Before I begin, let me say that I am a relative newby to making gravy. My dad is a health-concious YMCA director, and my mom is a former aerobics instructor, so we never had gravy growing up! I did not even
taste gravy until after I was married and my mother-in-law made it. But it was love at first taste! However, it was still a few years after that when I tried actually making gravy. And it never turned out quite right. Thick and lumpy, usually. The flavor is always fine, but texture plays a big role in gravy!
My old method for making gravy was this - drain juices from chicken pan into skillet/frying pan. Heat to a simmer, then add flour, whisking the whole time. Add some water to even out the thickness, and lots of salt. The flour sometimes evened out nicely, or sometimes it turned into dumplings! So it was always a guess as to whether the gravy would be smooth or lumpy, and the majority of the time it was lumpy, or too thick, anyway.
Finally, a few years ago, my brother-in-law, Jason, newly graduated from Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in Atlanta, taught me how to make perfect gravy. And now my gravy is perfect, every time. (Gasp!) If this is some big gravy secret that everyone knows, then just laugh at me and say "Duh, Erin!" but just in case there are those of you out there who struggle with gravy, I thought I'd share the "secret".
My brother-in-law explained to me that I was missing the most important step - making the roux (or rue).
Before pouring the juices into the frying pan, first melt alot of butter on med-high, and stir in the flour. Whisk, whisk, whisk until the roux is the right color - for chicken, a light golden color is good, for beef, a darker roux. THEN add the drippings and juices from the pan, whisk a bunch more... and there it is! Perfect gravy! Obviously, add salt, pepper and any other seasonings you like while whisking, as well.
He explained that the way to tell when gravy texture was "right" was if you could lift up the whisk and have the gravy drip off, leaving a light coating or residue on the whisk. The first time I tried it, it came out perfectly, just like he promised. I even took pictures to show him, lol! It was a very exciting moment for me.
Anyway, as I was making gravy tonight (and yes, it came out just right!), it occurred to me that maybe I wasn't the only one missing out on this "secret" (or not-so-secret, perhaps), so I decided to post it. May it bring you and your family many lump-free gravies! :-)
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