Holiday Cooking 101: Make-Ahead Gravy

Yoko Kumano on Nov 29, 2013

Did you run out of gravy this year? Do you dream about swimming in vats of gravy?

I've answered "yes" to both of these questions on many occasions. It was my first Thanksgiving this year, in my new home and I vowed that at MY Thanksgiving dinner, the gravy would flow like the Trevi Fountain.

So, I decided I would make gravy the day before by roasting turkey parts and extracting drippings stock from those parts. That way, I can control the amount of gravy I want (at least 6 cups) and add to it when the drippings from the whole turkey came out on Thanksgiving day.

Turkey parts are available at the butcher shop during Thanksgiving for the most part, but I would advise you call your local grocer to make sure. I called a few days ago hoping to get wings, but they were sold out when I got around to shopping (Wednesday) so I opted for drumsticks instead. I asked for 3 drumsticks, forgetting that turkeys are MUCH bigger than chicken and ended up with over 7 pounds of meat and bone. I ended up using only two because I didn't have a roasting pan big enough to accommodate 3.

INGREDIENTS
Makes 6 cups

Stock
2 turkey parts; wings or drumsticks
1 yellow onion, diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
2-3 carrots, diced
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and diced
2 sprigs of thyme
1 sprig of rosemary
2 turkey parts; wings or drumsticks
2-1/2 quarts of vegetable or chicken broth
Gizzards and heart in the whole turkey (do not include liver)

Gravy
3 tablespoons turkey fat (that you skimmed off the broth)
3 tbsp butter (or some parts duck fat or bacon fat)
1/2 cup flour
6 cups strained turkey stock
Salt and pepper

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 400˚F.

2. Put the diced vegetables and herbs into a roasting pan and place the wings or drumsticks on top.

3. Bake for 1 hour.

4. In a stock pot, heat some oil and saute turkey innards until browned. Add the contents of the roasting pan into the stock pot with the sauteed innards. Add the vegetable stock into the pot as well.

5. Deglaze the roasting pan with 3 tbsp of water and add to stock pot.

6. Bring contents to boil, then turn down to steady simmer (med-lo).

7. Simmer for 3 hours. Skim the oil that floats to the top and collect into a bowl every 30 min. Save for when you make the roux for the gravy. Collect 3 tablespoons.

8. After 3 hours of simmering, strain the contents from the stock pot. Set aside the stock.

The stock.

9. In a pan, add butter (or duck/bacon fat) and turkey fat to a pan and heat until melted. Add the flour and whisk in until it kind of starts to smell DELICIOUS (baked pot pie).

Butter and fat.

Add the flour.

10. Then slowly ladle in the broth. I ladled in about 1 cup and dissolved the flour bits well and then added in the rest of the stock. Stir well and pretty soon you'll be met with that gravy consistency.