The Best Gravy You'll Ever Make

I'm Frank Proto, professional chef

and culinary instructor, and today I'm gonna show you how

to make the best gravy you've ever had,

silky smooth, flavorful gravy that anyone can make.

This is Gravy 101.

Gravy is a sauce made from the thickened

and seasoned juices of cooked meat.

People usually make gravy when they're doing a large roast

and they have all the drippings in the roasting pen.

Pretty much anytime you make a roast,

you should be making gravy.

Today I'm gonna show you how to make the classic version

that I was taught in culinary school many moons ago.

[magical music] [upbeat music]

In order to make a delicious gravy, you have

to season your protein and get yourself some mirepoix.

A classic mirepoix is 50% onions, 25% carrots,

and 25% celery, that's all it is.

It sounds fancy, it's just onions and celery and carrots.

There are two main reasons I use a mirepoix for my roast.

First of all, it's gonna keep my roast

off the bottom of the pan

and it's not gonna stew in its own juices.

Second of all, I want this to flavor in my juices.

I'm gonna get some really nice caramelization

and flavor from this mirepoix.

All you really have to do is put these into the pan.

You'll notice that I cut everything really large.

I don't want these to fall apart.

I want them to hold their shape.

If we cut them really small,

they're gonna give off too much flavor

and we'll taste veggies, not turkey in our gravy.

When I went to culinary school,

my basic skills teacher always told us

to leave the skin on your onions

when you're doing a gravy or a stock.

It lends color to our finished product.

So our basic mirepoix is in there.

I'm gonna add a head of garlic cut in half.

I'm going to add a couple of bay leaves and some thyme.

So I'm just gonna give it a little bit of oil,

a little bit of salt.

I'm just gonna give it a little light toss,

and then I'm gonna bunch everything

into the middle of my pan,

and that's gonna be where my turkey's gonna rest.

I also have a neck, which I'm gonna add into there.

That neck is gonna give us flavor, and I also have this bag.

If you've taken this outta your turkey,

you have no idea what it is, it's the bag of giblets,

and that usually has livers and gizzards and hearts in it.

I add those giblets to the base of my pan.

It's gonna help to flavor my gravy.

I'm gonna oil this baby down, I'm gonna do salt and pepper.

Throw a little salt into the turkey too.

I have my mirepoix in the pan, it's seasoned up.

I have my turkey in the pan, it's seasoned up.

I got my giblets in there too.

We're gonna fly this bird into the oven,

425 for the first hour,

that's gonna jumpstart the browning on the skin,

and then I'm gonna lower it down to 325

so that my turkey stays nice and juicy.

[upbeat music] [air whooshing]

The turkey is outta the oven.

It's golden brown and delicious.

But I want you to see this.

Look at all these delicious juices in there.

You can see our vegetables are nice and caramelized.

We've rested the bird for about 10 to 15 minutes.

When you cook it, the juices kind

of all go towards the center.

When you rest, the juices kind of relax

and go back into the turkey.

Whatever juices don't stay in the turkey

go to the bottom of the pan to make a great gravy.

So what I do is just stick this into the cavity

and I lift my bird out.

I'm gonna drain any excess juices

from the inside of the bird.

I wanna keep all those juices, remember that's our flavor,

and we can put this aside.

What we're left with in the pan

is all the juices and drippings from the turkey.

And because we stacked that mirepoix up really high,

the bird got brown on the bottom

and we collected the juice in the bottom of the pan,

and that is the base for a delicious gravy.

I've seen people throw this away

and it made me pull my hair out.

All the flavor we need for our gravy is here already.

We just have a few more steps until we have a beautiful,

silky, delicious gravy.

I have my roasting pan with all my turkey parts,

mirapoix and juices.

What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna turn this up

and I'm gonna let the juices boil down to make a fond.

We're gonna use the turkey fat to make the roux.

A roux is usually equal parts fat and flour,

and it's used to thicken soups, stews, sauces, and gravies.

Let this cook out, let's evaporate all the liquid

and then we can add our flour.

If you look in my pan,

we start to see a slick of oil on top, like an oil slick

of turkey fat, and that's what I want.

What I'm trying to do here is create a fond, F-O-N-D.

Fond is the caramelized juices at the bottom of the pan.

The fat's starting to separate out from the juices.

It's starting to look like a little greasy or oily,

and that's what I'm looking for.

Once we start seeing clear fat at the top, we're good to go.

At this point, we can make the roux with the turkey fat.

I have this on a medium heat.

I'm gonna sprinkle some flour all around

so that it soaks up all that beautiful turkey fat.

Stir, stir, stir, the fat is combining with the flour

and that's gonna make us a nice roux.

What I'm looking for here is that we don't see any more fat

on the surface of the pan,

so just enough flour to soak up all that fat

and we can add some stock.

I like to use turkey stock.

You can use chicken stock, whatever stock makes you happy.

And what we can do now is start scraping the bottom

and getting all of that beautiful fond

off the bottom of the pan.

And now all I wanna do is start stirring it

until it starts to thicken.

At this point, if your gravy is too thick,

you can add a little more stock.

If it's too liquidy, let it cook a little longer

and see if it actually thickens up.

I'm gonna let this come to a simmer.

I'm gonna keep stirring it so it doesn't stick anymore,

and I'm gonna keep scraping the bottom

to get any of that beautiful fond off of the bottom.

As my gravy starts to thicken, I want to give it a taste,

just a preliminary taste to see where my seasoning is at.

All right, definitely needs a little salt.

You can also see that it's a little on the thick side,

so I'm just gonna add a little more stock.

If it's too thick, we add a little more stock.

If it's not thick enough, we reduce it a little bit.

I'm let it come back up to a simmer and see where we're at.

One last taste.

Tastes good, I think we're ready to strain,

and I'm just gonna dump this through the strainer.

Couple of things I want to keep in mind when I strain

is I don't wanna push these vegetables through.

It's gonna leave little bits

and pieces floating in my gravy,

so I just wanna let the juice fall through and stir lightly,

trying not to break up too many things.

Here we have our finished gravy.

Now, I want you all to listen really quick.

I'm gonna get a ladle full, what do you hear?

[gravy sloshing] Kind of sounds smooth, right?

If I did that and I heard plopping,

that would mean my gravy is way too thick

and we can adjust with more stock.

This one is the perfect consistency.

[upbeat music] [air whooshing]

We've taken all this time to make this beautiful,

luxurious gravy, it needs to have a gravy boat.

Put it in a vehicle that makes your gravy look even better.

So I'm gonna ladle it in.

This gravy looks good enough to drink,

but I have a better idea.

Remember that turkey I roasted earlier?

Well, here it is on the plate,

and the only way to make it better

is to take the star of the show

and slather it all over our turkey.

Ooh, I don't know about you,

but I like my turkey to swim in the deep end of the gravy.

Let's taste, now I'm gonna get a lot of gravy on this baby.

Let's slather it on there, mm.

First thing I taste in the gravy

is that it's roasty and delicious.

It's got a really great consistency.

It's luxurious, it's silky, it's not thick and lumpy,

and it sticks to the meat, and that's what I want.

We've taken a lot of care to make this gravy.

We roasted a turkey, we made the mirepoix,

we made a roux out of the fat.

We made it so it was the right consistency.

And the thing that a good gravy does

is it raises everything up.

It takes this turkey that could be a little dry and bland

and makes it that much better.

Take your time and your gravy will be as good as mine.