Deglaze The Pan

1. After your meat has finished roasting or cooking and set aside to rest you need to get also crispy little tidbits off the bottom of your roasting pan.  Set your roasting pan over top of your burners, medium high heat. When you see the little tidbits start to sizzle and the little bit of liquid/fat in the pan start to bubble you need to add in about 1 cup of your stock.  Using a wooden spoon start scraping those little tidbits up from the bottom of your pan and into the mix.

Separate the Fat

1. Use a gravy separator. If you don’t have one, pour all of the liquids (and scraped up bits from the pan into a container.  Pop it in the fridge (or freezer) for about 30 minutes and in that time the liquids will cool down and the fat will harden and rise to the top.  Ideally you want to end up with about 1/2 cup of fat and about 2 cups of pan drippings.  If you have less no worries as you can add unsalted butter.  Once hardened, place your fat into a medium sauce pan and set your pan drippings aside.

Make a Roux

1. Place the fat (if need be add additional butter to make it to 1/2 cup)  in a saucepan over medium, medium – high heat. While holding a whisk add in about 1/2 cup of flour. You’ll cook the mixture for at least 5 minutes while whisking. You want to cook out that flour taste. The deeper/longer you cook your roux the more deep and rich the flavors. I tend to cook mine for about 10-15 minutes.

Add the Liquids

1. While your roux is bubbling, whisk in your reserved pan drippings. This will form a thick paste.
2. Once you have your paste, you want to slowly add in your stock. For 1/2 cup of fat I go with about 4 cups of stock. As you are adding the stock you need to whisk together. You need to whisk and pour slowly so to not get lumps. The longer you cook your gravy the thicker it’ll get.
3. Taste for seasoning

Rich & Satiny

1. Whisking in a tablespoon of butter or heavy cream just before serving will give gravy a rich, satiny texture.