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A hand pours christmas gravy from a measuring jug over slices of roasted turkey, surrounded by roasted potatoes, carrots, parsnips, Brussels sprouts, and cranberry sauce on a plate.

Christmas Gravy From Scratch (Make Ahead Recipe)

Lauren
This Christmas gravy is rich, deeply savoury and can be fully prepared in advance. So it frees up precious hob space (and time!) when everything else is competing for attention on Christmas Day.
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Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 40 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 45 minutes
Course christmas, Condiment, Dinner, Sauces
Cuisine British, Scottish
Servings 4 people
Calories 279 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 1 kg chicken wings See Notes
  • 1.5 L water
  • 3 carrots roughly chopped
  • 3 stalks celery roughly chopped
  • 1 leek roughly chopped
  • fresh rosemary
  • fresh thyme
  • 185 ml white wine optional - leave out if preferred (no need to substitute for anything else)
  • 500 ml chicken stock
  • 75 g salted butter
  • 4 tablespoon plain flour and/or cornflour if desired - see Notes

Instructions
 

  • Pre heat oven to 220C fan / 475F or Gas Mark 9
  • Add fresh herbs (fresh rosemary and fresh thyme), 3 carrots, 1 leek and 3 stalks celery (all roughly chopped) to a lined roasting tin
  • Layer the 1 kg chicken wings on top and spray with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and pour 500 ml chicken stock into bottom of tray
  • Roast in oven for 60 minutes until nicely browned
  • Remove from the oven and add everything into a large pot with 185 ml white wine and 1.5 L water
  • Bring to the boil and cook for around 30-40 minutes (aiming for approx. 800-1000ml of liquid once drained) - See Notes
  • Remove chicken wings from pot into colander (over another bowl to collect the drained liquid) and mash vegetables in the pot (optional step - to help increase thickness of finished gravy) before pouring into colander too. Place the drained liquid to one side
  • Melt 75 g salted butter in a pan and whisk through 4 tablespoon plain flour to make a rue, allow to cook for 1 minute
  • Finally, start whisking through strained gravy until all used and it’s glossy and thick - see Notes Section below for full list of suggestions to enhance or ensure the perfect consistency of Christmas Gravy to suit individual tastes

Notes

A couple of things to either enhance or ensure the perfect consistency:
    • if you want to intensify the flavour - increase volume of chicken wings to 2kg (I did this on a couple of the test recipes and it was TASTY)
    • if the golden colour of traditional chicken gravy doesn't appeal and you want to to achieve a more traditional brown colour, then you can opt to add a splash of red wine to the rue before adding the reduced chicken stock OR add gravy browning
    • reducing the volume of the finished Christmas gravy will intensify the flavour - so you can continue simmering the gravy at the end to thicken the sauce and intensify the flavour (albeit it will reduce the volume, so keep this in mind for the no. of people you're needing to serve)
    • if you're happy with the flavour and the volume, but you want to thicken the consistency - mix 1 tablespoon cornflour with 1 tablespoon (cold) water then mix through the gravy whilst stirring over gentle heat. Repeat again until you achieve the consistency and thickness of Christmas gravy you want.
Using cornflour instead of plain flour (all-purpose) will make the gravy fully gluten 

Nutrition

Calories: 279kcalCarbohydrates: 18gProtein: 7gFat: 19gSaturated Fat: 11gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 55mgSodium: 373mgPotassium: 379mgFiber: 2gSugar: 5gVitamin A: 8520IUVitamin C: 6mgCalcium: 55mgIron: 2mg
Keyword christmas gravy, gravy from scratch, homemade chicken gravy, make ahead christmas gravy
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