Jamie's make ahead gravy

[dingit]

Anyone else like to just tip it over his smug head? It keeps cropping up everywhere. Make ahead gravy my arse. Just who can be bothered

I've never really understood this. We bung a few cans of cider and a few stock cubes in with the turkey whilst it is cooking, let it all mix in with the juices and just tip the whole lot (minus a layer of fat) and a bit of cornflower into a pan to boil up and thicken while the turkey is resting.

Always tastes amazing and is very little faff.

Trying it for the first time this year - as a PP said the quality of gravy makes or breaks a dinner and I'm cooking for 10 gravy mad northerners

A bit of meat juice, a bit of flour, a bit of stock, a glug of wine, and a spoon of redcurrant jelly. Job done.

I love it, made mine a month or so ago so I've less to faff with on the day.

We also do roughly the same first step but with chicken thighs as a tray bake

I've made it too! I never thought that it might not actually taste good.

My mum's also bringing goose gravy though, so if it doesn't (and I have to say so far so good!) then Christmas at least won't be ruined.

I use it as a base but also add a stock made with the turkey neck and giblets too. It's lovely. The gravy makes or breaks Christmas dinner for me.

DH bought the M&S gravy the one and only year he cooked dinner, DC3 was a couple of weeks old. Thankfully we tasted it before serving it was not good. We had to add some left over gravy from the freezer and a stock cube to get it half decent.

I make my gravy in the ten minutes the meat rests and the veg steams. My gravy is always fab, even if I do say so myself!

I take it this is the recipe made with the chicken wings? I did that a few years ago - honestly it was no better than the gravy I normally make. I still had to add some balsamic vinegar for colour and taste.

I did last year...I also pre boiled and part roasted the potatoes and pre-made some mash potato and stuffing so that I didn't have much to do on Christmas day (I was 8 months pregnant at the time so was making life as easy for myself as possible)

I've made some for the first time this year. It's bloody gorgeous, and is currently languishing in our freezer awaiting Sunday. I'm contemplating making more as a base for soup!

I made mine last month, its in the freezer to be taken out on Saturday. I've just to add the turkey juice and a dollop of cranberry sauce. I love it!

I make it every year. I leave out the star anise though. I made ours on Monday, it's in the freezer ready to have meat juices added to it and seasoning adjusted. The same sort of recipe works really well with beef bones too.

The star anise kills it

I almost, almost got sucked into this malarkey then had a WTF moment.....life is too short for all the fannying about shoving bits of chicken wings through sieves.....I don't even like bloody chicken wings, they make me shudder (illogical, I accept!)
M&S ready made stuff for us, with turkey juices etc added.

Are we talking kills it good? Or kills it bad raver? I don't know what that means anymore. Sick man.

It is a good basis poultry gravy recipe and using some cooking judgement. Leaving out the star anise .

I have made it the last two years. First year, too much star anise. Second year was perfect. This year I have tried to start it with the last two chickens I roasted
Just hasn't worked.

The key to success is to really mash up the cooked wings & veg in the roasting tin into an unattractive lump of isolated bones and unidentifiable gunk

Sounds foul, but this stage really extracts the flavour

If you only squish it up to the (more attractive) stage of the photo on Jamie's website, where the wings and veg bits are still identifiable , then you only extract a fraction of the flavour into the liquid

It is totally worth it, I have some ready in my freezer right now. I would rather compromise with frozen roasters than skip this gravy

Yes Margaret You need to roast the wings and veg really well. Then definitely smush and smash the wings and veg up til it looks very unappetising . That is what gets the flavour out. Of course if you are a really good cat /dog owner you pick through the whole lot of mush leftover to feed your babies. Mainly because they've been driving you nuts because of the cooking smells.

I leave out the star anise and you have to REALLY caramelise the base in the hob for ages to get it nice and brown and edging on burnt to give it more depth. Defo need turkey juices and a bit of booze on the day.

I made mine a fortnight ago. We had chicken one Sunday, I spent Monday making a proper stock, faffed about with all sorts of wine and herbs. It tasted really good.
I put it in a lunch box in the freezer, the lunch box with the wonky lid that doesn't seal properly.
My gravy is the the freezer, all over the bottom of a drawer.

I really like this but agree that you need to beat the living daylights out of it when mashing and putting through the sieve. If it's flavourless there is something wrong ime, it's got a pretty strong flavour and should be thick and rich.

It sounds such a hassle to make it in advance, so time consuming. It's so easy to make a tasty gravy on the day.

There are just some things I don't get on MN. The 'microwave white sauce', supposedly easier, also sounds like such a faff to me when it's so simple to make in a saucepan.

I make it but add lashings of port and use 5 star anise instead of 2. I also add 4 generous tablespoons of red current jelly/sauce too.

The trick is to leave it cooking on the hob (before you add the water) for a good half hour.

Am doing it tomorrow...can I use allspice berries instead of star anise? Turkeys don't come with giblets for stock in Belgium, and I brine my turkey as per Ms Lawson, so don't use the juices for gravy.