The ABC's of Cooking: G Is for Gravy

Gravy boat and mashed potatoes 
(with skins)

Gravy is essential for mashed potatoes and not just so that dudes can form multi-level dams, which they can then fill with enough gravy to float a battleship. Gravy takes almost no time and is as simple as adding flour to either the au jus sauce left over in the roasting pan or to chicken broth. Both methods will produce the desired result, as long as you add a few key ingredients.

Let’s start with gravy when there is no roasting pan, and therefore no au jus sauce left over from roasting a chicken or any cut of meat. 

Chicken gravy

1 quart chicken broth (or beef), either homemade or store-bought

1/3-1/2 cup of white rice flour (or any flour)

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder 

1/2 teaspoon ground mustard

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Whisk

As I am heating up the broth over a low-to-medium fire on the stovetop, I measure 1/3 of a cup of flour into a fine sieve, and slowly distribute it over the broth, whisking it as I go to prevent clumping. Once the flour is in the broth and mixed in well, I add the rest of the ingredients, stirring continuously until the mixture comes to a boil. I reduce the flame and let it simmer until it has thickened. If you need to add more flour to attain the desired thickness, do so. If your gravy is too thick, add more broth (or plain water).

If mustard is not your thing, use whatever works. Fresh rosemary, thyme, sage or any other seasonal herb all work well. I had vast quantities of mushrooms not long ago, so I sautéed some of them and added them to my gravy. I will also mince up a couple of shallots and add them to my gravy, if I am of a mind.

Mushrooms: If some are good, then
more are better.

If you have roasted just about anything and would like to use the au jus sauce or meat drippings to make gravy, it is almost the same. If there is plenty of liquid, then simply strain it first (or not-it is up to you), and either leave it in the roasting pan on top of the stove, or transfer it to a smaller saucepan. The advantage of leaving it in the original roaster is that you get everything that may be temporarily stuck to the bottom of the pan. 

If there is insufficient liquid, simply add fresh water until you have the desired amount, and then proceed. Add the flour and whisk it to help dissolve it, and then bring it to a slow boil before reducing the heat to a simmer. Add the remainder of the ingredients as the mixture is heating up.

Old-school

One key to successful gravy is to not just dump the flour into the liquid. Sifting it and adding it in small amounts and whisking it until it dissolves each time, prevents it from turning into a mess of floating clumps of flour. In the event you do get more clumping than you want, just carefully use a blender on low speed to break up the clumps. I have an immersion blender, which makes it that much easier, but even a hand-operated egg-beater works fine too. Just be careful of splash-back.

A second key [for me] is to go easy on the salt until I taste-test it to make sure it is not already close. I find this to be the case especially when using the au jus sauce from the fat drippings. If you salt what is being roasted, some of that will already be in the au jus sauce at the bottom of the roaster.

Besides gravy, flour is one way you can also thicken up such staples as stew, chili con carne, pinto beans, chili chicken, chicken cacciatore, rancho steak, chili verde, pasta sauce, scalloped potatoes, soup, shepherd’s pie and quiche. Some chefs use corn starch to thicken dishes instead of flour, but it produces the same result. 

Immersion blender

If you are putting small chunks of meat into the pot, one way to easily get the flour in also, is to make a mixture of flour, salt, pepper and spices in a separate bowl and then coat the meat first before adding it to the cooking pot. I simply put the meat chunks in a separate bowl, stir in the flour/salt/pepper/spices and then transfer it to the cooking pot. 

In order to get the flour to thicken, at some point in the cooking process bring the mixture to a gentle boil, before reducing the flame accordingly, and letting it simmer. If it gets too thick, simply add fresh water and stir it in, and then taste-test for salt.

In addition to main courses, I use either flour or corn starch to also thicken sauces like barbecue sauce. If it is too thin, it simply flows off the chicken.

Barbecue sauce:

One cup ketchup

two tablespoons lemon juice

two tablespoons cider vinegar, 

three tablespoons maple syrup or honey

two teaspoons mustard

salt to taste (start with one-quarter of a teaspoon and go slowly)

one-half teaspoon black pepper

one-half teaspoon hot sauce

two teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

two tablespoons white rice flour or cornstarch

Put the ketchup in a saucepan and place it on the stovetop over a low-to-medium fire while you add the rest of the ingredients, gradually bringing the mixture to a slow boil. Once it boils, reduce the flame to allow the sauce to simmer until it thickens, no more than a few minutes. Whisk it occasionally to make sure the flour and all the spices are mixed in thoroughly. Once the sauce has thickened, take off the fire and let cool until it is needed.

I use flour to thicken fruit pies like apple or cherry, mixing it in on the stovetop before covering the fruit in the pie pan. The flour helps keep the juice of the fruit from bubbling up and over the side of your pie. I also place the pie on a cookie sheet in case this does happen, to prevent the bottom of my stove from getting coated with syrup. 

Working with flour to thicken dishes is easy to achieve and takes your culinary efforts to a new level.