How To Make Turkey Gravy

There are many wonderful ways you can make turkey gravy. You can make giblet gravy or you can make it just with broth. You can even make gravy weeks ahead of time to save yourself some kitchen frenzy on Thanksgiving day.

My favorite is a plain, old-fashioned gravy from the pan drippings made just seconds before setting all the food on your Thanksgiving table. The deeply browned and rich scrapings from the bottom of the roasting pan might not look like much when you first take the turkey out of the oven, but those drippings are Thanksgiving manna.

It’s also one of the easiest gravies to make, in my opinion. From roux to table, it takes about five minutes and requires only a pan and a whisk. You don’t even need a recipe. This step-by-step guide will show you how to make delicious gravy to pour over your mashed potatoes and turkey with wild abandon.

• This recipe uses the drippings from one 12- to 14-pound roast turkey.
• This gracy is thickened with a roux (more on that below) that’s made from the turkey drippings.
• You’ll need 2 cups of broth for finishing the gravy.
• This gravy can easily be jazzed up with flavorings like a splash of sherry, splash of wine, teaspoon of minced herbs like rosemary, thyme, or sage.

Roux is a combination of fat — pan drippings, butter, or oil — and flour cooked together and used to thicken everything from gravy to béchamel sauce. Here are a few things you should know about making roux for better gravy.

• The standard roux ratio is equal parts fat to flour, which works out to 3 ounces of roux thickening up to a quart of liquid.
• Cook the roux until it smells nutty. You want to cook the flour until it has a cereal smell and looks dry.
• You can thin out a thick gravy, but it’s harder to thicken a thin gravy. In other words, start with less liquid than you think you need.
• Roux-thickened gravies continue to thicken as they cool, so keep that in mind as the gravy hits the table.