Cream sauce/white sauce

[mark111757 Profile]

G'day everyone!

Question today is on sauces

Had something called french onion chicken about a month ago....omg.....lovely piece of chix, still moist and the sauce was dee-lish!! Chix was skinless breast meat

For the sauce, using a pkg of Lipton Onion soup mix, instead of water, using most of one quart of whole fat milk. Saving some off to make a slurry with corn flour or instead a beurre maneé. Bring the milk to a gentle boil then add soup mix . Bring back to boil. Thicken to liking and put chicken and any resting juices into sauce and gently warm thru (chix will be cooked).

Or

Make a White sauce with a roux add the soup mix to the cream . Going to splurge with 40% butter fat version, add soup mix bring to boil, add roux made separately into cream and stir till thickened and smooth. Better still temper the roux with the hot cream. Add mix to cream Again add chix to sauce and gently warm thru.

Is this reasonable or am I aiming for the stars again. Won't be the first time.

Thank you gang for all your help.

[Uschi Profile]

Why use a soup mix?

When you fry your onions and chicken can set them aside in foil, use what is left in the pan and deglaze it with stock or cream. Add herbs and spices to taste and allow to reduce a bit.

If you want your sauce thicker, you can make a roux or thicken it with some corn starch or similar.

Depending on the size of your freezer you can make your own vegetable sauce thickener by frying soup greens and maybe an apple, adding some stock and cooking everything until tender. Then blitz with a stick blender and freeze in small portions (ice-cube maker).

You can do similar with onions alone.

[jeral Profile]

Hmm. French onion soup, properly made takes a while (45mins+) and is mostly caramelised onion with some liquid rather than "soup", so without knowing what Lipton's onion soup mix is or tastes like, it's hard to say if it will give you the taste you're looking for.

I imagine the onion soup mix already has cornflour or other thickener in, so I can't figure out why you'd dilute it with a quart (40 fl oz) of milk and then try to reduce and thicken it up again.

I'm not sure it makes a huge difference between cornflour or flour & butter (except for the added butter of course) since both have to be "cooked out" to prevent a floury taste. It'd be unusual to want to thicken a high fat (heavy?) cream sauce with either flours (or at least unusual for me).

I'm probably not understanding your question, which I'll put down to Monday morning brain freeze

[Joanbunting Profile]

Sorry but I just can't wrap my head around using onion soup mix in anything - every looked at the list of ingredients?

Perhaps you are looking for a classic sauce soubise? Not difficult

https://www.thespruce.com/soubise-sauce-recipe-996219

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I found a recipe which uses only cream, chicken and soup mix, and sounds plausible

https://grandmaspuddings.com.au/recipes/creamy-french-onion-chicken

If you don't want to use all cream, I think you would need to use either beurre manie or cornflour to thicken the milk, and as I think the soup mix contains some thickener, if cooking on the stove top I'd add it towards the end

However, using soup mix to make dishes described as "French Onion" is very much an American thing, so most of us have little experience of it
The only things I've ever made with the soup mix are soup and onion dip with yogurt or sour cream

I do make French Onion Soup as a meal in itself sometimes, and have occasionally cheated and used Campbell's consomme (beef broth) diluted with an extra can of water as the stock

This recipe from Nigel Slater is exactly what I do
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/feb/21/french-onion-soup-recipe-slater

[mark111757 Profile]

Good day world

I think I was channeling Delia when I was trying to work this out. I got the book and loved the series. But that is a thread for another time.

I guess my question was which would be better, whole milk or cream. I don't think would try to reduce the milk. Just use a thickner. Inthink alot will be trial and error.

Thanks to all for the recipe links. Sue, yours sounds like what I had or similiar.

Joan......http://www.liptonkitchens.com/product/d ... up-and-dip

Thank you one and all.

[jeral Profile]

The ingredients of the soup mix are on here: https://www.amazon.com/Lipton-Recipe-Se ... RL87U?th=1 being:

Onions, Salt, Corn Starch, Sugar, Corn Syrup Solids, Caramel Color, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Yeast Extract, Monosodium Glutamate, Natural Flavors, Disodium Inosinate and Disodium Guanylate.

On that basis, I'd reckon that for a creamier taste, use cream, so making a paste with a bit of soup powder (level tbspn or two) in milk, then mix into a cup of cream and heat very gently for a few minutes until it tastes cooked enough. I'd add a dessertspoon of grapeseed oil or olive oil at the start to stop it sticking/burning.

A cupful+ should be enough to cover two or three chicken breasts, or just use more if making a trayful.

I'd be surprised if you'd need extra flour, but a bit of cornflour paste could be added (and gently simmered to cook out) if it doesn't thicken enough. The cream & oil is enough fat not to need more via butter/flour roux.

Just my opinion (Delia needn't worry lol).

[mark111757 Profile]

Jeral

Thank you for your thoughts....hope you are well.....

I don't think queen Delia will be too upset

Thanks again