Gravy, real gravy, has to be one of the best foods on earth. It makes everything taste better (rice and gravy, potatoes and gravy, stuffing and gravy, bread and gravy, gravy and gravy…yum!). Gourmet machinations just mess it up. It’s got to be simple, pure, heavenly gravy. I know some people make it in a saucepan with broth and giblets. I’ve never quite understood the appeal of that. Adding any sort of alcohol ruins it completely. I’ve only made gravy one way, and it’s the way my mother made it before me, and the way my kids are already making it after me. Why mess with perfection?
Step one: Start by roasting a chicken or turkey in a high-sided (3 inches will do) pan that can also be used to cook on top of the stove. THIS IS KEY.
Step two: When the bird is done, take it out of the oven and transfer the bird (try to tilt it so its juices run into the pan) to a platter for carving or serving or whatever. Put the roasting pan on top of the stove.
Step three: In a glass or cup, mix about ½ cup of flour to 1 cup of water. Stir the flour mixture with a fork until there are no lumps (unless you want lumps).
Step four: Turn on the heat under the roasting pan. When the brothy grease is boiling, add the flour and water mixture, and stir. Make sure you scrape all the brown crispy stuff off the edges and bottom of the pan until it all melts into the mixture and it thickens into a golden, bubbly, delicious, and thick GRAVY. This step should only take a few minutes. If it seems too thick you can always add more water.
Step five: Add salt and pepper. Pour off excess fat if you want to. Put it into a gravy boat and serve it with a ladle.
Truly good, clean gravy is the secret to many things—good food, a happy marriage (as much because it makes me happy), and children who love to eat. It makes good leftovers, too. The next day, make some toast, add some leftover chicken or turkey. Put gravy on top and microwave it until the gravy is hot and melted. Heaven!
This is just how I learned to make gravy from Mom and Grandma! It is the best!!! Thanks for sharing and have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I love reading your blog! 🙂
Don’t even THINK about trying this with a Pyrex baking pan. My first husband did once and it broke a neat, burner-sized circle out of the bottom and all the lovely greasy juice excaped all over and into the stove…we were still cleaning it up a week later…and we had no gravy 🙁
Man, after reading this I can’t wait for tomorrow… I could bathe in gravy.
I usually add a chopped onion to my roasting pan before I put the turkey in. It adds some extra flavor to the gravy. I’ve also found that putting the flour and water in a jar, and covering it with a cap, allows me to shake the mixture, and I’m assured of no lumps. Gold Medal also makes a sauce and gravy flour mix, called Wondra, that makes smooth gravy. I usually strain my gravy as I add it to the gravy boat. No matter how you make it, it is one of the best parts of the meal. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. We all have so much to be thankful for!
My mom always used corn starch, and I think it’s time we switched to flour. After reading this I think it will yield better results. We do add lots of fresh epper, and wine if around, but I’m going to skip the alcohol as suggested…..and KISS.
I cant wait eather, YUM !
I’ve used this recipe and I’m thankful that something so delicious is so easy to make!!!
Delicious!
my mom does pan drippings, scrapped meat pieces, flour shook up in water inside a capped “gravy shaker.” It is awesome, added to the big speckled dark blue bird roasting pan now up on a burner. “remember….” she always said, and still does, “….too much flour leaves you w/tasteless thick brown water, go easy adding water so you don’t have to keep adding flour…..a dash extra of Bell’s seasoning to kick it up is always good too. ” ( she never hear of “Emeril”, I think he hadn’t been born likely.”) I think she did that cuz my dad, gone now these past 2 years always wanted giblets, us kids hated them, it was a compromise of sort. Giblets cooked in but scooped out prior to the pouring into the boat, grease and all. She is 80 this Dec, I am 53 my dads passed at 83. We did well with fresh dairy cream, fat from our poultry in the gravy, salt in a water tight sealed container kept in the garden to add to tomatoes we ate off the vine, unwashed. We didn’t know then we were :orgamnic, we just knew all that stuff you could kill stuff with was expensive, where us kids had lots of free time to pick off the veggie attackers………
I have always stirred in flour to the pan drippings first to make a roux, not too much tho, cause it can affect the flavor of the gravy….then add water gradually stirring constantly till all is smooth and wonderful. I also add my salt and pepper after. It is a matter of choice and taste with cornstarch, however, I do mix it with cold water and pour into bubbling meat juices/grease and stir constantly till smooth. Don’t put any science to it…it is in the “touch” as they say…no measurements..just experience.
Doesn’t taste greasy from the oil of the chicken, and no chicken broth I would think it doesn’t make alot.
I wish it was not the 21st of June in the south because I sure do want to roast a chicken right now, make gravy and put some broth in the freezer.
Hello my friend! I want to say that this post is amazing, greawt written and come with approximately all significant infos.
I’d like to see extra posts like this .
WOW just what I was looking for. Came here by searching for gravy
not a good receipt for gravy.. 1/2 cp flour is to much for one cup of water.
So glad I came across your site. Am attempting to put together a compilation of recipes for my granddaughter, focusing on special Holiday family meals, and because I’m a “little bit of this, looks like,” etc. Was concerned about directions for gravy, and olla, I found you! I don’t think, as one reviewer commented, that 1/2 cup of flour to cup of water is too much, b/c it works for me every time. I just keep stirring as I add it to juices/drippings, and am sure to keep the juices boiling slowly as I add flour mixture. Thanks a million, Maria.
The ingredients are right but gravy is something you learn to make by experience! It depends how much broth/fat mixture you have after roasting your bird or piece of meat. I add water or broth first, trying to double the amount of liquid in the pan (by eye) for me an enamel oval roast pan. I have a small tin cup with lid made specially for mixing flour and water, they come in plastic too. ( I mix up cold 1/2 cup and 3 tablespoons of water, no lumps! After stirring up the cooking water scrubbing all the good bits off the bottom of the pan I add the flour mixture while stirring with a gravy fork or my springy gravy stirrer. If it’s too thick, add water, if not thick enough make up more flour mixture and stir it in a bit at a time til it’s thick enough. Salt and pepper to taste. I use this flour mixture to thicken creamed soups too.
We had one of these aluminum shakers for mixing the flour and water. Smoothed it out before pouring slowly into the hot drippings.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/194991858839766472/
Nowadays, I don’t use wheat — what is the best non-wheat flour to use?
My grandmother and mother made it this way. I don’t eat much gravy anymore, but when I get a hankerin’ for some, make it this way too!
Oh, my gosh! This the BEST chicken gravy I have ever made!
Made a whole chicken in one of those blue oval roasters with a rack under the chicken. After taking the bird apart & putting it on platters, covered w/foil & putting those in the warm oven, I made the gravy. Used 1 cup of water to get all those good-tasting bits off the bottom, bringing the water to a boil. Took another cup of cool water in a 2 cup measuring cup, got out the immersion blender & blended the 1/2 cup of flour right in the measuring cup. No lumps! Poured that into the roaster & kept whisking it until thickened. Added a small amount of salt, & viola! Chicken gravy!
Thank You, Maria, for posting this.