Hello! My name is Chef Shannon Overmiller. I’m the Chef of The Majestic in Old Town Alexandria.

Today, I’m demonstrating for you roasted chicken with chicken dew or chicken gravy. We’ve previously gone over chicken stock which is necessary to make the chicken gravy. I showed you herbed butter which you use to keep the chicken moist and the process on roasting a chicken properly so you get a nice crispy skin and then inside moist chicken.

This is necessary when using a roasted chicken that you always want to use on poultry a brine. So now to plate an assembly, what we’re going to simply do, the sauce that we’ve done before, you strain it through a fine mesh strainer or something called the chinoise.

This is a chinoise. Strain and simply pour your sauce through and gently push your sauce through. Now, you have the chicken dew which is still a little thin and you can reduce it as necessary. Now, in the final product which is reduced to the consistency that I wanted, you get a much thicker gravy. This is more a gravy than a sauce. And this is rustic home style cooking and that’s what we wanted to achieve. In fact, if you want it to be a little thinner it’s fine as well.

For the assembly, to finish your sauce, first you taste your seasoning to see where you’re at because you’ve been layering, you don’t want to add anything without tasting. What it needs is a little pepper, not too much. A little salt, not too much because I’ve tasted it and I know my palate is ready to go, a little fresh thyme.

And to finish your sauce, any sauce, to bring out a nice richness to it. I like to take the squeeze for this dish in particular. I like lemon with it, a little lemon, just to brighten it up. When you add acid, it just brightens the sauce up and then this is to make it richer. To finish it up with just a touch of butter swirling as you go.

This is again another form of emulsification. This is called finishing a sauce. You want it not to melt too hard but you want the butter to emulsify into the sauce and not break. This is a finished sauce as you shall see. The consistency is now to the coating consistency which I specifically spoken of before. That’s emulsification. That is a coating consistency on a spoon. That’s the coating consistency and that’s what you want to achieve. Taste, Finish, a little more salt. Don’t be afraid of salt. It’s amazing what the difference is; just learn to use your palate.

Now we’re ready to make the plate. Simply to use as a garnish is a very healthy dish. So use as a garnish a nice mixed green salad from the farms. Masculine mix, red oregano spinach, arugula, green oak, I like to add a little black pepper, little salt. And I use the preserved lemon from before since we have lemon in this dish. I like lemon in everything.

And then what I like to do is simply take squeeze of a lemon, little bi, little extra virgin olive oil, your brand of choice, just enough. You don’t want to overly dress your salad. It’s a simple vinaigrette. And use your hands. Little shallot if you like. The lemon has beautiful crunch in it. It’s another texture and another layer. And taste your lettuce always. Now, assembly, quite simple. Put in a plate and eat it. Reserve some of the lemon for garnish. Beautiful, herb roasted chicken.