The turkey comes out of the oven and the whole dinner stops for twenty minutes while it rests. That is not dead time. That is exactly how long it takes to make the gravy, and the roasting pan sitting on your stove already has the best part of it stuck to the bottom.
This is pan gravy, the old way: the fat and the browned bits out of the roasting pan, a spoonful of flour cooked until it smells like toast, and good broth whisked in a little at a time. No packet, no jar, no cornstarch stirred in at the last second and hoped over.
The seasoning is Anything With Wings, the same organic blend that went on the bird. That is the whole trick to gravy that tastes like it belongs with the turkey instead of beside it.
Make it while everyone else is carrying bowls to the table. Twenty-five minutes, one whisk, one saucepan.
Turkey Gravy from the Drippings with Anything With Wings
Real pan gravy from the turkey drippings: a toasted roux, warm broth and organic Anything With Wings. About four cups, ready while the bird rests.
Ingredients
From the roasting pan
- All the pan drippings from one roasted turkey, fat and browned juices together
- 1 cup low-sodium turkey or chicken broth, for scraping the pan
For the gravy
- ½ cup fat skimmed off the drippings (top it up with unsalted butter if you are short)
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 4 cups low-sodium turkey or chicken broth, warmed
- 2 teaspoons Anything With Wings, divided (1½ teaspoons into the gravy, ½ teaspoon at the end)
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, optional
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar, optional
- Freshly ground black pepper
To finish
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves or flat-leaf parsley, optional
Instructions
- Pour everything in the roasting pan into a fat separator or a tall glass measuring cup and let it sit 5 minutes. The clear fat rises to the top and the dark juices settle underneath. Both are going into the gravy, just at different moments.
- Set the empty roasting pan across two burners over medium heat and pour in 1 cup of the broth. Scrape the bottom hard with a wooden spoon until every browned patch lets go. That is where a turkey leaves its flavor, and pouring it down the sink is the single most common gravy mistake. Pour the liquid into a bowl and hold it.
- Skim ½ cup of fat off the top of the separated drippings and put it in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. If the bird did not give you that much, make up the difference with unsalted butter. Keep the dark juices for step 6.
- Whisk the flour into the hot fat and keep whisking for 2 to 3 minutes. It will go from pale and pasty to the color of peanut butter and it will smell like toast. That smell is the whole point: a raw roux makes gravy that tastes like flour.
- Pour in the warm broth a ladle at a time, whisking each one in completely before the next goes in. Add the deglazing liquid from the pan with it. Going slowly at the start is what keeps it smooth.
- Pour in the dark pan juices from under the fat, leaving the last cloudy spoonful behind. Bring it up to a gentle simmer.
- Simmer 8 to 10 minutes, whisking now and then, until it coats the back of a spoon and holds a line when you draw your finger across it. If it tightens up too far, loosen it with a little more broth.
- Stir in 1½ teaspoons of Anything With Wings and the Worcestershire, if you are using it. Simmer 2 minutes more so the garlic and herbs open up instead of sitting on top.
- Taste it now, before you reach for the salt. The drippings are salty and the blend has salt in it. Add the last ½ teaspoon of Anything With Wings if it wants it, black pepper to your liking, and the teaspoon of cider vinegar if it tastes flat — a little acid wakes the whole thing up.
- Pour it through a fine sieve into a warmed gravy boat, scatter the thyme or parsley over the top, and get it to the table while it is hot.
Chef's notes:
Why this blend and not a different one. Anything With Wings is the garlic-and-herb poultry blend, and the reason it belongs in the gravy is that it is already on the bird. The gravy and the turkey end up tasting like one dish instead of two. It is USDA Certified Organic, gluten free and kosher, made in small batches with no MSG, no fillers and no anti-caking agents — which matters more in a sauce than it does on a steak, because there is nothing in the jar to settle out of it.
No drippings? Make it two days early. Roast 2 pounds of turkey wings with a quartered onion, a carrot and a celery stalk at 425°F for about 50 minutes, until everything is deep brown. Then follow this recipe exactly as written, using the fat and the browned bits from that pan. It keeps covered in the refrigerator for two days and it takes the whole business off your Thanksgiving stovetop.
If it goes lumpy. It is not ruined. Whisk it hard off the heat first; most lumps give up. Anything left behind goes through the sieve in the last step, which is why the sieve is in the recipe and not optional.
Making it ahead and warming it back up. Gravy keeps three days covered in the refrigerator and it sets into a solid block when it is cold. That is normal. Warm it slowly in a saucepan with a splash of broth, whisking, and it comes right back. Do not boil it hard or the fat separates out.
A note on the flour. The seasoning is gluten free and kosher; the all-purpose flour in the roux is not, and most Worcestershire sauces are not either. For a gluten-free gravy, skip the roux and the Worcestershire: bring the broth and pan juices to a simmer, then whisk in 3 tablespoons of cornstarch stirred into ¼ cup of cold broth and cook 2 minutes. It will be glossier and a little lighter, and it is good.
Low salt at the table. If someone at your table is cooking with less salt, make the gravy with unsalted broth and season it with Zilch. Nada. None. instead, which is our salt-free blend, then let everyone salt their own plate. The drippings bring plenty on their own.
What is actually in season right now. Gravy is not a seasonal dish, but everything it lands on is. Across the Carolinas in the middle of November the thyme, sage and flat-leaf parsley are still going outside after the first cool nights, the collards have sweetened up, and fall cabbage and the sweet potato harvest are at the markets. That is the plate this goes over.
On the label, and on getting it here in time. We recommend the 5 oz resealable pouch at $13.49 over the 2.6 oz glass jar at $9.49 — it is the better value and it reseals. If you still need seasoning for the bird, the Anything With Wings Thanksgiving bundle is two 5 oz pouches for $25 with free shipping, and the week before Thanksgiving is the shipping cut-off for it. Free shipping over $25 on everything else.
The rest of the table. Pour it over Anything With Wings Thanksgiving Turkey, Southern Cornbread Dressing and The OG Mashed Potatoes. Around them go Green Bean Casserole, Southern Collard Greens, Southern Baked Macaroni and Cheese, Candied Yams and Delightful Cranberry Sauce, with Southern Deviled Eggs going out first.