Rich Turkey Gravy

It's all about the scraps

A good gravy is simple: Brown your turkey/chicken scraps, add caramelized aromatic veggies, add broth and herbs, simmer and thicken. But why do so many people get it wrong? One of the main reasons a gravy is lackluster is because the ingredients aren’t browned properly. Many people add too many scraps to a pan or pot, steaming them and never attaining that rich browning that a great gravy requires. This is why there are fake browning liquids sold to deepen your gravy. Don’t ever buy those.

Meat counters are great this time of year because you can buy all of those turkey scraps like backs, necks, and wings for cheap as they have so much left over. If your butcher doesn’t have those, you can also just buy cheap chicken wings and backs to fortify your gravy. Either will brown beautifully and create that rich turkey gravy.

In this recipe, I use a combination of both turkey and chicken. In order to get the best product, I brown the bones/backs in two batches or on two pans making sure they are spaced about 1-2 inches apart. This prevents the meat from steaming, which we know, nothing can brown in the presence of steam.

While your bones are browning, you will want to get a nice deep caramelization on your mirepoix (traditionally carrots, onions, and celery). One mistake cooks make, however, is adding the celery to their mirepoix as it browns. Celery is nothing more than water and fiber, with no real sugars, so it only inhibits the browning process of your carrots and onions. Therefore, I add the celery directly to the stock pot to get my carrots and onions deeply browned. I also do this over low and slow heat. Too often people caramelize over high heat which chars the exterior of the veggies and leaves the inside pale and raw. You want to bring out all of the sugars, slowly over time to get the deepest flavor - exactly what you want for a good gravy.

Once your carrots and onions are properly caramelized, you can add your garlic as it only needs about 45 seconds to toast before it gets bitter and acrid. At this stage you deglaze the veggies with whatever flavor you like: Red Wine, White Wine, Madeira, Brandy, Scotch, Beer even. The key is deglazing with alcohol as the alcohol is a catalyst for flavors that otherwise wouldn’t come out. That’s why penne ala vodka tastes so good. Then I add a touch of tomato paste or sauce to deepen the flavor, add the bones to the stock, add liquid, and simmer away.

The final essential step is making sure your bones are roasted on all sides. They may appear brown on one side but the underside is still pale and not browned. This is why you will need to turn your roasting pans halfway through the cooking process and flip the bones so they brown on all sides before adding to the stock.

But wait! You aren’t done yet. The pans will be studded with beautiful browned bits. YOU MUST get these into the stock pot. This is called the fond, which is French for foundation, as it’s the foundation of the sauce. It’s how traditional pan sauces are made. Once your bones are done, remove the pans one at a time from the oven, scrape the bones into the stock pot, and then pour water over the paan scraping the bits into the stock. They will easily come off if the pan is hot enough. If the pan cools down, you may have to put it back into the oven for a minute to get it hot so the bits remove easily.

Once this is all in the pot, cover the bones/scraps with 2 inch of water, add bay leaf, rosemary, thyme, and black peppercorn to the pot and allow the stock to simmer for at least 2 hours. Make sure the stock is rolling at a lazy bubble and not a boil, otherwise the stock will be cloudy and will emulsify with the particulates in the broth.

Once the stock has cooked, strain the stock back into a sauce pot and reduce it by almost half to richen the flavor. At this stage you can make a slurry with cornstarch and water and pour into the stock as it’s boiling to thicken it. You must add the slurry while the stock is boiling/simmering otherwise it won’t thicken properly. I like to use a cornstarch slurry as opposed to a mix of flour and butter as it creates a lighter, velvety mouthfeel. It will also make the stock gluten-free if you have gluten-sensitive guests.

So good the kids lick it off the plate