Chicken Jus with Savory
This flavourful jus is perfect for roast chicken, poussin or guinea fowl. If preferred, you can use fresh tarragon instead of savory.
Overview
A simple, flavourful jus capturing the essence of roasted chicken with herb infusion. Fresh savory provides subtle peppery notes while roasted vegetables add depth, creating an elegant, light sauce perfect for roasted poultry.
Ingredients
Vegetables & aromatics
- 200 grams carrots (cut into rounds)
- 150 grams onions (cut into dice)
- 1 potato (medium, peeled and cut into 8 pieces)
- 1 sprig thyme
- 2 cloves garlic (unpeeled)
Liquid & herbs
- 150 ml dry white wine
- 50 grams savory sprigs (or tarragon)
- 150 ml Chicken Stock (or water)
- salt
- pepper
Method
Stage 1 - Roast bird & vegetables
- Preheat the oven to 200°C. Put your bird(s) in a roasting tin and roast in the oven until lightly browned, about 20 minutes.
- Lower the oven setting to 190°C and take the roasting tin out.
- Distribute the carrots, onions, potato, thyme and garlic around the bird.
- Return to the oven and roast until cooked through, basting from time to time using a spoon, stirring the vegetables around so they take on some colour without burning.
Stage 2 - Rest bird & prepare jus base
- When the bird is cooked through, remove the legs and breasts, with the wing attached.
- Put them on a warm plate, partially cover with foil and leave to rest in a warm place.
- Break the carcass up, using poultry shears or a small cleaver.
- Using a spoon, skim the fat from the roasting tin and add the carcass pieces and bones to the tin.
Stage 3 - Make jus
- Pour in the white wine to deglaze, add the savory and cook over a medium heat for 10 minutes.
- Crush the potato pieces with a fork to bind the jus, add the chicken stock and cook for a further 10 minutes.
Stage 4 - Strain & season
- Strain through a fine-meshed conical sieve into a saucepan, pressing down on the bones and vegetables with the back of a small ladle to extract as much flavour and juice as possible.
- Season to taste with salt and pepper. Keep the jus warm until ready to serve with the rested poultry.
Notes
- Vegetable crushing: The crushed potato acts as natural thickener; ensure you press thoroughly to release starches.
- Herb choice: Savory provides peppery warmth; tarragon offers anise notes. Choose based on preference or availability.
- Deglazingprocess: Ensure you scrape up all browned bits for maximum flavour extraction.
Serving
Serve warm in a jug alongside rested roasted chicken, poussin, guinea fowl, or other roasted poultry.
Storage
- Keeps refrigerated for 2-3 days in an airtight container.
- Freezes well for up to 2 months.
- Best served warm; reheat gently over low heat, stirring occasionally.
More like this
Authentic Jamaican Curry Chicken
Jamaican curry sits in its own corner of the global curry map: heavier on turmeric and allspice than Indian Madras, lighter on cumin, and built on a technique called "burning the curry" that gives the dish its character. The technique is exactly what it sounds like, dry curry powder hits hot oil and is stirred for 30 seconds until it darkens from yellow to deep gold and smells like toasted spice. That move concentrates the flavours and removes any raw edge. The finished stew is bright yellow stained slightly orange, savoury and aromatic rather than searingly hot, with thyme and a whole pierced Scotch bonnet scenting the gravy without flooring it. Smell: bloomed curry powder, allspice, browned chicken fat. Not difficult, but requires confidence in the 30-second bloom (under-do it and the dish is flat; over-do it and you have to start over). A Sunday-dinner staple across Jamaica and the diaspora, served over white rice with the gravy spooned generously over.
Cazuela de Vacuno
The Chilean Sunday-lunch one-pot, the soup-stew that turns up on every kitchen table from Santiago to Patagonia. You brown bone-in beef shin to colour, then drop it into a simple broth of onion, garlic, oregano and cumin and simmer slowly for ninety minutes until the meat is tender and the broth has built depth. The vegetables go in for the last twenty-five minutes - a thick chunk of pumpkin, a section of corn-on-the-cob, a whole potato, a handful of green beans - each piece kept whole because the cazuela is meant to arrive in the bowl looking like a still life. Rice or vermicelli cooks separately in a ladle of the broth and joins at the very end. Served in deep bowls with chopped coriander and a wedge of lime, the steam rising while you eat. Comfort food at its plainest and deepest.
Bahamian Souse
The Bahamas' Saturday-morning hangover cure, the breakfast bowl that arrives steaming in fish shacks and family kitchens across the islands the morning after a wedding or a heavy Friday. You poach bone-in chicken pieces (legs or wings) in lightly salted water with onion, celery, allspice, bay and a whole goat pepper for an hour or so, until the meat falls easily from the bone and the broth has taken on the perfume of the spice. Potatoes go in for the last fifteen minutes so they cook through but hold their shape. Off the heat, you acidify the souse hard with the juice of four or five limes (the souse is meant to taste sharply citric, not gently lemony) and a final tweak of salt. Ladle into deep bowls with the goat pepper floated on top for whoever's brave, and serve with johnnycake or grits on the side to soak.
Brown Stew Shrimp and Sweet Potato Grits
A Caribbean-Southern crossover that works because both traditions cook in a similar register: butter, peppers, alliums, slow heat, savoury depth. The brown stew base on top of the dish is Jamaican, bell peppers, carrot, Scotch bonnet, ginger, browning sauce, that mahogany-coloured gravy with the unmistakable allspice-and-thyme signature, and the bed underneath is from Lowcountry Charleston, where sweet potato grits enriched with butter, half-and-half and gouda are a long-running modern Southern restaurant standard. The shrimp themselves are quick-cooked and sweet, picking up the brown stew sauce. Two textures stacked: silky-rich grits, brothy stew on top with bite from the diced peppers and carrot. Smell is sweet-onion-and-browning-sugar over the corn-sweet base of the grits. Not difficult but it's two pans running at once, so timing matters; the grits hold on a low warm setting while the shrimp cook quickly. A modern fusion rather than a traditional dish, popularised by Black American chefs in the 2010s exploring the points of overlap between Lowcountry and Caribbean cookery.