(Collaboration) Caramelized Cherry-Bourbon Onion Gravy
OK, there are lots of people who love caramelized onions on a steak, a burger, on chicken or pork, in grinders, and even in pasta. It has the best of sweet and savory in one bite and it is extremely easy to make your dish sing! So, why am I writing this one up? Well, I added some of Big Dog Sauce Company's dark cherry bourbon sauce to the pan and this began the beautiful relationship.
The cooking process allows for the natural fluids contained in onions to come out from hiding. With some simple ingredients, we can easily make this into a delectable onion gravy without any slurry or roux. That's right! So long as your wine is gluten-free, this is a gluten-free gravy folks! One key element though, this is fully from-scratch, including Big Dog Sauce Company's sauce. In order to make this, you will need to purchase a bottle of the dark cherry bourbon sauce. Trust me - you will thank me later that you did!
INGREDIENTS:
1lb/453g White/Yellow Onions, sliced evenly 6-8oz Chicken or Beef Bone Stock, fresh*
3-4oz White wine 3oz Big Dog Sauce Company Dark Cherry Bourbon sauce 1-2oz Garlic, freshly minced 1oz Butter Kosher Salt, to taste Black Pepper, to taste Olive Oil *Using fresh made stock provides gelatinous collagen that is necessary for this gravy to create this light and beautiful mouth-feel. If you use those commercial box stocks, you are not going to have the same results and would need to create a slurry or roux.
1.) Prep your ingredients 2.) In a saute pan on medium heat, add a little olive oil and the butter to coat the pan. When you see the oil and butter start to bubble up, it is hot enough to begin cooking.
3.) Add your sliced onions and garlic and toss around consistently. The key is to make sure you do not burn your onions. We want to bring color to the onions so this stage is very important to control the heat and also to help toss the onions around to get coated in the olive oil and butter. At some point, you will start to see the onions changing color. This starting process can take anywhere from 8-10 minutes on average. To bring it to the dark brown stage, it can take another 8-10 minutes. Be patient to let this develop.
4.) You may start seeing a fond develop on the bottom of the pan. This is the point where you add your wine to deglaze. Toss your onions again to coat. Cook for another few minutes until it is almost evaporated.
5.) Add your dark-cherry bourbon sauce and get this tossed so all of the onions get coated.
6.) Add half the chicken stock to the pan and let it come back up to temperature. After about three minutes, you can add the other half of the stock.
7.) Increase the heat to medium-high. The natural sugars in the onions and the dark-cherry bourbon sauce will start to thicken. The collagen in the stock will aid in the thickening of the sauce. Cook on high heat for just a few minutes or until the sauce is starting to thicken. Shut off the heat.
