Turkey Gravy for Thanksgiving or Anytime

adapted from Cuisine Nov.1999 issue
Makes approx. 6 - 8 cups

No matter what you do to the turkey, you can always save it with a great Turkey Gravy!

My favorite part of the meal is perfect mashed potatoes served with thick, rich turkey gravy. If there are seconds to be had (and there always are), I'm heading back to the potatoes. The turkey will keep for leftovers, but those creamy mashed spuds have a limited life span so I'm jumping on the mashed potato gravy train. "All aboard"

If you are looking for a shortcut, check out this recipe for preparing a quick and easy turkey gravy and don't forget to check out my article Talking Turkey for tips and suggestions on how to cook your bird.

To make 8 cups of Gravy Base

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 carrot
• 1 rib celery
• 1/2 yellow onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 cup apple juice
• 8 cups homemade chicken stock or turkey stock
• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns, whole
• 4 sprigs fresh parsley
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 bay leaves

To make the gravy

• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• Gravy Base just made
• 1/2 cup reserved turkey fat
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour

Begin by getting your Gravy Base ingredients prepped. Peel and chop the carrot, celery, onion and garlic. Either make or get ready the chicken stock.

Making the Gravy Base

1. Heat the butter and oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the chopped vegetables, garlic, turkey neck and sauté until the vegetables are caramelized. (approximately 15 minutes). Stir occasionally to prevent sticking and burning.

2. Deglaze the pan with apple juice and stir, scraping up the brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Reduce until the juice evaporates to an essence. (Approx. 5 minutes)

3. Add the chicken stock, peppercorns, and herbs. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered for one hour. Strain gravy base and set aside.

Making the Gravy

4. Remove turkey from roasting pan. Pour off pan drippings and reserve. Place pan over high heat and deglaze with white wine. Skim the fat from the reserved pan drippings and reserve.

5. Add the Gravy Base and the defatted pan drippings back to the pan and bring liquid to a boil over medium heat.

6. Make a roux by heating the reserved turkey fat and enough butter to make 1/2 cup in a small sauté pan. When the fat is hot, add flour and whisk to combine.

7. To thicken the gravy, whisk in small amounts of roux until the gravy is at the desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

My friends at GatewayGourmet.com sent me this recipe for the holidays. GatewayGourmet is a great site if you are interested in learning how to use stocks and stock reductions for soups, sauces and stews. They adapted the recipe from Cuisine magazine (one of my favorite cooking magazines) using More Than Gourmet's Glace de Poulet Gold, a 20 concentrated chicken stock reduction.

These commercial stocks and stock reductions truly take the work out of making soups and sauces. I hope they excuse me because I've adapted the recipe back to the original form using chicken stock for those of you who don't happen to have their product on hand. This is a wonderful recipe that I think you will enjoy this Thanksgiving or any other time you roast a turkey.

GatewayGourmet.com also has information on a wonderful turkey stock that is perfect for making this gravy. Just substitute the chicken stock with turkey stock and you have yourself a flavorful gravy. You can also use it for making soup with the leftovers.