Make-Ahead Turkey Gravy

This make-ahead turkey gravy is a life saver! The thought of having to make the turkey and make the gravy when the turkey was already out of the oven and people were crowding my kitchen and waiting to eat was stressing me out! What if I mess it up? What if I don’t have enough drippings?

This recipe can me made up to a month ahead and stored in the freezer! So take an afternoon, make some gravy, and save your sanity on Thanksgiving!

If you need a recipe from your Thanksgiving day turkey drippings…HERE IS A GREAT TURKEY GRAVY FROM DRIPPINGS.

First, pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees. Then take out a large oven-proof dutch oven. (I have THIS ONE but HERE is a list of others that would work just as well!) Add in your turkey wings, onion, celery (I use the leaves too!), carrots, garlic. Pour your olive oil over everything and add in 2 teaspoons of salt, and 1 teaspoon of pepper. Toss everything around to coat with the oil. 

Place your pot on a center rack in your pre-heated oven and roast uncovered for 1 hour. When it comes out it will look like this: (I like to broil it for a couple of minutes at the end to get some darker color. This picture was before the broiling)

Once you take it out of the oven, place it right on the stove and cook on high for 5 minutes. This will just boil off some of that liquid and brown the veggies and wings a little bit more. After the 5 minutes, add in the thyme, and broth to the pot. Bring everything to a full boil and then reduce the heat to medium and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.

After boiling, you just strain everything into a large bowl. Take the bowl of liquid and place it in the freezer for 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes, scoop off and discard the layer of fat that has accumulated on the top .

Now in the same pot you were using (no need to clean it out) add in your butter and allow it to melt. Once it’s melted, add in your flour and cook on medium heat for about 2 minutes. 

Add your liquid back into the pan and cook for about 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. If you are freezing or refrigerating this for later, make sure you let it cool before placing it in the fridge or freezer.

When you are ready to use the gravy, just thaw it in the fridge the night before 🙂 Enjoy!

Print Recipe

5 from 2 votes

Make-Ahead Turkey Gravy

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 4 turkey wings I can usually find these year round
• 1 large white onion cut into large chunks
• 4 ribs of celery roughly chopped
• 3 carrots roughly chopped
• 4 cloves large garlic roughly chopped
• 7 cups of chicken broth or turkey
• 6 tbsp butter
• 6 tbsp all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon thyme
• Salt and Pepper (to taste)

Instructions

• Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees.
• In a large dutch oven add: turkey wings, onion, celery, carrots, garlic, olive oil, 2 teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper.
• Toss to coat.
• Roast uncovered for 1 hour.  (After the hour, broil for about 4-5 minutes to add some browning) Be sure to keep an eye on it! 
• After the hour, take the pot from the oven and place it on the stove top. Add chicken broth and thyme and bring to a full boil then reduce to medium heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.
• After simmering, strain everything and reserve the liquid. (place liquid in the freezer for 30 minutes so the fat will accumulate on the top then skim off the fat)
• In the same pot that you cooked the wings in, add in your butter and melt.
• Once the butter is melted, add in the flour and cook for 2 minutes on medium heat white stirring.
• Add your skimmed liquid back to the pot, bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for 5 minutes. (stirring occasionally)
• Serve immediately or allow to cool before storing in the freezer or refrigerator.

Notes

If you would like to deepen the color and add more "brown" to the gravy, add in 1 tablespoon of soy sauce. It won't change the taste by much at all and will add a deeper color.