Saucy Bit$h

I have a really simple pan sauce recipe that can refine a basic piece of meat and make you look like an extra special cook w/o taking a lot of time or work.  The nicest part is that you can add different things to it to change it up.  It's basic stuff - but I tend to forget about having it up my sleeve.

Here it goes:

2 cups Flour
Dash Gravy Thickener
Salt/Pepper
2 tbsp Butter
1 tbsp Oil
1 lb Meat
1 1/2 cup chicken/beef broth
Other items listed below

Trim your meat of fat.  Salt and Pepper it (like you would do when you bbq). 
Put a cup of flour in a plastic bag - or what ever amount it takes for the meat to freely roll around.  Toss the meat in the bag and tumble until the meat is dusted.

Take a frying pan and heat it over med/hi heat.  If you have a non - non stick pan that is best because you DO want the meat bits to caramelize and stick to the bottom of the pan.  This is called "fond" and it's going to be the flavor base for your sauce.  If you don't have a pan like that then just use one of your older non-stick pans or what ever you have on hand.

Add 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp oil.  Once it is nice and hot add the meat.  Don't skip the oil  - it keeps the butter from burning. You want to keep the meat fairly thin - not like super thin - but less than 3/4 inch.  You can do this by filleting your meat in half the long way. 

You will have to use your own judgement on how hi to cook it and how long.  If it seems like it is browning too fast and dark than turn the heat down.  The idea is to cook it through as part of the Browning/residual heating at the end.  When I have a 1/2 inch thick cut It takes me about 5min. on each side.  Don't flip the meat if it is sticking - if it sticks it means it is not ready yet - once it is browned and caramelized it will release from the bottom of the pan. You can always check it w/ a thermometer.

When the meat is done place it on a dish and put it in your oven - don't turn your oven on.  This will keep it slightly warm w/o over cooking it and keep the crispy crust.

Now you are going to de-glaze the pan.  Keep the pan on med-hi and add the chicken broth - be careful because it will pop and splatter.  Take a rubber or wooden spoon and scrape the bottom of the pan to release the fond and stirr it into the chicken broth.  You can choose chicken/beef broth based on the meat - I tend to use chicken on chicken and pork.

Cook the sauce for 5-10 min until it reduces to about 1/2.  If it seems too thin then either add some gravy thickener (nice to keep on hand and can be found near the baking section) or add a bit of flour but be careful not to get lumps - perhaps you want to take a bit of chicken broth in a separate container and mix in the flour and then add it into the sauce.  Just before you serve it add the last 1 tbsp butter.  You can skip that if you don't want the extra calories  - the butter makes it velvety.

Done!

So here are some other things you can add to fancy it up -
Mushrooms
Capers
Peas
Onion
Fine diced Green Peppers
Chives
Thyme
Oregano
You can also add a few tbsp of heavy whipping cream or half and half to make it creamy
You can also omit 1/4 cup of broth and replace it with wine.  If you do this then add the wine to the hot pan first and let the alcohol burn off then add the broth and continue.