Never made one. Never had a reason to. Made a lot of sausage and gravy but Turkey gravy involves a lot more steps and nuance. The night before Thanksgiving started I prepped the gravy to save myself some time and burner space the next day. I rough chopped a carrot, half of an onion, two cloves garlic, a few twigs of thyme, a few sage leaves, a bay leaf, celery leaves, and added the turkey neck and giblets to a saucepan. I poured in some turkey stock and poached the meat and simmered the stock for a couple of hours reducing the liquid down and taking in the aromatics. I then strained the stock and diced the neck and giblets. Put it away for the night.
The following day while my turkey was cooking, I made the roux with butter and flour and set it aside. Once the turkey was complete, I removed the bird and added 3/4 cup of water to the roasting pan. Scraped all the bits off the bottom and reduced the pan drippings. I then strained the pan drippings in with my stock from the previous night. Next, I added the combo of stocks into the roux and let it simmer for about 20 minutes. Then the diced neck and giblets went in and I touched it up with a little bit of heavy cream. And that was it. A delicious turkey gravy. Honestly, the pan drippings were so good I wish I would’ve added some wine and just reduced it down to a demi-glaze. Maybe next time!
