Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
Without giving my age away too much, this is the gravy recipe I’ve been making for over 2 decades, since I first learnt it from a friend’s father in a little fishing town called Harwich, on the south east coast of England. It’s a little like making brown stock, where you roast the bones to produce stock that’s so much richer and deeper in flavour.
We make this gravy for just about everything! And I mean EVERYTHING! For a different spin, try my Spicy Gravy recipe. The finished recipe here is, to me, a complete product, as in you can serve it as it is and the flavour will be perfect. However, why not add the juices from your roast to take it up a notch?
Make Ahead
For big occasions like Christmas, we make it the day before, cool it and keep it in the fridge. The next day, while the roast is resting, we heat it on the stove, adding the strained juices from the roast to it, before serving.
This even freezes well for up to 3 months. Place in a container with a cling film touching the gravy, to stop freezer burn. Then reheat the same way as above.
So, shall we get our aprons on?
If you like the recipe, don’t forget to leave me a comment and that all important, 5-star rating! Thank you!
And if you make the recipe, share it on any platform and tag me @azlinbloor, and hashtag it #linsfood.
Lin xx
Gravy
Ingredients
- 3 Tbsp plain flour
- 2.5 litres boiling water
To Roast
- Chicken bones if you have any from the butcher 6 – 8 chicken wings/drumsticks
- 4 cloves garlic whole
- 1 leek cut roughly
- 1 onion quartered
- 1 celery cut roughly
- 1 carrot cut roughly
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary
- 3 sprigs fresh sage leaves
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- 3 fresh bay leaves
- 1 clove
- 1 tsp salt
- lots of freshly ground black pepper
- 3 Tbsp olive oil
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 200 ̊C (400 ̊F).
- Place all the “To Roast” ingredients into a roasting pan and mix thoroughly.
- Roast in the oven for 75 minutes, turning and flipping the ingredients halfway through. TIP – The longer the roasting time (without actually burning), the darker and richer the gravy.
- After the 75 minutes, place the roasting dish on the stovetop on a low heat. Give everything a good stir, scraping the bottom of the pan. If it’s on the dry side, add a little water and mix it all up.
- TIP – if your roasting pan doesn’t go on the stove, just transfer everything into a saucepan and continue. Be sure to scrape and add all the bits sticking to the bottom of the roasting pan.
- Add the flour and stir it in to combine well. Leave the roasting pan on the stove and cook the roasted ingredients further for about 15 minutes to deepen the flavour even more. Stir it every so often to stop from burning.
- With about 2 minutes to go, put the kettle on.
- At the end of 15 minutes, turn the heat up, add the boiling water, stir and simmer on low heat for another 15 minutes until the liquid has thickened to a gravy consistency.
- Check the seasoning, adding more salt and pepper if necessary.
- Now strain the gravy through a sieve into a clean saucepan or large bowl, squashing everything through the sieve with a large spoon or potato masher, to extract maximum flavour.
- This can be the finished gravy. If serving immediately, pour in the strained juices from whatever roast you have, to take it up another notch for a gravy from heaven!
- If saving for another day, bring it to room temperature then place it in the fridge or freezer until needed, as described above.