Go to the Recipe: Turkey Gravy
As noted in the Editor's Note, the original recipe is included on this page as a Tip after Step 6, right before the make-ahead and storage instructions!
Don’t mess with perfection!! Please return us to the original. Please.
Where is the original? I have made this every year for six or seven years. I have never archived it because it is the best gravy recipe known to man. But clearly things have changed. The timing of the addition of the onions, the Sherry, The amount of bones that you brown right up front ( way less than it used to be. )
Please do tell me where the original is. I want to go back to that one.
Sean I'm really sorry the amount in the recipe didn't work for you! I even cut back on the amount to be safe in the recipe but maybe the brand I was using was more mild in acidity and sweater. I'll adjust the recipe now just incase someone comes across this in the next 24 hrs.
I would suggest omitting the sherry vinegar or adding 1/3 the amount listed. All I taste after adding it is vinegar. I keep adding a little heavy cream and sugar to balance out the vinegar but it keeps lingering in the back of my palate. Please don't sabotage yourself at the end! Start with maybe 20-30 grams and then go up if you need the sharpness of the acid.
Where, I'm looking for it!!! Ugh, that's what I came here for.
Love the recipe. Am bias against using a roux, so I use .5% Xanthan
Imagine feeling the need to update the best recipe ChefSteps has ever done. Thank goodness the original is still available!
I am using the whole bird su code method. Can I use the bones for the stock from that recipe and then use the same bones pulled from the stock for this gravy?
Hi, I make my own turkey stock to start, do I really need to fortify it with additional bits and pieces again to make this,
This is such a delicious recipe; I'm pleased it makes a large quantity! I save the gelee from my turkey confit - sealed and frozen from the previous year - then add that to enrich the stock for the gravy. The addition of sherry vinegar and lemon juice adds a subtle hint of acidity, which brings it all together. Thank you.
Should there be a rest time after applying the transglutaminase and before cooking to allow it to bond?
I was under the impression that it took a little while to bond and became inactivated above 60 C (140 F).
I use whatever bones I can - you are going to smash them open to expose the marrow so whatever bones help you to achieve that goal is best in my opinion. If you watch the video, they put a lot of bones in there.
Are some turkey/chicken bones/pieces better to use than others - like chicken necks or backs?
Ultra-tex 3 is also a great gravy maker and can thicken in a blender without boiling. It is a modified tapioca starch.
Yes, you can use a cornstarch slurry to thicken. The application will change. You will add the slurry and boil to thicken. The amount of starch/slurry used will be different than the above amount for bread flour. More info here on thickening, https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/roux-vs-slurry.
Would I be able to use corn starch rather than bread flour? I have some people with certain allergies coming for thanksgiving and would like to find the best options
Up to 1 week. Stock will hold for about 2 weeks in the cooler when properly cooled and stored.
How far in advance can this be done? 2 days before?
Normal butter is a little under ⅕ water, which will all evaporate before it browns (as in this recipe).
can i use whole wheat bread flour?
Update: it worked but lacked a lot of depth as expected! I definitely had to use less olive oil. I think a lot of the butter evaporates in the cooking
Bread flour is the most consistent flour and resists clumping making it a great flour for gravy.
Why would bread flour be better than the other types?
Just finished making this for the third time...just wonderful. It's going to make the day tomorrow. I save up chicken bones and carcasses throughout the summer just for this as I do the whole turkey. So rich and delicious...takes me about three hours, but so worth the time.
You sure can.
Could I substitute the butter 1:1 with olive oil to make this dairy free?
I've done exactly this, tastes amazing
I'm planning to make the regular sous vide turkey this year (https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/a-better-way-to-turkey-cook-that-bird-sous-vide-for-the-best-feast-ever). Is it possible to do the turkey, turkey stock (from the same turkey recipe), and this gravy all with one bird? I.e. break down the turkey, use the back, neck, wings, and giblets to make the stock, then use the same back, neck, wings, and giblets as the "bones and giblets" portion of this gravy? Thanks!
I made a "boat" of aluminum foil (a large flat piece doubled over for strength, then all sides turned up to retain juices), put the gizzard, liver, neck and heart in it, sprinkled with seasoned salt, and put them all in my Cookshack electric smoker. I added the carcass bones from my deboned turkey, and the tail and the wingtips, and smoked the whole deal over 2 small chunks of apple wood (2 oz each) for 2 hours. Quartered onion, 8 smashed cloves of garlic, 2 bay leaves, handful of peppercorns, dash of rosemary, sage and thyme, kosher salt , diced carrots and celery. Simmered in the oven overnight at 225. Great base for gravy, and for Greek egg-lemon soup with turkey (Avgolemono me gallo)!
Red wine vinegar.
I would recommend to just chill it down and keep it cold before reheating and not freezing the gravy.
I am roasting a big bird, but doing it 9 hours from home. Can I make the gravy ahead of time using the neck and giblets and then just freeze and warm the gravy before serving?
Hi Andy, We haven't tried this out with the Ut-3, but if you are looking for it to be gluten-free, we have found that Mochiko rice flour works really well for the texture you’re looking for.
Could I use Ultra-sperse 3 to thicken it in place of the flour? If so, how much should I use?
Just made this again (tripled the recipe quantities with a few exceptions - see below) for Thanksgiving. I think this might be the single most tasty food item I have ever made, it is that good. There are younger kids who never eat gravy who anxiously await my gravy each year. Tripling produced about 5 to 5.5 liters of finished product. It barely fit in my 7 QT There was enough to feed 30 people and still freeze 5 servings of 650g each. I tripled all of the ingredients except for the bones and spare meat used to create the fond and roux. At some point it feels like there are diminishing returns to packing even more meat into it. Because I was tripling everything, I did melt all the butter but then pulled out about 1/2 when I started browning the bones and meat as there was just too much butter soup. As it reduced a bit with the early batches then I added the rest of the butter back in over time so that in the end it was thick, dark and infused with goodness. So for a tripled recipe, the bones should come to 5.4kg but I only used about 4kg and it was plenty.
Tripled recipe also means a LOT of stock. I used all of my recently made pressure cooker chicken stock plus 3 more store-bought Quarts. I also used the immersion blender to blend in about 80-100g of meat from the bones. I think any more than that and it will become too pasty and fibrous. But with just a little extra meat there is such depth to the taste...
This was so unbelievably ludicrously good. Perfect accompaniment to ChefSteps’s SV turkey breasts, which I cooked at 131 for 24 hours, then seared off in oil and butter.
FWIW, if you’re looking to reduce dirty equipment: instead of a food processor and immersion blender I just used a countertop blender. After the roux, I dumped it all in and puréed, then added the meat bits and pulsed until they were chopped finely.
Apple cider vinegar works great.
If I don't have sherry vinegar, what should I substitute it with?
This! I spent 15 minutes basically boiling the meat in butter then decided to scoop off all I could. This made for much better browning. Maybe I need a wider pot? On a side note, when I added the reserved butter back in, I was surprised how much gravy this made. The roux didn't come together because there was so much butter. I was afraid I had done something wrong until I let it boil to thicken and tasted it. This was the first gravy I've ever made and it was PERFECT.
Me too! I made a quick stock, then added that to the roux. Great success. Many compliments.
Or sodium chloride!!! Gasp!!!
I did the same thing, Jim, just not sure how I'm going to reheat yet! Sous vide gently or bring to a simmer on the stove?
The one part I didn't understand was why after I had browned all those bones they weren't being used to enrich the stock. So I put the roux to the side and simmered my stock with the browned bones for a few hours....
Guys... This is F@#%ing delicious. Every year I make thanksgiving dinner for my family. This year I thought I would scale back the number of dishes and concentrate on making a few things really shine. This gravy is going to do just that. I made it today (wednesday) and I am serving it Thursday in the hopes that it will makes even further tastierness over time. Would you guys recommend waiting to add the sherry and lemon juice until service? Or just add it now and add additional at Turkey time? Happy Thanksgiving Chefsteppers!
Awesome recipe, looking forward to making it tomorrow, how do you recommend reheating?
So sad to see people on this site so uninformed. MSG is not poison.
Agree!1! but it could be worst if you talk about dihydrogen monoxide!!1!
If you want more flavor without MSG you are going to have to work for it! I roast turkey wings and legs for about 2.5 to 3 hours until very dark brown and then start to saute carrots celery and onions in the saved turkey fat for 15-20 mins in pressure stock pot. (little garlic too and pepper). Once done I add a chicken stock and the turkey and pressure cook fo an hour, then strain it all through an hat. What I get needs no flour no nothing to be amazing. Add some herbs (to compliment your turkey herbs and spices) and reduce and final salt to taste. A lot of work but intense flavors! Like a demi glace in the end.
many of your recipes based on msg, with regret I have to admit that this is unacceptable. MSG is a chemical which is a highly toxic, and the application of its results, the shit will even tasted like dish from Michelin star restaurant. Cooking is not about adding of chemicals to eat, then we have in supermarkets. thank you
Excellent recipe! I just made the gravy for Christmas with necks and back purchased for a few cents per pound. I used one of the backs to make the stock and the rest to make the fond. I found that there was too much butter to get the fond going so I drained most of the butter until the fond was well under way and then returned the reserved butter. The meat left on the bones was roasted in the butter until perfectly crisp. For a nice chef's treat, remove the bones, add some Maldon salt and crack open a craft beer! I'm presently making the "Modernist Cuisine" mashed potatoes. I vacuum seal the potatoes and then reheat in the Sous Vide on Christmas, It's nice to have the ability to not leave everything until the day of.
This is a fantastic recipe. I was also making stock so I used wings, necks and backs instead of the bones and roasted them in a 450 oven till they were well browned. I then put them in the pressure cooker to make more stock. The fat and fond in the roasting pan then went into the gravy pan and I used some turkey stock from my previous batch to make the gravy. A home run all the way around.
My one hesitation was with the lemon juice since for me it can dominate even in small quantities. I used about half as much as the recipe called for and was pleased that I couldn't detect it as a distinct flavor. Maybe next time I'll try the full amount and see how it works.
