Pouring the perfect turkey gravy over my dinner is my favorite part of a holiday meal. This uses simple ingredients and is ready in a flash!
I have a confession to make, I am a gravy fiend! I love to pour it over my whole plate at Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. When I was young, my family would not let me pour my own gravy onto my plate for fear that there would not be any left after I was done! Any turkey dinner is not complete without a healthy dose of gravy.
While I love to eat gravy, I sometimes find the thought of cooking it to be daunting. I created this recipe to make cooking gravy as easy and foolproof as possible! It is also a bit of a journey to get to the perfect gravy, but with practice I am sure you will get there.
How to Make the Perfect Turkey Gravy
While the full recipe instructions are available below, here are some tips to make the best gravy for your turkey dinner!
Onions: for this recipe, I added finely chopped onions. This is not how my family would normally make gravy, but when I am using a small turkey breast, I find it adds a lot of flavor. You want to cook the onions well - for at least ten to fifteen minutes. You also want to make sure you do not brown them on the edges, so stir them often! This is important because it adds amazing flavor but keeps a good texture.
Flour: once our onions are well cooked, add the flour and stir with a whisk. The flour should start to turn brown when it is ready. This is important, because the flour needs to be cooked to avoid making your gravy taste like flour.
Turkey Drippings: now that the flour has been cooked, add the turkey drippings a little at a time and whisk it together with the flour and onions. It should start to create a nice thick mixture. Let it continue to cook for a few seconds to make sure it is well combined. For this recipe, I used pan drippings from my simple roast turkey breast. I also added chicken broth to the drippings to make sure I had two cups of liquid to add to my gravy.
Salt: I find the trickiest part when preparing gravy is to manage the salt content. Have a taste of your gravy at this point and check how it tastes. If it tastes salty, add low sodium chicken broth to the gravy to dilute it. If it tastes bland, add more salt. Continue adding salt or broth as needed until you reach the perfect flavor and enjoy!
1 + 3/4 cup white onion, diced fine (approximately 1 large onion)
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 cups turkey drippings (add chicken broth if you have less than 2 cups)
Low sodium chicken broth, to taste
Salt, to taste
Instructions
Heat a saucepan on medium heat and add butter and onions. Cook the onions, stirring often, until very soft and starting to turn a golden color, approximately 10 to 15 minutes.
Add the flour and whisk with the onions. Cook until the flour is starting to turn brown, approximately 3 minutes.
Add the drippings slowly and whisk into the flour mixture. Cook, whisking until well combined. Taste and check the flavor – if it is bland, add a little more salt; if it is too salty, add a little low sodium chicken broth. Once the flavor is to your liking, turn the heat off and serve.
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