Recipe: Make-Ahead Turkey Gravy

recipelink.com Chat Room Recipe Swap – 2000-12-21
From: recipelink.com

Recipe(tried): Make Ahead Turkey Gravy
Posted By: Laurel
Date: December 23rd 1999
Board: recipelink.com Cooking Club

Turkey wings are kind of hard to find, but the butcher said turkey thighs are a good substitution. I agree with the person who posted this earlier; if you refrigerate the broth overnight, the fat is a breeze to skim off. I also did not use the total amount of pepper. This is the first time I've made the gravy, but it's easy. My supervisor at work has made it 2 years in a row.

Happy Holidays!
Laurel

Make-Ahead Turkey Gravy (from Woman's Day magazine, 11/16/99)
Make up to 3 months in advance and freeze in an airtight container. Thaw 2 days in refrigerator. Reheat in saucepan, whisking often.

4 turkey wings (about 3 lbs)
2 medium onions, peeled and quartered
1 cup water
8 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup chopped carrot
1/2 tsp dried thyme
3/4 cup flour
2 Tbsp. stick butter or margarine
1/2 tsp pepper

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

Arrange wings in a single layer in pan; scatter onions over top. Roast 1 1/4 hours until wings are browned.

Put wings and onions in a 5-to-6 qt. pot. Add water to roasting pan and stir to scrape up any brown bits on bottom. Add to pot. Add 6 cups broth (refrigerate remaining 2 cups), carrot and thyme. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 1 1/2 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, refrigerated broth overnight to make fat-skimming easier.)
Whisk flour into remaining 2 cups broth until blended and smooth.

Bring broth in pot to a gentle boil. Whisk in broth-flavored mixture and boil 3 to 4 minutes to thicken gravy and remove floury taste. Stir in butter and pepper. Serve or pour into containers; refrigerate up to 1 week or freeze up to 6 months.

This is supposed to make 8 cups of gravy. It made 7 cups for me. I refrigerated it overnight and the whole thing turned to gelatin. It was so easy to scrape the fat off the top. My tip for straining the broth: I have a big colander with small holes, and a bowl that is bigger than the colander. I put the colander in the bowl and just poured everything in the colander. The broth strained right into the bowl and the vegetables stayed behind. It was easy and no mess. Any little bits of vegetable sank to the bottom. When I emptied the broth "gel" into a saucepan, I just had to scrape the bits of vegetable off the "top". This recipe make really good gravy but next time I will probably use less pepper.