How to Make a Simple Turkey Gravy | Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How to make a little gravy? ›

Melt butter in a medium-sized sauce pan. Add flour and whisk constantly until mixture is golden caramel color and smells fragrant (3-5 minutes). Slowly whisk in liquids, while whisking, until mixture is smooth. Bring to a simmer and cook until thickened and bubbly, 5 minutes or longer.

Add a dash of white wine (nothing too fruity; we recommend a dry Chardonnay) to boost the richness of the turkey gravy. All you need to do is put a couple of tablespoons of your chosen white wine while you're heating up your gravy and voilà! The wine should evaporate in just a couple of minutes.

A traditional roux uses roughly an equal amount of flour and fat, but gravies often call for a bit more flour than that, to ensure the gravy is thick enough. (The classic ratio for gravy is three:two:one, so 3 tablespoons flour, 2 tablespoons fat, and 1 cup of hot stock.)

(You can also start with a slurry of flour and water—equal amounts flour and cold water whisked together—if you want.) Whisk the gravy while slowly adding liquid: Slowly add stock, water, milk, cream, or a combination to the pan, whisking vigorously to dissolve the flour into liquid.

Arrowroot. This powder comes from rhizomes of the Marantaceae family of tubers. It's a great natural substitute for those needing a gluten-free gravy thickener. As with using cornstarch or flour to thicken gravy, make a slurry with your arrowroot powder by mixing 2 to 3 tablespoons with an equal amount of water.

Making a roux with flour and butter “boosts flavor and gives the gravy a silky texture and rich flavor,” she says. Flour also gives the gravy a traditional opaque look, she adds, whereas cornstarch will make the gravy shiny and clear.

Similar to flour, cornstarch is another ingredient that can be used to make gravy thicker. With cornstarch, making a slurry is also an option, but with 1 tablespoon of cornstarch whisked into cold water. Again, you'll want to add the slurry in increments so you don't over-thicken the gravy.

The liquid needs to be very hot before thickening the gravy with flour. Combine ½ cup cold water and ½ cup flour in a container with a tight-fitting lid and shake to mix it. I find if I use cold water to mix with the flour, lumps do not form in the container.

Thus, turkey gravy is a brown gravy. You can also make brown gravy with the drippings from other kinds of meat, such as a roast or chicken. White gravy is made with milk, fat, and a thickening agent; white gravy is made without drippings, and with sausage added is popular for biscuits and gravy.

It's bland.

The solution: The first thing you should try is adding a little more salt, as salt helps bring out the inherent flavors of the gravy that you didn't taste before. If that doesn't work, add umami (savory)-heavy condiments like soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce.

Is stock or broth better for turkey gravy? ›

You can use either stock or broth for keeping dressing moist or as a basis for gravy, but a strong flavor will give you better results.

What is the gravy at KFC made of? The restaurant uses a simple combination of gravy powder, water, and – their secret ingredient – chicken crackling. This is a collection of the browned bits and pieces leftover from frying their world famous chicken.

The fat and drippings are combined with flour to make a roux, and milk is typically used as the liquid to create the sauce, however cream is often added or may be the primary liquid. It is frequently seasoned with black pepper and complimenting herbs and bits of meat may be added such as sausage or diced chicken liver.

Jus was originally an inventive way of repurposing the deglazed pan juices of the roast into a minimalist sauce, but in modern parlance the term jus has come to refer to any meat-based sauce, clear and thin, from which the debris of other flavouring agents has been strained off.

When looking for a healthier gravy alternative, seasoned yogurt is one of the best substitutes. Yogurt is a great source of calcium, a micronutrient essential for bone health and many other body functions. Plain yogurt also has a mild taste that lends itself well to a variety of dishes.

When it's hot, gravy should be thick enough to just coat the back of a spoon, but not so thick that it sticks to the spoon like glue. If your gravy is hot and still too thick, add broth a little at a time to thin it out. Remember to check the seasoning when you're done and adjust if needed.

Gravy is a sauce, but one that is specifically made from meat juices. Gravies are usually combined with some form of liquid, like chicken broth, milk, wine, or beef broth, before being introduced to a thickening agent like flour or cornstarch.