Turkey Gravy Recipe - Thanksgiving Turkey Gravy
 How To Make Homemade Turkey Gravy - Gravy Troubleshooting Tips

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Are you interested in some gravy making tools to help you make perfect gravy? Check out What's Cooking America's Kitchen Store for gravy servers, fat separators, and more.

Turkey Hints & Tips:

Turkey Basics - How to purchase, stuff, and roast a turkey - Choosing a fresh or frozen turkey - How to thaw a frozen turkey - How to prepare turkey for stuffing.

Thanksgiving Planning - Stress-Free Thanksgiving - How to plan and prepare your Thanksgiving dinner in advance without stress.

Thanksgiving Dinner Menu - Check out some ideas and recipe for your Thanksgiving dinner menu.

Turkey Terminology - Types of Turkeys - Learn the differences between the different types of turkeys in the marketplace.

 Guidelines for Brining Poultry - The secret to juicy chicken breast is simple - brine them before grilling or baking! It's very easy and economical, and requires no special cookware.

 Guidelines For Roasting a Whole Turkey - Learn how to safely and easily prepare and roast your turkey.

Advice on Stuffing a Turkey Safely - As the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday draws near, learn how to safely stuff your turkey.

Using a Cooking or Meat Thermometer - Have you ever cut into a turkey to see if it has finished cooking? Cooking thermometers take the guesswork out of cooking, as they measures the internal temperature of your cooked meat and poultry to assure that a safe temperature has been reached, harmful bacteria have been destroyed, and your turkey is cook perfectly.

Making Perfect Turkey Gravy - Hints and tips for making that perfect turkey gravy.

Handling Leftovers Safely - Leftover" foods are cooked foods that you or your family do not eat within 2 hours after they are cooked. Improper handling or storing cooked food is one of the most common causes of food poisoning in the home.
Let's Make Turkey Stock - My favorite thing to do the morning after Thanksgiving is to make homemade turkey stock from the turkey carcass. It is so easy to do and so delicious! The turkey stock can be used for a delicious soup or frozen for future use.

Barbecued Turkey

Cajun Fried Turkey

Oven Roasted Turkey

Smoked Turkey

Turducken


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How To Make Homemade Turkey Gravy - How To Make Turkey Gravy From Turkey Drippings - Gravy Troubleshooting Tips

turkey gravy on sliced turkeyWhat are giblets? The giblet bag in the turkey you buy usually includes the heart, liver, gizzard (a part of the turkey's stomach), and neck.

While the turkey is in the oven cooking (or the day before), cover the giblets, wing tips, and neck bones with water in a large pot.

If desired, add a stalk of chopped celery, a chopped carrot, some parsley, and a chopped onion (with its peel as the onion skin gives the broth a golden color).

Add about 4 cups of water; let simmer approximately 1 hour.

Remove from heat and strain broth; discard cooked vegetables and reserve this giblet broth for gravy. Either discard giblets or, if desired, pick meat from neck and wing tips; finely chop all giblets and meat; add to turkey stock when making the gravy.
 

After the turkey is done roasting, remove the cooked turkey and rack from the roasting pan. Transfer turkey to a platter or board with a lip to collect juices.

Place roasting pan over two (2) burners on your stove top over medium heat (always make the gravy in the same pan you used to roast the turkey).

Skim and discard any excess fat from the juices in the roasting pan. See ingredients below for amount of fat to use in your gravy.

Using a heavy spoon, scrape all the dark drippings and any crunchy bits from the sides and bottom of roasting pan. Leave them in your roasting pan as these are what add great flavor and a nice rich color to the gravy.

Add the turkey giblet stock, that you previously made, to the roasting pan.
 

Turkey Gravy Ingredients:

For each 2 cups gravy desired - use 3 tablespoons fat, 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour, and 2 cups of liquid (poultry juices or broth, vegetable juice, bouillon, and/or water).

Any type of liquid can be added to make gravy, but always use the drippings from the roasting pan and turkey broth to make your turkey gravy. Add other liquids as needed for flavor and quantity of gravy.

In a separate container with a lid, shake together all-purpose flour needed and about 2 cups cool water. This is called a slurry. Adding the thickener (flour) in this way helps to prevent lumps from forming when making your gravy.

Once the liquid and drippings in the pan are lightly bubbling, slowly add the slurry mixture to the gravy pan, stirring constantly. If it starts to thicken immediately, stop adding the remaining slurry, you may not need to use the whole amount depending on how much or little drippings were in the pan. If lumps do develop, you should be able to use a wire whisk to remove them.

Simmer gently about 10 minutes to cook the flour all the way through (undercooked flour gives off a raw taste). Correct the salt and pepper to taste.
 

Pour the gravy into a warmed sauceboat or wide-mouthed pitcher for serving. Remember that gravy will continue to thicken after it has been removed from the heat.

 


1-1-1 Sauce and Gravy Formula

When making sauces and gravies and want to get the right consistency without trial and error, just remember this easy 1-1-1 formula.

To thicken 1 cup of stock, use 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon flour

 

Gravy Troubleshooting Tips:

stirring the turkey gravyGravy is greasy - If gravy seems greasy, a fat separator should eliminate this problem. If you discover that your gravy is oily toward the end of its preparation, skim off as much fat as possible with a wide-bowled spoon.


Gravy is doughy - If gravy has a doughy or chalky taste, make sure the flour has been cooked long enough. When the flour is added to the pan drippings or butter, whisk constantly while the mixture cooks until it turns a deep golden brown and smells nutty. If the gravy tastes floury when you’re almost finished, turn up the heat to maintain a rapid simmer for several minutes; then thin it again with more stock or water if necessary.


Lumpy gravy - Don't worry iff your gravy has lumps. Just strain the gravy just before serving, using a fine sieve; discard solids. Another quick method is to place the lumpy gravy in your food processor or blender and process until smooth.


Thin gravy -

If gravy is too thin, simmer over medium-high heat, allowing liquid to reduce more.

If your gravy is still too thin, make a paste of equal parts flour and cold water, and add it a little at a time to the prepared gravy, whisking constantly, until the gravy thickens.

You can also blend 1 teaspoon of flour per cup of cold water, and then mix into the prepared gravy. Continue to cook and stir to eliminate the cornstarch flavor.


Thick gravy - If gravy is too thick, gradually whisk in additional stock or water (a little at a time) into the gravy until it reaches desired consistency.


No flavor - If gravy lacks flavor, you should adjust seasoning as necessary with coarse salt and freshly ground pepper. If you use canned stock instead of homemade, the gravy might lack depth of flavor. Homemade stock, even made with chicken rather than turkey, will produce a superior gravy—so it’s worth the effort. A trick that I use, is to cook a whole chicken in water a day or two before Thanksgiving for our dinner. I use the chicken meat for that night's dinner and refrigerate the chicken stock until Thanksgiving day to use in my gravy.


Salty gravy - If the over salting is severe, the gravy must be repaired by increasing the quantity of gravy. Prepare another batch of gravy, omitting all salt. Blend the two batches together.


Gravy too light in color -

If you brown the flour well before adding the liquid when making gravy, you will avoid pale or lumpy gravy.

You can also make dark gravy with unbrowned flour by making a dark roux. A roux is a thickener made from equal amounts of fat and flour. Heat the fat, add the flour, and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the roux becomes a deep brown. When making gravy with the roux, it will not thicken as well, so you will need more of it.

If all the above tips fail in getting your gravy to brown to a rich color or you just want a quick and easy solution, add 1/8 teaspoon instant coffee granules and stir to blend.

Thin gravy can be easily thickened by adding a mixture of either flour and water or cornstarch and water, which has been mixed to a smooth paste. Add gradually, stirring constantly, while ringing to a boil.

Comments and questions from readers:

Comments:
Your Turkey Gravy recipe is the very same way my mother made it, and I can tell you that it is the best recipe out there bar none. Thanks for putting it on the net. - Richard (11/22/07)

 

Question:
Can I substitute 100% white whole wheat flour in my turkey gravy?  I mistakenly picked up and don't want to have to discard.  I don't bake much so I don't know where else I will use it. - Evelyn (11/10/07)

Answer:
 Yes, you can substitute white whole wheat flour in your gravy. You will be adding more nutritional value to your gravy by using this flour rather than all-purpose flour.