How to make the perfect turkey gravy!

CHICOPEE, Mass. (Mass Appeal) - Thanksgiving is about 48 hours away, but is your turkey ready? Personal Chef Bill Collins showed us how to cook a turkey and make the perfect gravy!

Turkey Gravy

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup flour or cornstarch
• 1/2 cup water
• 4 cups turkey or chicken stock
• Pan drippings from roasted turkey, strained
• Deglazed drippings and stock from pan (see below)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, combine the flour (or cornstarch) and water.  Whisk to remove any lumps, and set aside.  This is called a slurry.

2. Place the pan drippings, deglazed bits, and 2 cups of the stock in a saucepan, and bring to a simmer.

3. Taste the sauce. Add more stock, if you’d like more gravy. But don’t let the gravy become too mild in taste.

4. As an optional step, you can strain the gravy now if you like it smooth.

5. With the gravy at a slow simmer, add ½ of the slurry, and simmer for 2-3 minutes, or until it thickens.  If you’d like it thicker, add more slurry.

6. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Other (optional) ingredients to add to your gravy:

• 1/3 cup bourbon or white wine
• 2 tablespoons cold butter, cut into pieces, whisked into the gravy
• Add the cooked giblets to the gravy after it’s strained

How to make Turkey Stock from Giblets

1. Take the giblets (neck, liver heart, and gizzards) from the turkey’s cavity, and cover them with 4-5 cups of water. 

2. Add an onion, chopped stalk of celery, and a chopped carrot.  Simmer uncovered for one hour.  If the water level goes down by more than ¼, add cold water and bring back to a simmer.

3. After an hour, strain the stock.  You can chop up the meats from the stock and add them to your finished gravy

Removing the turkey and deglazing 

1. Remove the turkey from the pan. Rest it on a warm platter as you make the gravy.

2. Pour the liquid from the pan into a large bowl or heat-proof pitcher.  Remove the pan drippings that are not stuck in the pan and place these in a separate, 2 quart saucepan.  Set all of these aside.

3. Once the liquid from the pan has cooled a bit, remove the fat from the top of the liquid, either with a spoon, or a fat-separator. Discard the fat.

4. Once you have removed the drippings and liquid from the turkey roasting pan, there may be some bits of turkey that are stuck in the pan.  To remove them, place the pan on a burner (or two, if the pan is large enough) on a medium-high heat.  Have a wooden spoon or scraper handy.

5. Once the pan is quite hot, and almost smoking, add ½ cup (or more, if needed) of the stock or other liquid to the pan.  You want only a small amount of liquid to just moisten the stuck bits in the pan. 

6. With the wooden spoon, scrape up the bits, and put these into a 2 quart saucepan, with the other loose bits that you removed from the roasting pan.