Mark Hix’s chicken gravy recipe

Ingredients

• A good knob of butter
• 1 medium onion, peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 leek, roughly chopped and washed
• Bones from the chicken, chopped into small pieces
• 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp tomato purée
• A few sprigs of thyme
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 120ml red wine
• 2 litres chicken stock

Method

To make the sauce, heat a little vegetable oil in a thick-bottomed frying pan and brown the vegetables and chicken bones, stirring occasionally. Dust with flour and stir well.

Slowly add the red wine and chicken stock, then the thyme, bay leaf, garlic and tomato purée. Bring to the boil, skim and simmer gently for one hour, topping up with some water if necessary.

Strain the sauce through a fine meshed sieve, then reduce by boiling rapidly until it has thickened to a gravy-like consistency.