Thanksgiving: Gravy

By Jen -

My faraway child wants to recreate some of her favorites Thanksgiving tastes: Turkey, stuffing, mash potatoes and the gravy that binds it all together. 

As I go through my day of prepping these dishes for tomorrow's big gathering, I'm also trying to help her make these dishes in her small apartment kitchen in Malaysia. Luckily, this particular meal is one that can have fairly basic ingredients and can adapt to a kitchen with fewer pots and pans. 

She's making chicken breasts in lieu of turkey. She's going to cover the chicken with prosciutto and add onions, garlic, herbs and wine/stock to the cooking dish. 


GRAVY:

Ingredients:

  • Butter
  • Flour
  • Stock
  • Salt and pepper
  • 2-3 sage leaves
  • Pan drippings
* Ingredient amounts shift depending on how much gravy you want and, realistically, how much meat you are cooking.

For Faraway child, I'd suggest 2 Tb (30g) butter and starting with 4Tb (30g) flour. A good rule of thumb is equal parts flour and fat by weight. 4 Tb butter (45g) and 1/3 cup flour (46g) would be also okay.

  • In a small saucepan (that can hold 2-3 cups of liquid) add the butter. Keep heat low/med and melt the butter. Add in flour. It should look like the video below. If it is crumbly – add a bit more butter so it is thick enough that when you scrap the pan with your whisk, you see the pan for a second. Mix until all the lumps of flour are gone.

** Side Note - Using just a fat (the butter) with the flour makes the flour absorb and bind differently so that it smooths out.  This mixture is also called a “roux” in French cooking and is a basic skill for thickening all sorts of sauces.  You can cook the roux longer for a darker color.





  • Add 2 cups of stock - 1 cup at a time. When the starch molecules of the flour make contact with the water in the stock - the molecules absorb the water and swell which is what thickens the gravy. The added fat keeps the starch from binding up (which causes lumpy gravy). After adding the first cup, add extra stock to get the gravy to the consistency that you like. Because you are going to be adding in the drippings, keep it a bit on the thick side.


  • Pick out the major bits and pieces of onion and garlic from your roasting pan. You are trying to preserve as much of that oily goodness as possible. If some mushy garlic or onion or herb is still in the drippings – don’t worry about it, mush them up – and then add the drippings into your roux. You can strain the drippings if you want.  
  • You’ll see a quick change in the consistency of the roux. Have your stock on hand so you can keep adding liquid until you have the gravy the consistency that you like. I’m assuming you want about 2 cups of gravy – for the chicken and potatoes.



Growing up, it was (and probably still is) common to make the gravy in the roasting pan after the turkey has been set aside to rest. I found this problematic due to a couple reasons:
1. There is always a lot of fanfare around the turkey coming out of the oven. Maybe its because people are getting hungry - but the kitchen is usually getting very busy with last minute dish preparation. There is nothing more nerve wracking then making gravy with a bunch of "chefs" watching over your shoulder. Or maybe that's fun when you've done it for years - but I usually have other things I'm juggling. How easy it is to simply prep the drippings - and then add them to your lovely, smooth roux. Yes, my mother has frowned as I've opted out of adding flour to my roasting pan but perhaps it is a thoughtful frown as she wonders why she ever did it any other way?
2. The reason why it doesn't work to add flour to the drippings is that there is often liquid in the pan that is not fat. As soon as the flour hits water - as mentioned above - it clumps. Getting lumps out of the gravy at that point can take a lot of time that you don't have (because of all those hungry people hanging around). Why stress? Make the roux.
And...
Don’t worry if the gravy is lumpy. I’ve made many lumpy gravies over the years. Casual home meal - who cares? Just make sure it tastes right to you. The drippings usually give the gravy that darker, richer color. Check for seasoning and then keep warm until ready to serve.

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