Homemade Gravy Recipe (with or without Pan Drippings)
The easiest homemade gravy recipe can be made with or without pan drippings! Scratch gravy uses mostly pantry staple ingredients, like flour and butter. This warm gravy is absolutely delicious poured over turkey, mashed potatoes, homemade biscuits, and so much more!
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups pan-drippings or stock see notes
- 1 teaspoon EACH: Worcestershire sauce AND low sodium soy sauce
- 1 chicken bouillon cube or beef for brown gravy
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter see notes
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ¾ teaspoon garlic powder
- A few sprigs sage rosemary, and thyme (see notes)
- Pinch of cayenne optional
- Kosher salt + white pepper
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream optional
Instructions
- MAKE STOCK: Add the Worcestershire, soy sauce, and bouillon cube into the stock and microwave until the liquid is warm enough for the bouillon to dissolve; stir to combine.
- ROUX: Add the butter to a medium saucepan over medium heat. When melted, whisk in the flour, onion powder, garlic powder, and cayenne (if using) and cook the flour for 1-2 minutes to cook out the rawness. Then, in a steady stream as you whisk, pour in half of the stock. Continue to whisk until smooth. Then pour the rest in and whisk until no lumps remain. Add the herbs (tied with kitchen twine) to the gravy.
- YOU'VE GOT GRAVY: Allow the gravy to heat through and thicken, about 3-5 minutes. Taste and adjust with salt (if it needs it) pepper, and cayenne as desired. Fish out the herbs. Stir the cream into the gravy. Serve warm over chicken, mashed potatoes, turkey, chops, or anything else you’d like!
Notes
- Pan drippings can be from roasted turkey, chicken, beef, or even lamb. Pour what you have into a measuring cup and add enough low sodium stock (chicken, turkey, or beef) to make 2½ cups. If you don’t have pan drippings, use 2 ½ cups low sodium stock.
- Fat drippings from a roast can replace up to 2 tablespoons of the butter. Be sure to use a fat separator to ensure that it’s just fat that you’re adding when making the roux!
- Fresh herbs If you don’t happen to have fresh herbs on hand, just replace them with ½ teaspoon of dried thyme when adding the onion/garlic powder. If you use fresh herbs, I tie them together with kitchen twine so that you can fish them out quickly.
