Best Gravy Ever

Alton Brown

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown, 2008

Picture of Best Gravy Ever Recipe 1 Video | Photo: Best Gravy Ever Recipe
Rated 5 stars out of 5
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  • Read 53 Reviews
Total Time:
25 min
Prep
10 min
Cook
15 min
Yield:
10 to 12 servings
Level:
Intermediate
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Ingredients

  • 1 Good Eats Roast Turkey, recipe follows
  • 24 ounces reduced sodium chicken broth
  • 8 ounces red wine
  • 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon fresh herbs such as oregano, thyme or rosemary
  • Kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Remove the turkey from the roasting pan and set aside to rest. Leave the drippings from the turkey in the pan and place the roasting pan over medium heat. Add the broth and wine at the same time. Whisk to combine, scraping the bottom of the pan until all of the bits have come loose. Cook for another 2 to 3 minutes in order to reduce the mixture slightly. Transfer the liquid to a fat separator and let sit for 5 minutes to allow fat to separate. Return 2/3 to 3/4 cup of the fat to the roasting pan and place over medium-high heat. Discard any remaining fat. Add the flour and whisk to combine. Cook, whisking continuously, until the mixture starts to thicken and become smooth, approximately 2 to 3 minutes. Once this happens, gradually add the liquid back to the pan and whisk until smooth and you have reached your desired consistency, approximately 5 to 6 minutes. Remember, your gravy should be slightly thin in the pan as it will thicken once you serve it. Add the herbs and whisk to combine. Season with salt and pepper.

Good Eats Roast Turkey:

  • 1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey

For the brine:

  • 1 gallon vegetable stock
  • 1 cup kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped candied ginger
  • 1 gallon heavily iced water

For the aromatics:

  • 1 red apple, quartered
  • 1/2 onion, quartered
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1 cup water
  • 4 sprigs rosemary
  • 6 leaves sage
  • Canola oil

2 to 3 days before roasting:

Begin thawing the turkey in the refrigerator or in a cooler kept at 38 degrees F.

Combine the vegetable stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.

Early on the day or the night before you'd like to eat:

Combine the brine, water and ice in the 5-gallon bucket. Place the thawed turkey (with innards removed) breast side down in brine. If necessary, weigh down the bird to ensure it is fully immersed, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.

Remove the bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard the brine.

Place the bird on roasting rack inside a half sheet pan and pat dry with paper towels.

Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and 1 cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Add steeped aromatics to the turkey's cavity along with the rosemary and sage. Tuck the wings underneath the bird and coat the skin liberally with canola oil.

Roast the turkey on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F. for 30 minutes. Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Set the thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees F. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let the turkey rest for at least 15 minutes before carving.

Yield: 10 to 12 servings

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Newest Ratings and Reviews

Read all 53 reviews

  • on December 26, 2011

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    YUM! Never ever made gravy before today and this was pretty good.
    The instructions were super easy to follow and the video was perfect.
    I did end up with way too much of it in the end though, so just a heads up (although I did have a 20lb turkey so.. that may have been why.

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  • on December 04, 2011

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    I have always been a canned gravy person (for shame because I thought real gravy was too hard, and didn't realize until Thanksgiving day that I had forgotten it on the list. So, I quickly googled "best gravy ever" and this recipe came up. Also, I was making the good eats roast turkey so why not make it an alton brown Thanksgiving??? I followed this recipe to the best of my abilities. I did not have a fat separator on hand so I just did it manually and it still turned out fantastic!

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  • on November 29, 2011

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    Hi - As one person commented back in 2010 - I think there is a typo on this recipe page - the turkey should come out at 161 degrees, not 151 degrees per the Good Eats Turkey recipe and Alton Brown's video. But the gravy itself was great with the Good Eats Roasted Turkey - we didn't add any add'l salt and used low salt chicken broth.

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