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Forget about buying cans of gravy in your local supermarket for your next Holiday or for a Sunday dinner. This post will teach you how to make a super easy homemade gravy, with or without drippings from meat, poultry or fish. The easy formula of a proper fat to starch to liquid ration, plus some seasonings, will help you make an amazing gravy right at home.
Pour this gravy over this super easy slow cooker turkey breast and you have dinner ready.
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Easy Homemade Gravy with or without drippings
If you’ve ever thought that making gravy was difficult, have no fear. It’s actually much easier than one may think.
To make the perfect gravy you’ll need 3 basic components: fat, starch and liquid. In the section below you’ll find the exact ratio of these ingredients to make a really easy delicious gravy right at home.
You may hear that in order to make gravy you need to have pan drippings. While the pan drippings definitely help to make a very flavorful gravy, it’s not necessarily. You can use butter or oil instead, and still achieve your homemade gravy without drippings.
What Ingredients are needed to make Easy Homemade Gravy
As mentioned above you’ll need 3 components to make super delicious homemade gravy. The following are some options for each of these:
- Fat:
- Pan drippings
- Unsalted Butter
- Olive Oil (or other oil of your choosing)
- Starch:
- All-purpose flour
- Cornstarch
- Liquid:
- Pan juices
- Chicken/Turkey stock or broth
- Beef stock
- Vegetable broth
Easy Formula to make Homemade Gravy
You really need a very simple formula for this easy homemade gravy (this isn’t complex math people). For a moderately thick gravy, you should stick with this easy formula: 1+1+1 (1 tablespoon of fat + 1 tablespoon of starch + 1 cup of liquid).
If you want your gravy a bit thicker then you’d use 2 tablespoons of fat and 2 tablespoon of starch for one cup of liquid.
How to Make Gravy from Scratch
In order to make a really good gravy you just need to follow a few simple steps:
- Heat up your fat;
- Add your starch and mix it with a whisk;
- Use a room temperature liquid and add 1/4 cup at the time, vigorously whisking it to avoid any lumps;
- Continue until all the liquid is incorporated and the sauce is smooth;
- The more flavorful your liquid the better your gravy;
- At the end add whatever spices and aromatics that you’d like. Options are not limited, but here are some suggestions:
- Salt and Pepper (kind of obvious)
- Worcestershire Sauce
- Dry Garlic
- Dry Onion powder
- Fresh or dried herbs
- Maggie seasoning (if you’ve never tried it, it has a similar taste to soy sauce but maybe a little bit more intense; you can find it in any Polish specialty store but I also saw it in some Spanish specialty stores).
-
- Add flour to melted butter
-
- Whisk it together
-
- Whisk it well until smooth
-
- Start adding the broth
How to Use Gravy
Depending on the type of liquid that you use, you can pour this gravy over your favorite roast, steak, chicken, fish or vegetables.
Here are a couple of my suggestions:
- Slow Cooker Turkey Breast
- Slow Cooker Whole Roasted Chicken
- Maple Mustard Roasted Turkey
- Slow Roasted Chicken Leg Quarters
- Oven Roasted Chicken Legs and Thighs
- Potato Cutlets with Asparagus
- Potato Fondant
Easy Homemade Gravy
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp Butter Unsalted*
- 2 tbsp Flour** All-purpose
- 2 cups Broth***
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder
- 1/4 teaspoon Black Pepper
- Salt or Maggie seasoning to taste (the amount of salt will depend on the saltiness of your broth)
Instructions
- Heat up your butter (or drippings or oil) in a skillet on medium-low heat,
- Add your flour (or corn starch) and mix it with a whisk;
- Use a room-temperature liquid (chicken broth, beef broth, vegetable broth or pan juices) and add 1/4 cup at the time, vigorously whisking it to avoid any lumps;
- Continue until all the liquid is incorporated and the sauce is smooth; The more flavorful your liquid the better your gravy;
- At the end add whatever spices and aromatics that you'd like. Options are not limited, but here is a list of what was used for this gravy recipe: Salt and Pepper, Worcestershire Sauce, Dry Garlic, Maggie seasoning.
- Serve it with your favorite roast, poultry, fish or vegetables.
Notes
- Pan drippings
- Olive Oil (or other oil of your choosing)
- Cornstarch
- Pan juices
- Turkey stock or broth
- Beef stock
- Vegetable broth
Nutrition
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I agree 100%! Don’t ever settle for canned gravy. This recipe is foolproof. It’s the perfect gravy recipe!
The creamy dreamy consistency is perfect! And super easy too! Thank you and I love it!!
The Worcestershire sauce must be the secret ingredient here. The gravy definitely tastes better with it. 🙂
Yum! I love making gravy and your recipe look delicious, I bet it tastes fabulous too. This can be poured over anything, i will try your recipe with the drippings, cheers!
I really love this version! Such a great tip about not having to have drippings to make it! Will be trying this ASAP!