This Brilliant Trick Makes Thanksgiving Gravy So Much Easier
Listen, I love Thanksgiving (it’s my favorite holiday next to Halloween), but it can be a lot. Especially if, like me, you’re the person who’s doing the cooking. As someone who prides herself on both making things from scratch and adhering to personal food traditions (I have very strong feelings about stuffing), I’ll take an opportunity to make things easier on myself wherever I can get it.
The key to success when cooking a Thanksgiving feast is to work smarter, not harder. Plan ahead, freeze dishes you don’t need to make the day-of, and streamline wherever you can. That said, I’m here to share one of my favorite Thanksgiving meal hot tips with you: Make the gravy directly in the roasting pan.
Why You Should Make Gravy in the Turkey Roasting Pan
If you’re doing this in another vessel, at best you’re unnecessarily dirtying yet another dish; at worst you’re wasting all of the delicious turkey drippings at the bottom of the roasting pan, which are the rich, flavorful base for great gravy.
A roasting pan is wide enough to handle all of the aromatics you want to add and you can make a huge volume of gravy if you need to (which I always do because I like my Thanksgiving food positively drowning in gravy). The increased surface area of the roasting pan makes it easier to whisk everything together evenly and avoid lumps. There’s really no downside.
How to Make Gravy in the Turkey Roasting Pan
Remove the turkey from the pan. The roasting rack is a big help here; you can use the handles to lift the whole bird right out. Set the turkey aside, tented in aluminum foil, to rest.
Set the roasting pan on the stove. While the turkey is resting, set the roasting pan over two burners, turn the stove on low, and get to gravy making.
Make the gravy. The gravy-making process is more or less the same, just with much more room to work. I start by melting some unsalted butter in the bottom of the pan, which I then use to help smooth out the drippings and scrape up the fond with a whisk. To this, I add a little flour (I like Wondra for gravy) to make a roux, before adding stock and aromatics. You can also skip the butter and use a little white wine, bourbon, or cider to deglaze the roasting pan.
Tips for Making Gravy in a Roasting Pan
Use caution with electric and induction stoves. I have a gas range and have always made gravy over a flame. If you have an electric stove, you may need to adjust the heat level to maintain a gentle simmer while cooking. If you have an induction stove, check the manufacturer’s instructions for your roasting pan to see if it is compatible with your stovetop.
Don’t try this with a disposable roasting pan. Disposable roasting pans are made of thin aluminum, which should not be heated on the stovetop.
Further Reading
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