Make Ahead Turkey Gravy

By lbaughan

Martha Green’s Make-Ahead Turkey Gravy

Ingredients

• turkey wings or other turkey parts, about 3 lb
• 2 med onions, peeled and quartered
• 1 c water
• 8 c chicken broth
• 3/4 c carrot, chopped
• 1/2 t dried thyme
• 3/4 c all-purpose flour
• 2 T butter or margarine
• 1/2 t freshly ground pepper

Preparation

Step 1

Heat oven to 400 deg F. Have ready a large roasting pan.

Arrange wings in a single layer in pan; scatter onions over the top. Roast 1 ¼ hours until wings are browned.

Put wings and onions into a 5-to-6 quart pot. Add water to roasting pan and stir to scrape up any brown bits on bottom. Add to pot. Add only 6 cups of chicken broth; refrigerate remaining 2 cups, the carrot and thyme. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered 1 ½ hours.

Remove wings to cutting board. When cool, pull off skin and meat. Discard skin; save meat for another use.

Strain broth into a 3-qt saucepan, pressing vegetables to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard vegetables. Skim fat off broth and discard. If time permits, refrigerate broth overnight to make fat-skimming easier.

Whisk remaining 2 cups broth slowly into flour until blended and smooth.

Bring broth pot to a gentle boil. Whisk-in broth/flour mixture and boil 3 to 4 minutes to thicken gravy and remove floury taste. Stir in butter and pepper.

Optional: a few drops of Gravy Master or Kitchen Bouquet may be added to deepen the gravy color and flavor.

Notes: Pour into containers and refrigerate up to 1 week or freeze up to 6 months.

It takes about 3 hours to make this from start to finish. However, most of the time it is unattended. Don’t let the length of this deter you from trying it. It really does save a tremendous amount of time on Thanksgiving Day.