Mushroom Sauce

Lately I've become a little bit obsessed with mushrooms. They seem to be finding their way into all of my favorite recipes, and sauces are no exception. I thought it would be fun to share my "secret" to making a fabulous mushroom sauce that can be tweaked to work with whatever you're making.

First of all, make your sauce in whatever pan you've cooked your protein in. I don't know why, but pouring all of the drippings into a saucepan doesn't work as well as just making the sauce in your roasting pan or skillet or whatever you're using.

What I like to do is pour the clear layer off the drippings in the pan, saving only the actual drippings from the protein. Then I add in a couple of TBSP of flour, not really enough to make a roux, but enough to really thicken the mass. Make sure you work out all the lumps at this point. To that I add in between 1 1/2 - 2 cups of broth. If you're cooking chicken, use chicken broth; if you're cooking beef, use beef broth, etc. Use a whisk to stir incorporate the broth to the fat/flour mixture. At this point you should add in the mushrooms (and onions?? Yum!) then let the mixture simmer while the onions cook. You can add cooked or raw mushrooms or even canned mushrooms. It's your choice, they all work very well. When the mushrooms are cooked, add in some herbs (use the same types of herbs you used in the main dish) and a dash of milk if you want to make it into a cream sauce. The longer you cook the sauce, the thicker it will get. It's really that simple!