Save yourself a bunch of time with this Make Ahead Turkey Gravy! Turkey wings, vegetables and herbs roast in the oven before cooking with wine and stock, creating a delicious base to this extremely flavorful homemade gravy. Can be made a few weeks in advance and kept in the freezer or as little 3 to 4 days if kept refrigerated. This recipe will yield 4 cups.
Meet the best gravy I’ve ever made.
Last week my sister Kelly sent me a snapchat of her making gravy. She said she was making it in advance for Thanksgiving. Me being me, I immediately responded asking for the recipe. My sister then sent over a recipe she saw on TikTok, and after watching it and seeing how easy it is, I had to make it and share it with you.
I didn’t change the recipe all that much, but I did change a few minor things.
However, the base of the gravy is the same. It starts by roasting a bunch of vegetables, thyme and turkey wings before adding a little white wine and stock/broth. Once infused, the liquids are then gradually whisked into a roux and the gravy simmers until thickened.
To Make This Make Ahead Turkey Gravy You Will Need:
- olive oil
- yellow onions
- celery
- carrots
- garlic
- thyme
- kosher salt
- black pepper
- turkey wings
- dry white wine
- turkey stock
- unsalted butter
- wondra instant flour
This time of year you can find turkey wings at your grocery store and one package usually contains 3 wings. They are either located in the refrigerated meat or freezer sections.
If frozen, thaw completely (should take few days) in your fridge before making this recipe.
Preheat your oven to 400℉ (or 200℃).
Drizzle a little olive oil into a roasting pan. Then add in 2 halved yellow onions, 3 roughly chopped celery stalks, 2 large roughly chopped carrots, 1 head of garlic – cut in half horizontally, 3 turkey wings and 5 to 6 sprigs of fresh thyme.
Lastly, drizzle with more olive oil and season with a few generous pinches kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Roast (uncovered) on the middle rack of your preheated oven for 1 hour.
Remove the roasting pan from the oven and deglaze with 1/2 cup dry white wine. I recommend using a chardonnay or sauvignon blanc – one that you like to drink.
After that, pour in 6 cups turkey stock. Quality store bought is fine or maybe you have this homemade version on hand?
Return the pan back to the oven for an additional 45 minutes. It should have reduced by almost half.
Smells like thanksgiving!
Use tongs to transfer the turkey wings to a carving board. Feel free to pick of the meat and use in soup or discard. Place a mesh sieve into a large bowl. Pour the cooking liquids and all the vegetables through the sieve.
Press on the vegetables with a metal or wooden spoon to extract any and all of their juices.
This right here is liquid gold.
Pour the liquids into your fat separate and allow the fat to rise to the top. Pull the stopper out so the liquids come up the spout (and the fat will stay at the top).
Meanwhile, in a sauce pan, melt 4 tablespoon unsalted butter.
Whisk in 6 tablespoons of Wondra flour.
What is Wondra Flour?
Wondra is an instant flour. It’s a low-protein flour that has been precooked and dried. This ultra fine flour dissolves instantly which helps keep sauces and gravies lump free. It can also be used as pastry flour or to bread meat, fish and vegetables for a crisp exterior when pan-fried.
Once dissolved, slowly pour in the turkey stock.
Continue whisking while pouring in all that liquid gold.
Bring to a simmer over medium heat then reduce to medium-low and continue whisking while the gravy simmers.
How Long Will It Take Homemade Gravy To Thicken?
This could take 45 to 1 hour. Or if you’re like me and don’t want to wait that long, after about 30 minutes, make a cornstarch slurry and whisk it in. For a thinner gravy, whisk 2 tablespoons cornstarch with 2 tablespoons water. And for a thicker gravy (what we like!) I use 3 tablespoons of each.
Taste and season with more salt and pepper, if desired.
Once thickened, cool completely before storing.
When To Make “Make Ahead Turkey Gravy”?
Make this as early as a month in advance and freeze – thaw before reheating. Or prepare this make ahead gravy 3 to 4 days in advance and keep it refrigerated in an air-tight container.
How To Reheat Make Ahead Turkey Gravy:
The day of, add the gravy to a sauce pan and reheat on low until hot. If the gravy is too thick once reheated, add a few splashes of turkey stock or low-sodium chicken broth to thin it out.
Pro tip:
While the gravy is warming, I fill the gravy boat with very HOT water. Then when it’s time to serve the meal, I empty the gravy boat and quickly wipe it out before filling it with the gravy. This will keep it nice and warm.
Enjoy! And if you give this Make Ahead Turkey Gravy recipe a try, let me know! Snap a photo and tag me on twitter or instagram!
Make Ahead Turkey Gravy
Ingredients
- olive oil
- 2 yellow onions, halved, skin left on
- 2 carrots, washed, unpeeled and chopped into 2-inch pieces
- 3 short stalks celery, coarsely chopped into 2-inch pieces
- 1 head garlic, cut in half horizontally
- 1 package (of 3) turkey wings, thawed if frozen
- kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 6 sprigs thyme, about 4 to 5-inches long
- 1/2 cup dry white wine, like chardonnay or sauvignon blanc
- 6 cups turkey stock, or sub with chicken stock
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 6 tablespoons Wondra instant flour, or sub with unbleached all-purpose flour *see notes beforehand
Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400℉ (or 200℃).
- Add a littel olive oil to the bottom of your roasting pan. Add onions, carrots, celery, garlic, turkey wings and thyme.
- Drizzle more olive oil over top and season with a few pinches kosher salt and some freshly ground black pepper. Roast uncovered for 1 hour.
- Deglaze the pan with wine. Pour in the broth and return the pan to the oven and continue roasting for 45 more minutes or until the liquids have reduced by half.
- Remove turkey wings to a cutting board. Use the meat for a recipe (like soup!) or discard.
- Strain the broth through a mesh strainer set into a bowl. Press the vegetables before discarding to get any liquids from them as well.
- In a saucepan, melt the butter. Once melted, whisk in the flour until dissolved. Then gradually pour in the hot broth.
- Bring to a simmer over medium heat then reduce to medium-low and continue whisking while the gravy simmers. This could take 45 to 1 hour. Or if you’re like me and don’t want to wait that long, after about 30 minutes, make a cornstarch slurry and whisk it in. For a thinner gravy, whisk 2 tablespoons cornstarch with 2 tablespoons water. And for a thicker gravy (what we like!) I do 3 tablespoons of each.
- Taste and season with more salt and pepper, if desired.
- Once thickened, let cool before storing.
- Make this as early as a month in advance and freeze – thaw before reheating. Or prepare it 3 to 4 days in advance and keep refrigerated in an air-tight container and reheat the day of.
To Reheat:
- Thaw completely if frozen.
- Add the gravy to a sauce pan and heat on low until hot.
- If the gravy is too thick once reheated, add a few splashes of turkey stock or low-sodium chicken broth to thin it out
Notes
Buy the Cookbook: Simply Scratch : 120 Wholesome Homemade Recipes Made Easy Now available on Amazon »
THANK YOU in advance for your support!
Just made this delicious gravy…so good! I’ll never make another one! Thanks for a great recipe. Happy Thanksgiving!
Do we cover roaster to cook?
Hi Ethel! Roast uncovered. Enjoy!
This is a wonderful idea to have one less last minute task on a holiday . When the gravy was done, I took the turkey wings and boiled them in a pot of water, I thru in a bouillon cube and the carrots, simmer for 30 minutes, debone the meat added 1/4 cup of rice and 15 minutes later had a great soup for lunch
Fabulous recipe. My turkey wings are toasting now in prep for all the liquid gold goodness to come. I do save about 2-3 tbs of the turkey fat to add to the butter when making my roux. I’ll be using up a dry white I have opened to deglaze the pan.
What a sigh of relief this will be on Thanksgiving day! Enjoy your day and thank you!
I’m so glad to hear it, Terri! Happy Thanksgiving!
“45 minutes to an hour” for gravy to thicken? If you have 1 tbsp flour and fat per cup of liquid it should thicken up quickly.
I like the idea of deglazing with wine and making the broth in the oven with the roasted veggies and wings. One less pot to wash,
BEST GRAVY EVER !!! I made this ( up to straining all) a few weeks before Thanksgiving and froze it; on Thanksgiving I heated it up, doctored it a bit with some poultry seasoning, and finished recipe as stated- adding Wondra flour,etc. Everyone raved about it. Many thanks !
Make ahead gravy…genius! After 40 years of making gravy while finishing the rest of the holiday menu, I decided to get smart and try to make it ahead. We debone our turkey before roasting it so we had the wings and other parts for this amazing recipe. The gravy is the best I’ve ever made and it’s staying warm in the crockpot until we serve our thanksgiving meal.
Thank you.
What can you do with the meat from the Turkey wings? do you add it to the gravy ?
Hello, do you have any suggestions for substitute to the dry white wine? Thank you
Awesome make-ahead recipe. Thank you so much! It tastes like liquid gold!!!
Ok to complete 1-4 on list and finish on serving day? Wondra ok for thickener?
I know I’m a few years behind the game in leaving a rating, but this year I needed a recipe I could make a few days ahead to simplify my Thanksgiving day. This make ahead gravy is to die for. Made it exactly as written to see if I might make adjustments in future attempts. I wouldn’t change a thing. I’m putting this one on repeat. Thxs
I am needing more gravy than this. Would I just double everything?
We LOVE this gravy!
FANTASTIC RECIPE! So delicious! THANK YOU!