Turkey gravy is essential for mashed potatoes, especially during the holidays. Good gravy is deliciously savory, a bit runny but just thick enough to cover your food. If you’re searching for a great turkey gravy recipe, be sure to try this one out, you may never go back to using gravy from a can.
How to Make Classic Turkey Gravy
Turkey gravy is a must on Thanksgiving, and many times needed for Christmas too. The perfect accompaniment to mashed potatoes, and a necessary side to your Thanksgiving dinner! With the holidays quickly approaching, take the time to make your turkey gravy from scratch with this recipe and wow your guests!
Your Ingredients
For this turkey gravy recipe, you will need only a few ingredients. When cooking a turkey, be sure to leave the drippings as this will give you the perfect amount of fat for the delicious gravy.
- Giblets and neck from the turkey
- Drippings and fat from the roasted turkey
- Flour to thicken the gravy
- Chicken Stock (I have a great homemade recipe here)
- Pepper
Boiling the Giblets
The first step is to boil your giblets in a bit of water. You will want the water to just cover them. Simmer on medium heat from about 30 minutes, until the giblets are cooked through.
Remove the giblets and retain the water.
Making a Roux
In a separate pan, pour in about 1/4 cup of turkey drippings from your cooked turkey and heat on medium. Add in flour sprinkling a little at a time and combine with a whisk until you get a paste (about 1/3 a cup).
If your mixture is too thick, add a little more of the drippings. If the mixture is too thin, add a little flour.
Continue to cook the flour mixture until golden brown, making a nice flavorful roux.
Mixing in The Chicken Broth
Slowly pour in the chicken broth while whisking the whole time. Be sure to mix the gravy completely. While mixing continue to cook the gravy until it thickens. If the gravy becomes too thin, you can add a bit of the water made with the giblets to thin out.
Finishing Your Gravy
Once your gravy has thickened up nicely, then chop up the giblets and add it to the gravy. Also, remove all the meat form the neck of the turkey and add that to the gravy as well. Enjoy your turkey gravy, especially with a side of mashed potatoes and delicious homemade stuffing!
How to Fix Your Gravy
Many time we make gravy and things don’t go as planned. So what do you do if you think you’ve messed up? Here are some tips.
- Use drippings or meat as your base: in order to have the best flavor, you’re going to want to make sure that it has a meat base of some sort, whether that is drippings, pieces of meat or sausage, or a really flavorful broth.
- Be conservative with your thickening agent: have you ever sat down at the dinner table, anxious to cover your turkey in gravy, only for the gravy to have a bland, flour flavor? Too much flour or cornstarch can leave you with a lackluster gravy, or worse yet, gravy that is too thick.
- Make sure to use enough of a thickening agent: on the flip side, having gravy as thin as soup is completely anticlimactic when you go to put it on your mashed potatoes. Make sure you use a good thickening agent to get your gravy to the “smooth as silk” consistency.
- Add Seasonings: a little salt, pepper, a bit of onion powder can all go a long way to add some additional flavor to your gravy. In reality though, if you flavored the meat well, the gravy won’t need very many additional seasonings.
Fixing Thin Gravy
- Mix water with flour, or mix cornstarch with flour until it comes to a paste. Then add this to your gravy. Mixing the flour or cornstarch with water will prevent it from creating lumps in your gravy. Boil for a bit to be sure the gravy has time to thicken.
- You can also add instant mashed potatoes. They work great at thickening both gravies and soups. The best part is that they won’t create an off flavor if you add too much.
Fixing Pale Gravy
- Add more drippings to the gravy, especially if they have been browning due to baking.
- Add Worcestershire sauce, but don’t over due it. It will add both flavor and color to your gravy.
- To prevent the problem in the first place, brown your flour before adding it to the gravy. This will also help prevent it from becoming lumpy.
For Gravy That’s Too Salty
- The most common way is to add a bit of sugar. I would add a little bit at a time because gravy tastes better salty rather than sweet.
- Another way to remove the taste of salt is to add potatoes to the gravy and then discard them once they have cooked. The potatoes will have absorbed a good amount of salt.
- You can also take care of salty gravy is to add a little apple cider vinegar with some sugar. This will also add a little depth because of the vinegar.
Fixing Lumpy Gravy
- Sift out the lumps: Ugh, ok, this is my least favorite thing to ever happen to gravy. If you have already added flour or cornstarch and didn’t make it into a paste first, then you’re most likely going to end up with lumpy gravy. Your best bet is to sift out all those little flour swimmers and start again with a thickening agent that you have made into a paste first. If the lumps are too small to sift out, stir vigorously until they eventually dissolve. It’s definitely not ideal, but I really don’t know of any other way to fix the problem.
Making your own gravy can be a great way to enjoy Thanksgiving and Christmas. Enjoy this classic turkey gravy recipe with giblets and, with these great tips on fixing your gravy, you’ll worry less this holiday season!
LOVE THIS POST? Be sure to check out Mom’s Spiced Pumpkin Pie Recipe. You may also like this delicious Dutch Apple Pie Recipe too!
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Classic Turkey Gravy Recipe (with giblets)
Homemade turkey gravy recipe with giblets, perfect for your holiday meals.
Ingredients
- Turkey Giblets and Neck
- ¼ cup Turkey Drippings
- ⅓ cup Flour
- 4 cups Chicken broth About 32 Ounces
- ⅛ tsp Pepper add to taste
Instructions
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Boil the turkey giblets and turkey neck in a sauce pan for about 30 minutes, with enough water to just cover the giblets. Remove the giblets and set aside. Do not throw out the boiled water.
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In a separate pan, add about 1/4 cup of drippings from the roasted turkey. On medium heat, slowly pour in 1/3 cup of flour and stir with a whisk. Stir continuously until you make a paste. If the paste is too thin, add more flour, if it's too thick, add a bit more of the drippings. Cook until the roux turns a golden brown color.
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Pour in the chicken broth, slowly, stirring the entire time. Allow the gravy to cook on medium heat until it thickens. If the gravy gets too thick, add in a bit of the giblet water to thin out.
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Once you achieve your desired thickness, chop the giblets and add them to the gravy, as well as the meat from the neck of the turkey. Add the pepper in as well, to taste.
Bekah Smith says
This was a great read and a wonderful reminder of my Mimi! She shared many recipes with me but always joked that I could NEVER make gravy. Haha, I’ll prove her wrong with these tip.
Thanks!!
voyance gratuite says
Very nice article, exactrly what I wanted to find.
Phyllis says
My gravy was too salty, I thought about using potatoes but didn’t have any. I simply put some uncooked macaroni in the gravy and cooked it on low. Then I strained gravy. Perfect
Gravy lumpy, strain it to remove lumps.