I started out to make a chicken dish that one of my aunt’s made when I was a child. I sort of recalled it was alternating layers of chicken and onions cooked in vinegar. I didn’t quite achieve the goal, but I stumbled on a killer sauce.

I’m not a saucy kind of gal.  You’d be hard put to find the words buerre blanc, bernaise or bordelaise anywhere on this blog. However, in many FOODalogue posts where a protein is stewed, braised or otherwise cooked with vegetables and liquid, you’ll find that I often blend them together to create a sauce.

Liquefying the vegetables with the cooking liquid (and, yes, the fat) creates a somewhat viscous and intensely-flavored sauce.

So while this started as a chicken recipe that goes somewhat like this …

cook chicken parts (I used boneless thighs) with sliced sweet onion, olives, dry seasonings, olive oil and some vinegar (I used white balsamic glaze) in 325 degree oven for about an hour, it was more about the final serving.

Once I made “the sauce” by blending the onions with liquid, I cooked whole wheat Israeli couscous in that sauce (instead of broth or water). That was pretty rich … and pretty delicious!

I encourage you to think about blending vegetables to create a pure sauce (without the addition of flour and butter). I promise you … it’s not baby food!

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