How to Make Gravy

Any meal you're cooking that leaves drippings or a rich broth can be made into a gravy.

You can even make gravy out of our amazing chicken stock (reason enough to make your own)

The best gravy uses flour, so it has gluten in it. However, you can make a GF version, see note below.

Ingredients

Drippings (from a beef or pork roast, roasted turkey/chicken or any homemade broth)
2-3 cups of chicken stock (optional but super important if you don't have drippings)
4 tablespoons of butter
5-6 tablespoons of all purpose flour
Optional heavy cream

Instructions

Melt butter in sauce pan over med heat
Whisk flour into butter and stir as needed to avoid burning. This is called a roux. It takes about 10 min until golden brown (longer = more toasted flavor.... but less thickening ability -- just don't burn)
Bring drippings to a low simmer over a burner. If you have any crispy bits from the roast, scrape those up on the pan. Add broth/water if needed to get more gravy.
Whisk in the roux into the drippings... adding slowly and continually whisking until you get the desired thickness -- error on a bit thinner to avoid clumping up.
Add salt, pepper and cream to taste

Here is a video on making gravy using our pre-cooked turkey dark meat - but you can do this exact same process if you just save the drippings from a roasted turkey too!

Tips

The flour needs to be coated in the butter fat AND fully toasted or the resulting gravy will taste like eating flour and is more likely to have lumps in it.
Gravy works great as a way to freeze meals for later -- just put shredded meat in a container and fill with a thinner than normal gravy. Make a bunch of food at once.
Make broth specifically for the purpose of having gravy... this also a great use for the drippings left in our smoked chicken sous chef meals.
Ideally re-heating of gravy not pre-mixed would occur on a stovetop while whisking over low heat.

Gluten Free

You can make a GF version by using 2 tablespoons of cornstarch whisked into 1/4 cup of water/broth instead of the roux.
Be aware the GF gravy can thickens up more as it cools down -- so error the side of a thin gravy so you don't get a thick gel instead.

Nov 15th 2024