How to make good chicken gravy?

[justwondering72]

So I roast a chicken, usually with olive oil, butter, garlic and herbes de Provence... The chicken is finished, I sit it to the side to rest. In the roasting dish I have some sticky bits of chicken, and liquid which is juices and fat / oil. How do I make this into a tasty gravy to eat with my chicken- rather than reaching for the Bisto like my mum does??

Cheers

I normally skim off most of the fat,
Put on the heat
Add small amount of flour and cook
Add white wine and cook down
Then add the veg water slowly stirring out all of the lumps.
Occasionally I'll add an oxo cube too

I usually cut an onion in half (don't peel it, the skin helps to 'brown' the gravy), couple of roughly chopped carrots, garlic, couple of mushrooms and some herbs. All that goes into the roasting tin and the chicken goes on top.

Once the chicken is roasted, put all the juices and soft caramelised veg into a pan and mash it all up, add a glass of wine and some stock and season then simmer for a while. Strain it through a sieve.

I skim off the fat, add a spoon of flour and a bit of marmite to the tin of juices and stir well to cook through. Add boiling water to thin out if needed, and sieve into a jug.

Any of the above ideas and I always add a tablespoon of redcurrant jelly to the gravy when it's cooking.

Chop an onion and sit the chicken on it, add a glass of white wine then do the flour thing when it's cooked, add some chicken stock too if I have any

Stick an onion (peeled), a carrot, a stick or two of celery, a leek and a bay leaf in a small saucepan with some water. Simmer while the chicken cooks. If you happen to have chicken bones from the last one you ate (they freeze well) then add those too. Use that liquid to get all the tasty sticky bits out of the roasting tin and then thicken with cornflour. White wine is a good addition.

Bisto powder rather than granules isn't a bad thing to use btw, it's just thickening agents (potato flour and starch), onion powder, yeasty stuff (ie marmite) and a bit of brown colouring.

Pour off the fat if you like but actually a lot of the taste is in the fatty bits.

Veg water also a good addition to gravy (apart from pea water which makes it taste odd, IMO).

Google Jamie Oliver's consistently good gravy - it's great and super straightforward. We love gravy in our house so I keep plenty of stock in the freezer (reduce it loads so it doesn't take up much space and then make up with hot water to defrost) because it's a million times better when it has proper stock not a cube in it.

If you decide to use chicken stock to make your gravy, may I highly recommend slow cooking the bones of your carcass and freezing the stock for next time, or for other recipes using stock. It's far superior to anything you can buy and really easy. Slow cooker stock

I add garlic bay and pepper inside the bird. Chop off the feet and wing tips and place them in the tray at the edge. Place bird on a a carrot cut into 4, celery stalk and a quartered white onion.
Chopping the feet and wing tips and putting at the edge means the protiens undergo the malliard reaction.
Add olive oil/ salt pepper and tarragon to the top. Pour in a glass of wine.
Make sure the pan doesn't go completely dry during cooking.
Make gravy with cornflour/ flour, more wine, stock, redcurrant jell etc. Sometimes Marsala wine is good.
When making stock from raw bones, sprinkle it with milk powder to help the caramelisation.