Make Ahead Turkey Gravy

Avoid the Thanksgiving last minute rush with make ahead turkey gravy. Rich and flavorful, with plenty of sage, thyme, and parsley, you’ll want to pour this gravy over your entire plate.

I’ve hosted quite a few Thanksgiving dinners by now and it’s one of my favorite days to cook. I love all the traditional dishes, like homemade stuffing and green bean casserole, but I throw in a few new recipes every year too. As long as I make the basics, my family is willing to try whatever I feel like experimenting with that year.

Often, that new recipe becomes part of our standard repertoire. We loved this roasted cranberry sauce so much that now we can’t imagine our Thanksgiving feast without it. The same goes for cheesy Brussels sprouts au gratin, truly a special occasion dish. If we’re lucky, my mom will bake yeasty homemade Parker house rolls (which she usually does because my son is crazy about them!).

However, it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without mashed potatoes and gravy, right? In fact, lots of gravy is required! It goes on more than the potatoes. We like to pour it over the stuffing and turkey, as well. I rarely make potatoes and gravy so when I do, you know it’s a special occasion.

Make ahead turkey gravy really simplifies things on a busy day. This gravy can be prepped a day or two ahead. You can refrigerate or even freeze it. It’s foolproof and so tasty! You’ll love that you won’t have to mess around with making gravy when there’s a lot of other stuff going on.

With your extra time, why not present a charcuterie board? I’ve found that it’s just perfect when guests arrive. They’re hungry, dinner’s still in the making, and a nibble or two with a festive cocktail (may I recommend an orange gin and tonic, a cranberry margarita, or an apple cider mule?) is just right to put everyone in a thankful mood.

Here’s a few tasty ideas for your charcuterie board: spiced pecans, butternut squash crostini, baked brie with cranberries, sugared cranberries, and pickled asparagus.

About This Recipe

Because this gravy is made ahead of time, you won’t have turkey drippings to use yet. This isn’t really a problem. You can buy good quality turkey stock or chicken stock that is perfectly acceptable for gravy. It’s much easier to use, too. Also, when you reheat it, it might need to be thinned a little, and that is the perfect opportunity to add turkey drippings.

The gravy is thickened with flour and derives tons of flavor from fresh herbs: sage, which is a must-have herb for Thanksgiving, thyme, and parsley.

Many of you may not be planning on doing the whole roasted turkey thing especially if you’re not expecting a big crowd. Make ahead gravy works for any turkey dinner. Try it with herb roasted turkey breast or Instant Pot turkey breast. We really love this sheet pan turkey dinner, a really delicious dinner completely baked on one sheet pan.

The gravy can accompany chicken dinners, too. Plenty of folks prefer to make a roasted chicken instead of a turkey and roasted bone in chicken breasts are another great option.

Even if you don’t want to make the gravy ahead, this is a great-tasting foolproof gravy recipe!

I’ll walk you through the basics here and give you a few helpful tips to get you started. As always, look for the recipe card for complete instructions, specific measurements, and nutrition information.

What you’ll need

• Turkey Stock: Since this is a make-ahead recipe, you won’t have pan drippings to use for stock. Instead, buy a carton of good-quality turkey stock. You can substitute chicken stock or vegetable broth, if you prefer, or if you can’t find turkey stock.
• Butter: Butter makes this gravy taste rich since purchased turkey stock has very little or no fat.
• All-Purpose Flour: Flour is used as a thickening agent in the gravy.
• Fresh Herbs: Thyme, sage, and parsley give this gravy plenty of fragrant flavor. You’ll love the herbal bouquet of the fresh herbs. If you use dried herbs, use less, about half as much.
• Salt & Pepper: Freshly cracked black pepper and kosher salt are added to taste.

How to make it

Are you ready to make your homemade gravy? Let’s get started.

You’ll want to prep the herbs first. Remove the thyme leaves from the stems and chop them finely. Mince 2 to 3 sage leaves, along with a good handful of parsley. Small stems are okay with the parsley but the larger stems tend to be bitter.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk it into the butter until the mixture is smooth and bubbly.

Continue to cook this mixture, stirring constantly, until it’s lightly browned, about five to seven minutes. Don’t hurry it along too much. This process browns the butter and will give your gravy great flavor.

Gradually whisk in the broth. Add the sage and thyme (don’t they smell great?).

Turn the heat up to medium high and bring the mixture to a low boil. Once it’s boiling, reduce the heat to medium and continue cooking the gravy for ten minutes or so. Give it a stir occasionally.

The gravy will thicken slightly. It thickens quite a lot more as it cools so don’t worry if it looks a little thin at first. Once the gravy is done, stir in the parsley.

Before you serve the gravy, taste it! I can’t emphasize this enough. The saltiness of broth varies so much. I purposely didn’t specify an amount of added salt and pepper because of this fact. Remove a spoonful or two from the pan and let it cool a minute. Taste the gravy and decide how much salt it needs.

After you add some salt, taste the gravy again to make sure it’s just right. Be sure to add a few grinds of pepper, too.

Serve the gravy on creamy mashed potatoes. Try Instant Pot mashed potatoes. You can cook five pounds of potatoes at once and they turn out great! Mash them right in the Instant Pot and then turn it on Warm to keep the potatoes nice and hot until dinner is ready.

You can also make crockpot mashed potatoes or stovetop mashed red potatoes.

FAQs

Make It Your Own

• Play around with the seasonings. You may want to add a teaspoon of poultry seasoning or bullion to enrich the gravy. Add more fresh herbs if you like.
• Like giblet gravy? Simmer the turkey giblets (heart, liver, neck, etc) in water to cover for an hour, or until tender. Remove the giblets from the water and finely chop before stirring into the gravy.
• Vegetarian: Make the gravy with vegetable broth.

Make-Ahead Ideas

This is a make-ahead recipe. It will save you time and effort on busy days. If your family loves potatoes and gravy, prep this gravy ahead and keep it in your freezer.

It’s a great time-saver. Even if you’re making a batch of instant potatoes with air fryer chicken, you can add your homemade gravy and it will seem like you slaved all afternoon in the kitchen.

I often freeze in it silicone ice cube trays before transferring to a freezer bag. They reheat faster and you can just get out what you need. Gravy any time!

Storage & Reheating Tips

Refrigerate turkey gravy for up to three or four days. This flour-based gravy can also be frozen for up to four months. Freeze it in freezer-safe storage containers, freezer bags, or ice cube trays (remove from trays when frozen and put into a freezer bag).

To reheat, thaw frozen gravy overnight in the refrigerator. Put it into a saucepan and heat over low heat, whisking to combine. If it seems too thick, add a bit of broth, turkey drippings, or water. Heat until the gravy is piping hot.

Leftover Love

Have lots of leftover gravy? Make an open-face hot turkey sandwich. Arrange leftover turkey on sliced bread and pour hot gravy over it. I like to add a spoonful of stuffing to the sandwich, too.

Leftover gravy can be used to top pasta, as a sauce for meatballs, or to enrich soups and stews.