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GRAVY WITH OR WITHOUT DRIPPINGS

Course Dips & Sauces, Sauces & Gravy
Cuisine Southern
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 32 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 14 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups drippings from chicken meat or bacon; or use lard or vegetable oil, or a combination of the two
  • 2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 10 cups chicken stock or beef stock
  • 2 cups green onions sliced
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp black pepper
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Instructions

Sometimes you just need gravy (okay, just want gravy — no one actually "needs" gravy) and you don't have anything roasting in the oven that will provide drippings.

  • Set a large skillet over medium-high heat and heat the drippings for 2 minutes.
  • Add the flour, whisking constantly to combine.
  • When drippings and flour are combined, turn heat down to medium and cook for 10 minutes, whisking often.
  • Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil, still whisking often.
  • Reduce the heat from a boil down to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes...whisking often.

Bonus Tip 1

  • If your drippings from roasting meat or poultry have brown crispy bits, pour off excess fat, add flour and stir to make a roux, then add stock, water, or milk. This makes gravy when you have drippings from roasting meat or poultry, or from frying chicken. The crispy brown bits have lots of flavor that you want to incorporate into the gravy.
  • If your drippings are mostly liquid with just a small amount of fat on top, bring the liquid to a boil, and thicken with equal parts of flour and soft butter mixed together. When making a gravy or sauce for chicken or pork, add a bit of cream at the end for a wonderful cream gravy

Bonus Tip 2:

  • Cajuns love rice and gravy, and could have it at almost every meal, indeed, sometimes as a meal. For this reason, the recipe makes about 12 cups — plenty for leftovers. Believe it or not, gravy can be frozen. Having some homemade gravy when you have a roasted chicken, beef, or some leftovers is my version of "fast food." Simply defrost and heat the gravy.

Notes:

  • Most Cajun cooks save drippings from chicken, beef, pork, and duck in the refrigerator and use them as the basis for gravy, or for frying. The drippings from each kitchen give the cook's food its distinctive flavor.
  • When I don't have drippings from a roast, from frying chicken, or from another source, I use a combination of lard and/or oil, with strained bacon drippings (if I have them) added for flavor.
  • The above proportion of oil to flour makes a thick gravy. For a thinner gravy use less flour— the standard is equal parts of oil and flour.

Notes

Gravy is usually formed as meat or poultry roasts and renders fat that you can combine with flour to use as the base for gravy. However, you can make gravy using oil and flour as the base. Will it be as good as gravy made with the flavorful drippings from roasted meat or chicken? No. But it will still be really, really good, and still be gravy!
Cajuns love rice and gravy, and could have it at almost every meal — indeed, sometimes as a meal.