Turkey Gravy

Get perfect turkey gravy every time with this 10 minute recipe. It’s easy and so delicious over turkey and mashed potatoes for the holidays.

What Kind Of Turkey To Use?

The best kind of turkey for this homemade gravy is a whole roasted turkey or roast turkey breast.

A turkey breast roast doesn’t yield as much juices and so the gravy won’t have as much turkey flavor. But if you follow the instructions below, you’ll still have very tasty gravy. 

How To Get Good Turkey Drippings

Drippings are the liquid that drips out of a roast while it cooks. These have an intense meaty flavor and are the basis for a good gravy. The issue is that sometimes when the drippings hit a hot roasting pan in the oven, the liquid evaporates off and then they can really darken or even burn onto the pan. Those drippings will cause the gravy to have a bitter burnt flavor, if you can even get them off the pan.

What I recommend for the best drippings is that you have a small amount of water or unsalted chicken stock in the bottom of the roasting pan at all times. Top it up periodically to make sure that the bottom of the roasting pan is always covered in a bit of liquid. The drippings falling off of the roast will land in the liquid and therefore won’t burn. That liquid will be evaporating though, and that will cause some nice brownings on the sides of the pan. When you add more liquid throughout the roasting time, that dissolves the brownings and brings them into your flavor base at the bottom of the pan. You can even use a rubber spatula to scrape those brownings from the sides down whenever you add more liquid.

Some people worry that having that extra liquid down there will make the roast steam, but it turns out really well. Don’t worry, especially if you make your roast turkey like this. It turns out perfectly every time with that liquid there.

Deglazing The Pan

Once your turkey is finished roasting, you’ll transfer it out of the roasting pan. Then pour any liquid from the pan into a fat separator or a large measuring cup. The fat will rise to the top and the flavorful liquid will be on the bottom. It’s also a good idea to add a bit of water or unsalted stock to the roasting pan and use a rubber spatula to really scrape up anything that’s in the pan, any little bits of meat and any brownings that are there. Add those to your liquid, and let the fat separate to the top.

Drippings For Brined or Fried Turkeys

If you brined your turkey, the pan drippings may be more salty than you want. If that is the case, you can use the Gravy without Drippings recipe and add in the drippings a little at a time for flavor. That Gravy without Drippings recipe is also amazing if deep-frying or grilling your turkey and aren’t going to get useable drippings.

How To Get Good Drippings From Turkey Breast

If you’re roasting turkey breast, you’re unlikely to get many good drippings that just come out of the roast. These roasts are very lean. But, if you put the stock into the roasting pan as instructed above, you will get some nicely flavored liquid and your gravy will be delicious.

Having said that, you might want to consider making that same recipe for Gravy without Drippings. You get a lot of great flavor in that one. Still put the stock into the roasting pan as your turkey breast cooks. Then you can add that liquid into your gravy at the end to give it some nice turkey flavor.

How Much Drippings Do You Need?

The amount of drippings you need depends on how much gravy you need. One third of a cup of gravy per person is usually enough. But I like leftovers and I like to err on the side of more rather than less, so I usually aim for about 1/2 cup per person. The amount of gravy you’ll need determines how much drippings and other liquid you’ll need. The recipe below is for 10-12 people and so it makes 5 cups of gravy, and we therefore need 5 cups of liquid.

So, at this stage you’ll look at your drippings and see how much liquid you have there. If it’s less than 5 cups, you’ll add in enough unsalted chicken broth or stock to make 5 cups. If you have turkey stock (see below for making your own from bits trimmed from the turkey you’re roasting), you can use that for sure. Or vegetable stock. You don’t want to use water here because you need the flavor. You can make some of that 5 cups up using a dry white wine, 1/2 cup maximum.

Why Use Unsalted Stock To Make Up Drippings

Gravy is one of those things that people often make and then leave at a low simmer until dinner is ready. That’s what I do, for sure. The problem with that is that as the gravy is slowly reducing that whole time. As it reduces, the salt flavor concentrates. The gravy can end up too salty.

So, use unsalted stock and then there is less salt to concentrate in there. I also find that it’s best to not salt the gravy at all until just before serving for this reason. You’ll stir your gravy every now and then, and you can taste it. But taste for turkey flavor and to decide if you want to add some herbs or poultry seasoning, but resist the urge to add more salt until just before serving so that you don’t end up with it concentrating on you.

Making Turkey Stock For Your Gravy

To really get a lot of delicious turkey flavor into your gravy, it’s best to make a turkey stock. But don’t worry, you don’t need to buy any extra turkey parts or anything to do it (although you can do that). Instead, before you start roasting your turkey, you’ll harvest some bits from anywhere you can to make some stock. Here are the three key places:

1. See if there’s anything inside of the turkey. If your turkey came with a package of giblets in there, open that package up and put it into a medium saucepan. There’s often a neck bone with the turkey too, so go ahead and put that into the saucepan.
2. I also trim any loose skin from anywhere on the turkey. There’s often a flap of skin covering one or both openings. And you can cut off the triangular nub knowns sometimes as “The Pope’s Nose” and add that to your pot.
3. Finally, if you don’t really care how the turkey looks right before serving it, you can cut off the turkey wing tips or even the whole wings and add them to the pot. The wing tips in particular often end up too dark and/or don’t have much meat on them. They therefore don’t get eaten and are better served in the gravy. Having said that, I have one family member who loves to chew on the roasted turkey wing tips, so I never do this!

What Else To Add To The Turkey Stock Pot?

To the pot with your turkey trimmings, add any or all of the following:

• 1 quartered onion (leaving the skin on adds a touch of color to the gravy and is optional)
• 6 or 7 unpeeled cloves of garlic
• 1 carrot in chunks
• 1 rib celery in chunks
• 6-10 pepeprcorns
• 1 bay leaf
• Fresh herbs like parsley, thyme, sage and/or rosemary
• Dried herbs like parsley, thyme, sage and/or rosemary

Do not add any salt since it will concentrate in there and make your stock, and therefore your gravy, too salty.

To the turkey bits and other ingredients, add either water or unsalted chicken stock to the pot, adding only just enough to barely submerge everything. Bring this to a boil over high heat and then simmer it for an hour or two. You can add more water or stock if it reduces too much. You’re making a highly concentrated turkey stock.

When do you use this turkey stock? In the recipe below it says that you need 5 cups of turkey drippings or to make up 5 cups with drippings and stock. After roasting your turkey, pour the drippings into a measuring cup. See how much you have. It will likely be below 5 cups. So then, use your turkey stock to bring you up to the needed 5 cups.

The Fat and Flour For Making Gravy

For making 5 cups of gravy, get out a medium saucepan and add in 7.5 tablespoons of fat. You can use fat skimmed from the top of the turkey drippings. It’s ok if some of the liquid gets in but try to make it mostly the fat from the top. If you don’t have enough of that fat or don’t want to use it, you can use butter instead.

Drizzle in a little bit of the drippings at a time, whisking constantly to keep it smooth. Doing this off of the heat is often easiest because the flour isn’t cooking immediately, which can cause more clumping. Keep adding drippings/liquid and stirring until you’ve added your 5 cups of liquid.

Heat the gravy over medium-high heat, stirring often, until it comes to a boil. Then reduce it to a simmer. Cook, stirring often, until it thickens to your desired consistency, then take it off of the heat. Taste it and add salt and seasonings as desired.

And if you end up with leftovers, I have plenty of ways to use leftover gravy.

How To Thicken Or Thin Out The Gravy

If your gravy ends up too thick, you can always add more water or stock. Taste the gravy first. If it has nice strong flavor, water will be fine. If it’s on the salty side, water is also a good idea. If it has a milder flavor or is not salty, you can add in drippings, stock, or broth.

If your gravy ends up too thin, you can simmer it over medium-low heat stirring often until it reduces to the thickness that you’d like. Taste it first though. If it is salty before you start, it will be too salty once it reduces. If that’s the case, it’s best to thicken it using extra flour. There are two ways to do this. The first dilutes the flavor of the gravy a bit, which is good if your gravy is too salty. The second adds extra richness, which is good if your gravy lacks flavor.

Method #1 For Thickening Gravy With Extra Flour: Get out a container with a tight-fitting lid. Add 2-4 tablespoons of flour to the jar, depending on how thick you’d like it. Then add 3 times as much water or unsalted stock. Put on the lid and shake it really well. Stir that into your gravy and bring it to a simmer over medium-high heat while stirring often. It will thicken more as it simmers.

Method #2 For Thickening Gravy With Extra Flour: For this you make a beurre manié, which means kneaded butter. Mix together 2-4 tablespoons of flour with equal amounts of softened butter. Dollop that into your gravy and stir it in. Bring it to a simmer. It will thicken as it simmers. To see how this technique works, watch the video in my Beef Tips and Rice recipe post here.

Using Cornstarch Instead Of Flour

You can use cornstarch instead of flour to make gravy. But you make cornstarch gravy a bit differently than flour gravy. Flour gets mixed with fat whereas cornstarch gets mixed with a water-based liquid like water or stock.

To Make 3 Cups of Cornstarch Gravy: Mix 2 tablespoons of cornstarch with 1/4 cup of cool stock or water. Pour it into a saucepan and add 2 and 3/4 cup of liquid made up of drippings and/or other liquids (such as 2 and 1/4 cups stock and 1/2 cup white wine). Stir and cook over medium-high heat until it comes to a boil. Reduce it to a simmer and cook stirring often until it is the thickness you’d like. Taste and season.

If you end up with a gravy that’s too thick, follow the advice above for thinning it out. If it’s too thin, you can make another slurry of 1 tablespoon cornstarch and 2 tablespoons water or stock. Take your gravy off the heat and make sure it’s not simmering. Then stir in the slurry, return the gravy to the heat and bring it up to a simmer.

Note that cornstarch gravy doesn’t hold up as well in the fridge as flour gravy. I don’t recommend that you make it ahead of time because it loses its thickness as it sits. 

Seasonings For Turkey Gravy

I like to use homemade poultry seasoning for this easy turkey gravy recipe. Store-bought is a second choice. It’s a blend that goes well with poultry, and I find it goes really well in this gravy.

Poultry seasoning typically contains dried thyme, dried sage, dried marjoram, dried oregano, dried rosemary, and a small amount of ginger. If you don’t have poultry seasoning or don’t want to use it, you can use half thyme and half sage. 

The Final Drizzle Of Turkey Juices

There’s one last thing you need to do to get really great turkey flavor into your turkey gravy, and that’s adding every last bit of turkey juices that you can.

As the turkey rests, some juices will accumulate on the cutting board or platter under it. Pour those into your gravy! And then, if you’re carving your turkey in the kitchen and not at the table, you’ll see more juices come out as you carve. Add those to your gravy as well.

Sometimes you get a lot of these juices and it can thin your gravy out a little bit. So it’s a good idea to have some flour-water mixture or beurre manié, or a cornstarch-water slurry ready to go just in case you need to do a last-minute thickening.

More Gravy Recipes

I really love gravy, as you can probably tell from all of the above advice. I love it so much that I have an entire collection of gravy and sauce recipes here. Here are some of my favorites:

• Best Chicken Gravy Recipe
• How to Make Ham Gravy
• Onion Gravy Recipe
• Mushroom Gravy

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