The Best Sauce for a Skillet Is Mostly Butter.
You can be picky about pots. (My fault , for one, is my fault .) Various thickeners, flavors, and even cream all add a certain charm to the pan, but my favorite (and by the way, the easiest) pan sauce is mostly butter.
Not every sauce needs to have the viscosity of the gravy. In fact, when you’re serving a good steak or a piece of expensive seafood, you don’t necessarily need a crazy-tasting thick sauce. You need an accent. Ghee adds juiciness and luxury without drawing attention to itself. Butter isn’t a great frosting remover, though, which is why I say my favorite skillet sauce is mostly – but not entirely – ghee. Another ingredient in my favorite skillet sauce is wine (red or white, depending on the protein).
The wine is needed so that all those toasty bits, known as “loving” among hobbyists, come loose from the pan so they can rejoin the rest of the dish. The exact amount of wine you add depends on the size of your pan and the amount of food you cook, but I usually add enough to cover the entire surface of the pan, scrape off all the pieces with a wooden spoon, and then reduce the wine until it’s cloudy and cloudy. Add lots of tablespoons of butter (at least three), mix them with wine and let it foam and spray out, until it is golden. Drizzle with cooked protein and enjoy.