegars online.