What are the best pan sauces or gravies you can freeze in small batches?

[SEEING-TO-BELIEVE]

i know about that

and i like it because it does not has mustard and i can also reduce the amount of fat in it.. can i freeze it?
what happens if i omit the wine?
i prepared it with the wine and it was wonderful but i wonder if i can omit the wine next time..

can i reduce cooking time if i cook only the sauce without the chicken meat? or do i must cook it for the specified time?

thanks and happy saucing

 

[dragnlaw]

Omitting the wine is possible. You could use apple juice in exchange. Omitting the wine and not replacing it with anything will change the flavour profile, of course.

It looks delicious and I'm going to be trying it soon! Thank you for posting that - Chef John is amongst my most favourite chefs!

 

[dragnlaw]

whoopsies! completely forgot your freezing question. You could freeze this sauce no problem - but without the cream added!

Reason being that cream has a tendency to split when frozen. It is still edible, of course, but it doesn't really blend back in. I find it changes the mouth feel and you lose that creamy look. That alone seems to change the taste, for me.

 

[taxlady]

i know about that

and i like it because it does not has mustard and i can also reduce the amount of fat in it.. can i freeze it?
what happens if i omit the wine?
i prepared it with the wine and it was wonderful but i wonder if i can omit the wine next time..

can i reduce cooking time if i cook only the sauce without the chicken meat? or do i must cook it for the specified time?

thanks and happy saucing

You need the amount of liquid with the wine. I would substitute chicken stock or even just a veggie stock. Why do you want to eliminate the wine? Expense? Unless you really like your chicken sweet, I wouldn't substitute fruit juice of any kind, not even grape juice, even though wine is made from grape juice. I think a sweet juice will cause the dish to lose its "tang".

I don't think you can make that sauce without making the chicken. Where would the fond come from? That sauce is delicious mostly because of the fond. If you are trying to freeze the sauce, I agree with dragn that you shouldn't add the cream until it is defrosted. And as to other sauces, the same would hold true. Also, I don't think that starch based thickeners, for example flour or corn starch, are good to add to sauces that will be frozen, at least not until they have been thawed.

 

[dragnlaw]

Any pan sauce (as stated above) can be frozen. But if you are looking to make some gravies ahead of time to freeze... well, I should think that the defrosting/reheating of said frozen gravy would take up just as much time as making from scratch.

Is there a particular reason you have not to make from scratch?