A traditional turkey sauce is thickened using roux, i.e. flour sautéed in butter, or simply flour. The secret to this recipe is a combination of roux with cream of chicken soup! Turkey drippings, stock & wine from the turkey roasting pan, all full of flavour, are slowly simmered with silky cream of chicken soup and selected herbs. The result is something we bet you have never tasted before!
Christmas Turkey Gravy
Roasting pan contents from our Roast Turkey recipe – This includes drippings, roasted veggies, wine and turkey stock. Skim off any fat and discard it. Strain the liquid, which will be used. (Tip: If you think that any thickened stock or browned bits are not coming off, add a ladle of hot water and swirl it across the surface of the roasting pan.) Add turkey stock (preferably homemade) to have a total of 5 cups/ 1,125ml of liquid.
Ingredients
- 1X420Gm Can Condensed soup cream of chicken
- 1/4 Cup all purpose flour – sauté in butter until the rawness of flour goes away and the roux is golden. Cool down to room temperature
- 1/4 Cup Butter
- 14 Cup garlic powder – substitute with a peeled and grated garlic clove
- A generous pinch of ground sage and thyme each – Optional
- A pinch of cayenne pepper
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
-
Combine the strained liquid and cream of chicken soup in a large saucepan. Sprinkle the garlic powder/ fresh garlic, herbs and cayenne pepper. Bring to a boil over high heat. Then reduce the heat to simmer. Taste the sauce for seasoning. Remember, that turkey drippings contained salt since the bird was brined. If you are using turkey/ chicken stock out of a tetra pack or using a stock cube, those contain plenty of salt. Similarly, canned soup is well-seasoned too. Hence, you may not necessarily like any more salt. Likewise, we have added cayenne pepper for heat and you may not like to add any black pepper. Adjust the seasoning, if required.
-
Stir in the cold roux. (Adding hot roux to hot liquid would result in the formation of lumps.) Stir with a wire whisk until it completely dissolves.
-
Simmer the sauce until it reaches a pouring consistency. If it tastes too concentrated/ strong for your liking, dilute the sauce with some milk and cook until heated through. Remember that the sauce will thicken further as it cools. Serve alongside your turkey!
Recipe Notes
1. If you are running out of homemade turkey stock and can’t get your hands on the commercially available variety, use chicken stock instead.
2. If you don’t have ground thyme and/ or sage, you can dry roast them in a small frying pan and crush them using a mortar and pestle.
