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Turkey isn’t the same without rich and velvety smooth Turkey Gravy. But if you’re frying or smoking your turkey, you may be wondering how to make the gravy. No worries! You can make this gravy without having to bake a whole turkey and it’s loaded with the most incredible flavor.
The best part is, you can transfer it to a gravy boat and serve it as soon as it’s ready or make it in advance and warm it up when dinner is ready!
Make Ahead Turkey Gravy
Thanksgiving is such a fun day, but is a really busy time of year so having make ahead recipes are really helpful. This delicious homemade gravy is an easy way to save a little time without having to give up any flavor of gravy made the traditional way. And it turns out perfect every time!
One of the things you’re really going to love about it is that you can make it any time of the year without having to roast a whole turkey just so you’ll have enough drippings to make it. This gravy is loaded with so much flavor and is awesome served over a Slow Cooker Turkey Breast, fried chicken, roast beef or even these creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes.
If you are looking for other great recipes to add to your holiday dinner table lineup, you should dry this Honey Glazed Ham, this Cranberry Jell-O Salad or for a tasty appetizer, try this homemade Pumpkin Hummus.
💓 Why We Love This Recipe
- You don’t have to bake a whole turkey to make the perfect turkey gravy with this recipe.
- Making this creamy gravy ahead of time is a huge time saver when you’re busy cooking other dishes.
- The roasted veggies add a lot of flavors with very little prep work. Just chop and drop!
- Made using all simple ingredients that come together very easily.
Recommended Tools
- Baking Dish or small roasting pan
- Large saucepan
- Sharp Knife
- Measuring Spoon
- Mesh Strainer
🛒 What’s Needed for Homemade Gravy
- Turkey legs
- Yellow onion
- Carrots
- Celery stalks
- Butter, divided
- Seasoning salt
- Poultry seasoning
- Garlic salt
- Smoked paprika
- Black pepper
- All purpose flour
- Chicken stock or turkey stock
How to Make Delicious Turkey Gravy
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Step One: Prepare the Veggies and Turkey Legs
- Wash and rough chop the vegetables on a cutting board. Place your onion, carrots and celery down in the bottom of the roasting pan.
- Place the turkey legs on top of the veggies.
Step Two: Add the Seasonings
- In a small bowl melt 4 tablespoons of butter.
- Add all the seasonings to the butter and whisk to combine.
- Pour the seasoned butter over the turkey legs
Step Three: Roast Veggies and Turkey Legs
- Roast turkey legs for about 45 minutes.
- Transfer the roasted turkey legs and all the veggies and any of the drippings from the baking dish to a large pot.
TIP: You’re not looking to cook these through. You just want to get some good golden brown color on the legs and veggies and to render a little of the turkey fat.
Step Four: Make the Stock
- Pour in the 4 cups of stock.
- Bring the pot up to a boil over medium-high heat and then turn down to a simmer and place a lid on.
- Let this simmer on top of the stove for an hour.
- Remove the vegetables and legs from the pot.
- Pour the mixture through a strainer to get everything out or just use a slotted spoon to remove everything.
Step Five: Make the Roux
- Next get a sauce pan and over medium heat melt 4 tablespoons of butter.
- Once melted whisk in your flour a little at a time and cook over medium heat until it becomes a thick brown roux.
TIP: For extra smooth gravy, run the flour through a sifter before adding it to the butter.
Step Six: Combine Broth and Roux to Make Gravy and Serve
- Carefully whisk in all your stock into the flour mixture.
- Continue whisking over medium heat until it comes to a bubble and thickens.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
Serve and enjoy!
Variations and Add-ins for the Best Gravy
- Turkey Legs: If you’re have trouble finding turkey legs at the grocery store, you can turkey necks or chicken legs.
- Herbs: Sage is a signature herb that you see a lot during the holidays and goes so well with the flavors in turkey and dressing or stuffing. But you can use any of your favorite fresh herbs in this recipe. Bay leaves, fresh thyme and rosemary all give this gravy extra flavor. If you use a bay leaf, make sure you remove it after cooking the vegetables.
- Stock: Using stock gives the gravy lots of flavor. But if you have trouble finding stock, you can use chicken broth or turkey broth in its place. Make sure you use the same amount of liquid regardless of which you use.
- Other add-ins: If you’re serving this gravy over roast beef or savory pork tenderloin, you may want it to have a little bolder flavor. Try adding a splash of Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce to the stock. It gives the flavorful gravy an extra kick that stands up well with heavier meats.
Tips For Easy Turkey Gravy
- The flour acts as a thickening agent, so if you want thinner gravy, just cut back some on some of the flour when making the roux.
- Save the turkey meat from the legs. You can shred it up and add it to your dressing or stuffing, or use the meat to season boiled cabbage, turnip or collard greens.
- Need more gravy? This double very easily, you can add more turkey legs to the pan, or you can just simply double the amount of stock you add to the pot and double the butter and flour for the roux.
- Don’t rush the roux. Once you add the tablespoons of flour to the butter, take your time browning it. You want to cook it long enough to get rid of the raw flour taste, but if you rush it, it will burn.
How To Store Simple Homemade Turkey Gravy?
Store this in the fridge for up to 3 days or the freezer for 3-4 months. You can make and freeze the gravy, or you can make the stock portion of it and store it at that point before adding it to the roux if you prefer.
Why is My Gravy Lumpy?
There are two main reasons gravy turns out lumpy. The main reason is it has not been whisked enough. When you don’t whisk it long enough, the flour can seize up. Once you’ve added the flour to the fat, make sure you whisk it constantly until it is a nice brown color, breaking up any small lumps in the flour you see.
The other reason is that you may have added too much flour at once. For the best turkey gravy recipe, you should add the flour a little at time and whisking the whole time. If you dump all of it in the pan at once, that can cause the flour to lump up.
If your gravy is still lumpy, you can always pour it through a mesh strainer it to remove any lumps. This may reduce the thickness of it so adding a cornstarch slurry to it may be needed.
More Tasty Holiday Recipes
- Leftover Turkey Casserole
- Pumpkin Crescent Rolls
- Cranberry Jalapeno Dip
- Texas Roadhouse Rolls
- Eggnog Bread
- Sugared Cranberries
- Carrot Souffle
Ingredients
- 3 turkey legs
- 1 yellow onion roughly chopped
- 4 carrots
- 4 celery stalks
- 8 tablespoons butter divided
- 1 teaspoon herb seasoning
- 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
- 1 teaspoon garlic salt
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 4 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 4 cups of chicken or turkey broth
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Place your onion, carrots and celery down the bottom of a baking dish.
- Place the turkey legs on top of the veggies.
- In a small bowl melt 4 tablespoons of butter.
- Add all the seasonings to the butter and whisk to combine.
- Pour the seasoned butter over the turkey legs.
- Bake for about 45 minutes, we are not looking to cook these through or anything so no need to worry about internal temperature, we just want to get some good color on the legs and veggies.
- Transfer the legs and all the veggies and drippings from the baking disk to a large pot.
- Pour in the 4 cups of stock.
- Bring the pot up to a boil and then turn down to a simmer and place a lid on.
- Let this simmer for an hour.
- Remove the vegetables and legs from the pot.
- If you like you can pour the mixture through a strainer to get everything out or just use a slotted spoon to remove everything.
- Next get a sauce pan and over medium heat melt 4 tablespoons of butter.
- Once melted whisk in your flour until it becomes a roux.
- Carefully whisk in all your stock.
- Continue whisking over medium heat until it comes to a bubble and thickens.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- At this point you can serve it or I like to put it into a container and store it in the fridge until I need it or you can serve it right away.
- Serve!!
Nutrition
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