This homemade turkey gravy recipe makes incredibly flavorful gravy from the turkey drippings and just a few pantry staples. It’s the best I have ever tried (no exaggeration), and it’s also incredibly easy to make.
Whether you’re making a traditional Roast Turkey or a Spatchcock Turkey, you’ll be left with drippings that encompass all of the wonderful flavors and seasonings you’ve added to your bird. Then, just whisk in flour and milk, and there you have homemade gravy to round out your Thanksgiving menu.
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Homemade Turkey Gravy
There’s a funny thing about homemade gravy, the folks at your holiday table will remember it because the store-bought packet mixes and canned gravy can’t compete. I must have refilled my plate with Mashed Potatoes three times just to have more of the gravy.
After seasoning a turkey and cooking for hours, you’ll only need 5 more minutes to whip up this gravy recipe. Once you try this, you’ll never toss those turkey drippings again; liquid gold, my friends. Liquid gold.
Turkey Gravy Video
Watch how easy it is to whisk together this gravy using turkey drippings. Natasha’s fool-proof recipe comes together in just minutes.
Ingredients
Save those precious turkey drippings and add only a few pantry staples for this easy homemade gravy recipe.
- Flour – all-purpose works best, but you can substitute gluten-free 1:1 flour
- Drippings from turkey – separate the fat from the drippings using a fat separator, or by skimming the fat off the top with a spoon. If you don’t have enough from the bird, add butter to the fat and/or chicken stock or turkey stock to the drippings until you have enough for the recipe
- Milk – gives it a creamier texture, but you can leave it out or substitute water or chicken broth if desired
- Salt and pepper – taste before seasoning, since the drippings have already been seasoned
Substitutions
Try these substitutions to make the gravy recipe fit your tastes:
- Gluten-Free – Replace the flour with gluten-free 1:1 flour
- Instead of drippings – Use butter and stock if you don’t have turkey drippings. Add sautéed garlic and shallot before making the roux to compensate for the missing flavor
- Add seasonings – Try thyme, parsley, poultry seasoning, sage, or rosemary.
- How to make giblet gravy – Boil giblets in water for an hour then strain and add the resulting broth to the drippings. Then mince the giblets (except the liver) and stir into the finished gravy if desired.
Pro Tip:
To make more gravy, simply increase the flour and grease drippings proportionately, because the roux is made with equal parts fat and flour. Add more stock or water to reach the desired consistency.
How to Make Turkey Gravy from Scratch
After cooking your turkey, use flour and the turkey drippings to create a roux, then thin it with milk and enjoy! Here are the easy-to-follow directions:
Prepare the Drippings
- Strain drippings from the turkey roasting pan through a fine mesh sieve into a large measuring cup, then discard anything you catch in the sieve. Let drippings in the measuring cup rest for a minute, so the fat will float to the top and the broth will sink to the bottom.
- Skim off 3 Tbsp of fat (or more if doubling the recipe) and transfer into a medium saucepan. If you don’t have enough, use butter until you get 3 Tbsp., then skim off and discard the excess fat left in the measuring cup. Measure out 2 cups of the remaining broth drippings. Add more chicken broth or water to equal 2 cups.
Make the Gravy with Pan Drippings
- Heat the saucepan with fat drippings over medium heat. Once fat starts to sizzle, whisk in 3 Tbsp flour and stir until well combined. Continue whisking until the mixture is starting to turn a light golden brown and begins to smell nutty or like cereal.
- Gradually pour the 2 cups of broth drippings into your saucepan, whisking constantly to avoid lumps. Bring to a light boil while whisking.
- Add more milk, broth, or water to taste (this helps if your gravy seems too salty or too thick), and continue to simmer for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper if needed. Remove from heat and cover to keep warm until ready to serve, then transfer to a gravy boat or serving dish.
How to Thin Gravy
To thin the gravy, add more liquid, but be aware that it’s easy to thin, but more difficult to thicken the gravy without getting a floury taste, so add liquid slowly.
How to Thicken Gravy
To thicken the gravy, stir in a cornstarch slurry (mix 1 Tbsp of cornstarch with 2 Tbsp cold water to make the slurry). The gravy will thicken as it cools, so consider that when serving the gravy.
Common Questions
This turkey gravy is thickened with a roux, a mixture of fat and flour in equal proportions that is used to thicken many sauces. Using flour to thicken the gravy is better than cornstarch because it reheats better and doesn’t leave an aftertaste.
Sure, use butter in place of fat, and chicken broth or turkey broth in place of the drippings. Be sure to add seasoning if you go this route, because you won’t have the drippings to flavor the gravy—try sautéing shallots and garlic in the pan before making the roux. To add more flavor, try making our easy mushroom gravy.
Be sure to use a whisk rather than a wooden spoon to constantly stir the flour. The secret to smooth gravy is to add the pan drippings slowly while whisking to help incorporate the flour without causing it to clump. You can also try sifting the flour.
To fix lumpy gravy, simply pour the gravy through a fine mesh sieve before serving and discard the lumps.
Absolutely! It’s simple to double this turkey gravy recipe by increasing the flour and grease drippings proportionally. Add more turkey stock or chicken stock to reach your desired consistency.
To Serve Turkey Gravy
Gravy is a staple on most Thanksgiving menus, and this homemade turkey gravy will be the star! We serve it warm in a gravy boat for easy pouring.
Of course, we use gravy to dress our turkey and mashed potatoes, but if a few drips (or more) end up on our stuffing, Dinner Rolls, and Brussels sprouts, we won’t be at all upset. If you have any leftovers after Thanksgiving, try the gravy with these delicious recipes:
- Leftover Turkey in Gravy
- Dressing for Thanksgiving leftover sandwiches
- Poured over our Homemade Biscuits
- A sauce for our Oven Baked Chicken Breast
- As a dip for our Savory Turkey Crepes or Potato Latkes
Make-Ahead
To make the gravy ahead, you’ll need to substitute the turkey drippings. See our tips for making gravy without drippings above.
- To Refrigerate: Store cooled gravy in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.
- Freezing: freeze for up to 4 months
- To Reheat: thaw the gravy in the refrigerator overnight, then heat in a saucepan on the stove over low heat so it won’t curdle, or microwave in 15-second intervals until warm. Add chicken stock or water to thin, if necessary.
Our easy turkey gravy recipe uses pan drippings to create a savory rich sauce to compliment all your Thanksgiving dishes. You’ll never go back to store-bought mixes or cans when you see how easy and tasty it is to make yours at home!
More Thanksgiving Recipes
This gravy is always on our Thanksgiving menu. Here are a few of our other favorite classic Thanksgiving dishes:
- Cranberry Sauce
- Pumpkin Pie
- Green Bean Casserole
- Apple Cider
- Scalloped Potatoes
- Sweet Potato Casserole
Turkey Gravy Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour, or use Gluten-Free 1:1 flour
- 3 Tbsp fat drippings from roasted turkey
- 2 cups turkey drippings, skimmed of fat (add water or broth if needed to make 2 cups)
- 1/4 cup milk, stock, or water, or added to desired consistency
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Once your Thanksgiving turkey has been transferred from the roasting pan and is resting, make your turkey gravy. Strain all drippings from the turkey pan through a fine mesh sieve into a large measuring cup. Discard anything you catch in the sieve. Let drippings in the measuring cup rest for a minute, the fat will float to the top and the broth will sink to the bottom.
- Skim off 3 Tbsp of fat and transfer into a medium saucepan (add butter if you don't have 3 Tbsp). Skim off and discard excess fat left in the measuring cup. You should have about 2 cups of drippings left in the measuring cup after the fat is removed. Add more water or broth if needed to make 2 cups.
- Set the saucepan over medium heat. Once the oil is starting to sizzle, whisk in 3 Tbsp flour and stir until well combined. Continue whisking until the mixture is starting to turn a light golden brown, about 2 minutes.
- Gradually pour the remaining broth from drippings into your saucepan, whisking constantly. Bring to a light boil while continuing to whisk.
- Add 1/4 cup milk, stock, or water to your desired consistency and taste, and simmer for 5 min. Season with salt and pepper to taste if needed. Remove from heat, cover with a lid, and keep warm until ready to serve, then transfer gravy to a gravy boat to serve. It will thicken slightly as it cools.
Notes
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
I would love to make this gravy for Thanksgiving but have many family members that are gluten free. Could I use cornstarch instead of flour and if so, how much would you recommend?
Thanks!
Normally you would use half of the amount of cornstarch instead of flour. I have not tested it in this recipe so let me know how it goes.
I’m planning to make this gravy for Thanksgiving this year. It sounds wonderful. My question is, can you double the recipe if you’re feeding a larger crowd?
Hi Dawn you can increase it only as much as you have pan drippings. You could add more broth to increase the overall amount but it will dilute the flavor a bit. It would still taste great but not as rich in flavor if you double it.
That makes sense. Thanks!
It was delicious. Best turkey I have ever made, including the gravy. Thank you for the recipe.
What a compliment! I’m glad you love the recipe! Thanks for sharing your excellent review Ellen!
I wanted to try this recipe but I was wondering if you can make it ahead of time? Like a couple days before?
Hi Callie, I like it best fresh but yes you could make it ahead of time, but when you reheat, be sure to reheat over low heat so it doesn’t separate and you may need to add a little more liquid if it gets too thick. Enjoy! 🙂
My husband and I tried your recipe this year instead of our traditional one and it turned out wonderful! I was nervous about trying something new but was really glad we did it had a lot more flavor and was very moist. Thanks for a great recipe!! I’m trying to give this a 5 star rating but its not letting me.
Sorry my comment was suppose to be about the roasted turkey and not the gravy. One note I found in making the gravy DO not add any additional salt there is enough in the drippings! Thanks again Natasha!
Thanks Marla!! I hope you had an awesome Thanksgiving 🙂
Thank you so much for the wonderful review!! I’m so happy you liked it! 🙂 What device are you using (iPhone, desktop, etc) – I’d like to try and figure out why it wouldn’t let you rate the recipe. Thanks again for the awesome review! 🙂
This turkey gravy was super easy to make and it was delicious! I did realize that it would’ve been a lot easier to make it if I had a fat separator. I ended up buying one for next time.
Hi Irina, it does help with a fat separator, but I usually just let it sit in a large measuring cup until the fat floats to the top, then I skim the excess fat off the top with a large spoon or small ladle. 🙂 I’m so happy you enjoyed the gravy!
I did use a small ladle to skim the fat off and that’s not hard to do. I just thought that using the fat separator would make it even quicker and easier. Plus, I love buying/using different kitchen gadgets😉
Ha ha, story of my life with kitchen gadgets! lol. 🙂
Is it thick or thin? Thx.
I would say it is in the middle, not too thick not too thin. If you wish for it to be thinner, it is easy to thin it out with adding more milk or broth.
I want to say thank you for the your recipe to making turkey gravy. I have tried and had no luck. The pictures exact measurements is what I neededed. I made two bowls of gravy 1with gibbets and 1 without. Thank you
You are most welcome! I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe 🙂
In my cooking experiences…If you want all the goodness of your efforts, do not discard any of the occupants of the roast pan, whisk them right in. Simply a sad waste of superb flavours, especially if you roasted vegetables with the turkey/ chicken, add a bit of water, simmer, scraping off the hardened bits on bottom and don’t forget to scrape off the brown dried luscious coating on the sides of roasting pan (loaded with flavour). Makes a fantastic gravy every time. Milk? Never heard of using dairy in a gravy. I’ll try it just to see.
Sometimes when I roast a bird and don’t need gravy, I drain all liquids, separate the grease/oils in small containers or ice cube trays and freeze separately to use later for gravy (using above method), stir frys or add to my stock pot when simmering saved bones/carcasses for stocks or soup base. Save your foul greases in freezer especially DUCK fat, excellent to use to make hash browns with.
That’s a great idea to store the extra grease in ice cube trays! I love that and thank you for sharing!! The milk is optional but I do like that it gives it a creamier consistency :). Thank you for all the great tips!
I used a silicone spatula/scraper to carefully slide under the turkey skin. I saw it on another website and used. It worked great to separate the skin.
Also, I simmer the giblets in water w vegetables. I use that flavorful broth to add to all of the pan drippings. I’ve never used milk either.
Natasha, do you ever make gravy after roasting a chicken? I am considering roasted chicken for Thanksgiving, but am not sure if there will be enough drippings to make a gravy. Thank you.
Hi Oksana, I haven’t made a gravy out of chicken drippings but I think it could work. Get all you can from the chicken and add some chicken broth to make a good amount of gravy. So if you only get 1/4 cup of drippings, add 1 3/4 cups chicken broth then add salt and pepper to taste 🙂 I would use the same method listed for this turkey gravy. If you want it to have a creamier look and texture, you might use a little less broth and add a splash of cream or milk.
Funny, I just made this turkey gravy so I have gravy on my mind 🙂
hi natasha, am i able to add mushrooms and carrots and onions to this gravy like you did to your other gravy recipe?
Hi Nastya, you can if you wish but this gravy is very flavorful without those add-ins 🙂
For the first time in 27 years (when our daughter was born three days before Christmas) I took over cooking the turkey from my wife. In fact, I really haven’t cooked much. My wife is a great cook and I’ve been content to wash the dishes and occasionally assist.
This year, retired in Mexico, I volunteered to cook the Christmas turkey. I was a bit nervous but decided to follow your recipe, which I found online under “cooking a moist turkey.” Here in Mexico, many ingredients are hard to find but yours’ were very simple and the instructions were so straightforward…only had a little problem getting so much of the butter seasoning under the skin!
I cooked a 15 lb. bird for 10 of us. Wow! It was the best, most moist roast turkey any of us had tasted. I mean, I got resounding applause. There was heavy competition for the leftovers! I used your gravy recipe as well, but only added a drop of milk beacuse it was rich enough without it. Equally fantastic!
I guess I’m just not washing dishes any more!
I was so happy to read your comment this morning. Thank you so much for a wonderful and thoughtful review 🙂
I used a silicone spatula/scraper to carefully slide under the turkey skin. I saw it on another website and used. It worked great to separate the skin.
I made my turkey this way and was it ever GOOD. I will be doing this butter mixture from now on. I think it will be good on baked chicken, pork roast, chops etc. It was simply yummy! Going to use the drippings tomorrow for gravy on the leftovers. Sorry I did not take pictures but the bird was the most beautiful brown and the skin was crispy just like my husband likes it.
Thank you for such a nice review Cindy, I’m so glad you and the family liked it 😀 .
how long does this take to make?
and how do you keep your turkey warm while making the gravy?
my family wants to eat the turkey the minute it comes out of the oven. lol
Hi Anastasia, I’ve done tons of research on turkey making and all of the good sources say to rest your turkey after it comes out of the oven. Your turkey stays hot if you cover it with foil as I describe here: https://natashaskitchen.com/2014/11/06/juicy-roast-turkey-recipe/
The gravy only takes 10-15 minutes – it’s quick to make and so so delicious; definitely worth making :).
This gravy is soooo good. Made it last year and can not wait to make it again 😉 Few more days ! 😉
I can’t wait for it too. I think I look forward to the gravy the most every year 🙂 Happy Thanksgiving to you!
I FINALLY learned a fail proof way to make gravy!!! However I use a lot of creole spices in my marinade for the turkey, so I had to add a lot of milk n more flour to tone my spicy gravy down ha ha. So if you’re from the south n inject n rub your roasted turkey with spices add 2 more cups of milk and 3 more tbsp of flour:) NO SALT WAS NEEDED! Thank you again so much!!!! Happy holidays:)
A spicy gravy actually sounds pretty amazing! Thanks for sharing that Lynne! 🙂
Yes, I made it. Delicious.
Put it in a microwave to keep it warm and remembered about it after we were done with dinner and started to serve dessert. 🙁
Used Black Friday today to buy some vitamins for memory. :-)))
Oh no! What a bummer :(. I’ve done that before with side dishes and dessert where I just forgot to take them out of the fridge, plus there’s so much to think about on Thanksgiving, you just have to give yourself some slack :).
Looks perfect! I use the same recipe, except for the turkey fat – I replace it with butter.
So much of the fat is butter from the recipe. Isn’t home turkey the best!? 🙂
Hey, I didn’t even think about that lol For my turkey I don’t use much of the butter so that’s why I didn’t use it, but for this recipe, it totally makes sense!
Yeah this one sure had plenty of butter! 🙂 Good thing butter makes everything better 😉
Amazzzing Natasha! Your a great cook 🙂 liquid gold.. You made me laugh cuz the only other liquid gold I know is breastmilk lol! Sorry totally off topic!
Ha ha! 🙂 I think I remember one of the nurses saying that in the hospital when I had my son 5 years ago.
I just can’t wait for the holidays!