No Drippings Turkey Gravy

[tskeeter]

This is a trick I learned from an older lady while working in a restaurant kitchen.

Make a turkey stock from the neck, giblets, wing tips, tail, excess skin and any other scrap parts of your bird.

4 cups water
Turkey parts (for additional flavor some recipes call for browning the turkey parts in the pot you will use to make the stock, then deglaze with water and add other ingredients)
2 ribs celery cut into about 4 inch chunks
1/4 of a medium onion cut in chunks
1 tsp or so poultry seasoning

Bring to boil and simmer for 15 - 30 minutes

2 cans cream of chicken soup

Use turkey stock to thin soup to desired consistency

Add Kitchen Bouquet or Gravy Master to desired color

Adjust seasoning to taste (the soup already contains quite a bit of salt, so I usually find I don't add any)


Note: If you have drippings, they would be a welcome addition to the gravy

[ExpatCanadian]

This is definitely something I'll keep in mind as occasionally my brined turkeys don't provide a decent enough dripping for gravy...  although I must admit my last one did.  I do make a stock from the giblets and the holy trinity of onions, celery and carrot. Never considered using soup, but why the heck not?

[GusRobin]

When I brine, the drippings are too salty (at least for me) so I make a similar gravy. However, instead of water or chicken soup I use beef broth, the turkey neck and giblets, celery, onion, various seasoning, some hot peppers ( not much just enough to add a little hint of heat). Bring to a boil and then simmer for a few hours. When all else is ready I will add some flour and gravy master to thicken and color. Usually comes out great.

[KyNola]

You could also take the turkey stock, strain it of all of the celery, etc in it and set aside.  Then make a roux of equal parts of flour and some sort of fat,(butter or oil), just a few tablespoons full dependning on how much gravy you want to make.  Cook the roux for 4-5 minutes to cook the flour taste out of it and give the roux just the slightest bit of color.  Begin adding the turkey stock into the roux, whisking all the time to prevent lumps.  Bring to a boil as the roux won't show it's true thickening power until it comes to a boil.  If the gravy is too thick, thin it with either water or canned chicken chicken stock.

Presto!  You have just made a volute' sauce.  Big fancy term for turkey gravy.

[Eman]

I was planning to go the Roux approach tomorrow. I'm nervous about the gravy, last time I smoked a turkey for a holiday we did 2 small birds, one roasted and one smoked. This time I'm doing a 14 pounder as the only meat so I need to do the gravy/stuffing differently. One recommendation I saw was to clip the ends of the wings to use in the stock as well and leave the onion skins in the broth to darken it a bit.

For people who catch the drippings, what do you use to do this?

[viper125]

Use to do the same but never added soup as the giblets and scrap then thin with flour was fine.

[Salmonsmoker]

I was planning to go the Roux approach tomorrow. I'm nervous about the gravy, last time I smoked a turkey for a holiday we did 2 small birds, one roasted and one smoked. This time I'm doing a 14 pounder as the only meat so I need to do the gravy/stuffing differently. One recommendation I saw was to clip the ends of the wings to use in the stock as well and leave the onion skins in the broth to darken it a bit.

For people who catch the drippings, what do you use to do this?

I take a portion of the drippings and stock and cook it down until it's very thick, caramelized and dark brown. This is my gravy base. it gives the gravy a dark color and provides the rich malliard flavors. Then the rest of the stock is added and I make a roux to thicken. This year I drum smoked one turkey with a drip pan on the rack below. The drip pan had the trinity of carrots, onions and celery and some stock that simmered while the turkey smoked and also caught the drippings. I pureed the veggies w/some stock and all went into the gravy. The fiber in the veggies is a natural thickener and it took very little roux to adjust the thickness of the gravy.