Cooking for Pleasure: Perfect stress-free turkey gravy

You just realized you will need a quart of gravy for your Thanksgiving dinner guests! Don’t panic. 

Happy Thanksgiving. (Wix stock photo)

By Patty Schied

You just realized you will need a quart of gravy for your Thanksgiving dinner guests! Don’t panic. 

You can make totally awesome gravy without purchasing those jars or instant mixes at the grocery store. Those items can add up to a lot of money when you already have the makings for outstanding gravy just from your turkey. 

The stock for the gravy can be made a day ahead or the day of the dinner, your choice. If you want to make the stock a day ahead, place your turkey on the counter, remove the plastic covering and pull out the paper bag from inside.

It contains a neck, liver, heart and gizzard. Place these giblets into a two-quart saucepan and rinse with cold water. Do not use the liver. Unfortunately, boiled turkey liver can give your stock a bitter taste. 

Then pour a quart of chicken broth over the giblets and bring to a simmer on your stove (about medium to low heat). If you forgot to purchase chicken stock, just use water. 

Giblets are tough and will take about two hours to cook. If the liquid begins to evaporate, add some water to it.  The giblets are done when the meat from the neck pulls off easily. 

Let cool and remove giblets from pan. At this point, you can cut them up to add to the gravy later or feed them to your or someone else’s ecstatic pet. 

If you are doing this a day ahead, wipe your turkey with paper towels all over and salt generously (including the inside). Place uncovered in the refrigerator overnight. This dry brining not only seasons the turkey, but it also results in a crispier skin. 

Roast your turkey according to cookbook or package directions, preferably on a rack set inside your roasting pan. When the turkey is done, remove it to a platter to rest (it can sit covered for a half hour or more). 

Step one: The roux 

Pour turkey drippings from roasting pan into a sieve covered bowl or glass measuring cup. Measure a half cup, exactly, of the fat from the turkey roast into a two-quart saucepan. This is the most critical part of the gravy. 

The turkey fat in the saucepan cannot have any nonfat turkey juices. If there isn’t enough fat for one half cup, add sufficient melted butter to make up exactly a half cup.  

Add about a cup of boiling water to the drippings left in the roasting pan (the “fond”). Stir briskly, scraping up the brown substance in the roasting pan and pour into the sieve and into the remaining drippings. This liquid will add extra depth and flavor to your gravy.  Skim off any additional oil from the drippings and set aside. 

Measure out  ½ cup flour into the turkey drippings in the saucepan. At medium heat, stir until the flour takes on a golden brown color. This is the roux.  

Step Two

Slowly add the quart of turkey stock previously made. Bring to a boil, stirring until thick.   

At this point, add as many defatted turkey drippings as you want into the gravy, tasting as you stir. Taste for seasoning. 

If making giblet gravy, add the chopped giblets now. The gravy at this point should taste so good that you find yourself sampling spoonfuls. 

Serve to your delighted guests. 

How to fix gravy disasters 

Disaster #1: You forgot to separate the turkey juices from the fat. What was supposed to be a roux now looks like ugly brown flour paste in your saucepan. As soon as you have realized what happened, remove the pan from the heat and slowly whisk in the turkey stock. Place back on the heat and continue to whisk. It will still be lumpy.  As soon as the mixture begins to boil, remove from the heat and pour into a blender and puree (remember to keep a towel on top of the blender so you won’t get scalded). Pour back into the saucepan and add enough remaining turkey drippings to the pan to taste. Season with salt and pepper as needed. It isn’t perfect, but it is a million times better than commercial gravy. 

Disaster #2: You purchased an extremely expensive organic free-range turkey only to discover that it was so lean there are hardly any drippings in the roasting pan. (This happened to me once.) Remove turkey from pan and let rest. Pour about a cup or so of boiling water into the roasting pan (unless it is burnt) and scrape up as much of the ‘fond’ as you can.  Pour into a container and set aside. 

In a saucepan, melt ½ cup of butter and add ½ cup of flour. Stir at medium heat until it turns a golden brown. Slowly add turkey stock and bring to a boil. Add as much of the turkey drippings as you like to add to the depth of flavor. If the gravy seems too thin, simmer until the consistency seems right. 

Disaster #3: There are no giblets in the turkey. This can happen. If you discover this on Thanksgiving day, send a reliable relative to the grocery store to purchase any turkey parts available, such as a neck, wings, or back.  Make a stock with these. 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

• Patty Schied is a longtime Juneau resident who studied at the Cordon Bleu in London and has written a cookbook. Cooking For Pleasure appears every other week in the Juneau Independent's features. She welcomes recipe ideas and questions about her column at patschied@yahoo.com.