Heather wrote a comment on the Pan Sauce Primer entry to let me know that while the entry was helpful, she didn't understand my "obsession" with pork. Now, I feel that I have my obsession under control, although there is ample evidence to the contrary, but thought I should address her comment.

If you are like Heather and don't like swine flesh, that's OK. The pork method generally works with lamb or beef. But if you are doing it with chicken, I recommend a boneless whatever- cutlet, breast, thigh meat, etc- and you will need to cook it in butter. You can cook it in a mixture of butter and oil, but since chicken doesn't have that much fat and since the fat it does have is not that tasty you will be lacking in flavor and depth with no butter. Once the chicken is cooked, you can remove it and hopefully you will have a little bit of chickeny butter/oil to start your pan sauce with. If not, you will need a little more butter.

Can you do this with fish or shellfish? Yes, but you will not have as many options flavoring-wise as you do with meats (in my opinion, anyway.) As with the chicken, you will want to saute the fish in butter and oil, or add butter once the fish is cooked and removed from the pan, so you have some fat to start the sauce with. I would recommend flavoring with shallots and lemon and vinegar mainly, to complement the fish. As mentioned in the original post, a good sauce to make for fish is to cook shallots lightly in a little butter or oil, add vinegar and heat it, then whisk in little cold pieces of butter to emulsify and make a thick beurre blanc. Adding some chives or parsley to that will make it a first class meal.

Can you do this with vegetables? Um, no. At least, I can't.