Make this hearty white gravy recipe for a variety of meals, especially Southern-style dishes. You only need 5 ingredients and 15 minutes!
This creamy and savory white gravy recipe is easy to make and is delicious on all sorts of dishes, especially Southern dishes like biscuits and gravy or chicken fried chicken. The ingredients are simple – a roux of flour and butter, milk, and season with salt and black pepper. It’s usually made quite thick, but I’ve got tips for achieving the perfect consistency for you.
Scroll down to read more about how it all comes together or click here to jump straight down to the recipe.
How Thick Is White Gravy?
This white gravy recipe is definitely thicker than a standard gravy recipe. This is basically a béchamel sauce with added black pepper, and thicker than béchamel usually is. It’s a real stick-to-your-ribs kind of hearty sauce.
Like with our béchamel, and many other sauces, you first use an equal amount of butter and flour to make a roux. Then milk is slowly whisked in.
For béchamel, you would usually use 1 and 1/2 tablespoons each of butter and flour per cup of milk. For white gravy, I’ve seen as much as 2 and 1/2 tablespoons of butter and flour per cup of milk. That makes a really thick gravy that leaves ribbon trails on the surface like in the picture at the top. That’s what’s in the recipe below.
I’ll be honest though and say that I find that too thick and usually end up thinning it down a bit, like in the picture below, which has thinner drips than the top picture would. So, my recipe has a range of milk called for. The first amount, 2 cups, is for the really thick 2 and 1/2 tablespoons per cup ratio. The 3 cups is if you want to thin it down to what is pictured below, which is a 1 and 1/2 tablespoon per cup ratio.
If you know from the beginning that you want a thinner recipe, like pictured, then you’ll be going to 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of both butter and flour per cup of milk.
How To Thin and Thicken Gravy
Note that it is quite easy to thin gravy down by adding more liquid, but it isn’t as easy to thicken it. I therefore suggest that if you’re not sure how thick you want it, start by making it nice and thick. Use the ratios in the recipe card below. Then, once it’s fully thickened, you can drizzle in more milk until it gets to the thinness that you want.
Seasonings in White Gravy
It’s very simple with only salt and pepper are needed. It’s often quite peppery, actually. That’s the main difference between it and béchamel, other than thickness. The recipe below uses a modest amount of pepper, but you can add more if you want that harder bite.
The only other things that are usually added are some dried thyme and some cayenne. I haven’t listed those below though because I think they only work well in some cases and not in all the places where you might want to serve white gravy.
What Kind Of Milk To Use For White Gravy?
There are very few ingredients in white gravy, and very few things bringing in flavor. The kind of milk you use is therefore important to the taste. The best white gravy will use whole milk. However, I can tell you that I never have whole milk on hand and only use it if I remember to buy it. So I typically use fat-free milk. It’s not as rich and full-flavored, but it is still good. 2% milk will result in a gravy that has more richness than the fat-free milk version, but not as much as the whole milk.
If you only have fat-free milk but you happen to have cream, you can mix the two together in equal amounts to make up a fuller-tasting milk.
Canned evaporated milk can also be used here, and even the fat-free version will actually be quite creamy. So if you have that, give it a try.
Do You Have To Strain The Gravy?
You’ll see that the recipe calls for you to strain the final gravy through a fine mesh sieve. That’s just a final step to make sure there are no flour lumps in your gravy.
If your gravy is done and looks nice and smooth to you, you can absolutely skip this step. I definitely don’t always strain gravies before serving. Having said that, if this gravy is being served as part of an important meal or to someone that you want to impress, I suggest you strain it – then you’ll know for sure that no pesky little lumps will ruin your day!
Where To Use White Gravy
You can use this white gravy as a simple sauce for veggies and pasta. But it’s most commonly used on chicken fried steak and chicken fried steak. Try it on mashed potatoes or over pan-fried pork chops too. Use it in my biscuits and gravy casserole recipe, or for a great vegetarian take on classic biscuits and gravy.
Let me know what you’re serving with this white gravy recipe in the comments. Enjoy! – Christine xo
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White Gravy Recipe
- Prep Time: 0 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Sauce
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
DESCRIPTION
Make this hearty white gravy recipe for a variety of meals, especially Southern-style dishes. You only need 5 ingredients and 15 minutes!
Listen to learn how to make this recipe, along with some great tips from Christine:
Ingredients
- 5 Tbsp. butter
- 5 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
- 2–3 cups milk*
- ½ tsp. salt, plus more to taste
- ¼ tsp. pepper, plus more to taste
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a medium saucepan set over medium heat. Whisk in the flour. Remove from heat.
- Drizzle in ¼ cup of the milk and whisk it until smooth. Drizzle in another ¼ cup and whisk it until smooth again. Slowly add another 1 and ½ cups of milk, whisking the whole time so that the mixture remains smooth. Stir in the salt and pepper.
- Return the saucepan to medium heat. Bring to a simmer while continuing to stir very often. Once it reaches a simmer, stir and cook until it is very thick, 2-3 minutes.
- If desired, stir in up to 1 more cup of milk, stirring the whole time, and stopping when the desired thickness is reached. Cook over medium heat until heated through.
- Taste and add more salt and pepper, if desired. The amount you add will depend on how much extra milk you’ve added, and your own preferences.
- Set a fine mesh sieve over a medium-sized bowl. Pour the gravy through the sieve to remove any flour lumps. Discard contents of sieve. Serve gravy hot.
Love this recipe? I’d appreciate it if you could scroll down and add a *5 star rating* to help others know they’ll love it as well!
Notes
*For the best flavor, use whole milk. If you don’t have whole milk, the next best thing is 2%. You can alternatively mix together fat-free milk and cream in equal parts to richen the milk. If all you have is fat-free milk, that will work just fine. The resulting gravy just won’t have as rich and full flavor. Canned evaporated milk can also be used here, and even the fat-free version will actually be quite creamy.
Kelly says
My husband loves this kind of white, Southern gravy so I was thrilled find the recipe. It turned out great and I’ll definitely be making it again.
★★★★★
Christine Pittman says
Thanks so much, Kelly! Glad it was a hit.
Dawn says
I use this for the base for so many sauces, I love it!
★★★★★
Cheryl says
This is exactly what I was looking for and it turned out perfectly! Thank you for the advice about thinning it down. I don’t like it as thick as a lot of people so this was just right.
★★★★★
Christine Pittman says
Thanks so much for sharing, Cheryl!