What's the best way to thicken a sauce / gravy?

[Gloria42]

Hi

I made a lovely Moroccan chicken dish, supposed to be served with couscous. DP is coeliac so we use Quinoa instead. I don't find it as absorbant as couscous so I need to thicken the thin gravy, what's the best way to do this?

thanks

cornflour?

Or even just ordinary flour will do it. But mix it in cold water first and then add it, else it will just result in a big floury lump.

Cornflour or potato flour are both good - whatever, mix it with water first so that it mixes in properly for best results

If you are careful, you can just very thinly scatter it over the surface and mix well - this even works with Doves Farm GF flour.

Oh, didn't read properly!

If dp is coeliac, then he can't have flour. Am I right?

Mum used to thicken her sauces with potato flour or mashed potato mixed in.

Cornflour- which is ok for a coeliac (its made from corn not wheat).

he can have cornflour, but when I try to use it, all my sauces seem to end up a bit "same-y" - kind of gluey and not very tasty. Maybe I need to try mixing it with water first as suggested

Or strain off the liquid, put it separately in a pan and bring to boil and keep boiling until it reduces down, then you can put it back on the dish.

You do get a better result from a blended flour or potato flour (slightly inclined to be gluey, but never goes lumpy).

I always mix it with water first, let it boil for 10 minutes to cook out the flour taste.

gloria you could use arrowroot if you don't want to do cornflour.

but you need to add it and boil the liquid and take it off the boil as soon as it thickens.
you then need to be really careful with reheating as if you cook it again it'll lose its thickness.
does that make sense?

or just simmer it for a while and let the sauce reduce down?

I generally mix cornflour and butter adn then add some strained off liquid to the mix and then add this back into the pan. Think it cooks the cornflour better and makes it less gluey

Extra oxo cubes? What about thickening granules, are they suitable for coliacs? Or just reduce by letting it simmer longer.

Thanks for all the suggestions, I was going try the boil-it down options, but adding butter to the mix (Thanks Shaunthesheep) sounds much more yum!