Sauce Ivoire — Ivory Chicken Velouté with Meat Glaze

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Sauce ivoire is chicken velouté elevated by a discreet addition of pale meat glaze — glace de viande blanche — that deepens the sauce's flavour while maintaining its characteristic ivory colour. Where sauce suprême enriches with cream, ivoire enriches with concentrated meat stock, giving it a savoury intensity that cream cannot provide. The base is a well-made chicken velouté, simmered and skimmed for 45 minutes to remove all impurities. The glace — made from reduced white veal or chicken stock — is whisked in gradually, tasting after each addition. The amount is modest: two tablespoons per litre of velouté is typically sufficient. Too much darkens the sauce past ivory into amber, and the concentrated glaze flavour overwhelms the delicate chicken. A final enrichment of cream and cold butter brings the sauce to its characteristic silkiness. The finished sauce should be the colour of old piano keys — warm off-white with the faintest golden tinge from the glaze. It should taste primarily of chicken, with the glaze registering as depth rather than a distinct flavour. Sauce ivoire is the classical accompaniment for poached chicken (poularde pochée) and vol-au-vent, where its subtlety complements rather than competes with the mild poultry.

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